St. LUCI COUNTY – Residents of Carleton Road, a farming community on the county’s western border, expressed concerns about a proposed Coquina shale mine during a city council meeting on Wednesday.
About 100 people attended the meeting, which was hosted by Commissioner Kathy Townsend in the District Committee rooms in Fort Pierce. The developers explained the project, and frustrated residents raised concerns about its potential impact on aquifers, wells, the environment and traffic.
“We have some really valid concerns about the quality of our water, our health conditions, our crops, our animals,” said Melissa Jack, 35, who has lived on Glades Cut Off Road for more than seven years.
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The proposed 164-acre mine will be in western St. Lucie County just north of the Cut-Off Road Glades. According to county documents, it will provide building materials for more than 30,000 homes planned within a 10-mile radius and operating for seven to 10 years.
Opposition from the population
Jack has raised concerns about the mine’s impact on traffic and emergency vehicle access, because the Carlton Road community is already far from county fire stations.
“For over 150 trucks going through that area and unloading it, what does that actually look like,” she said.
An estimated 184 trucks will pass through the mine each day, according to documents presented by M Ranch, the mine’s developer, at the meeting. The mine will create a 4% increase in traffic, according to the county’s Traffic Impact Report.
Excess traffic will be routed via a separate transit route by Carlton, but Commissioner Townsend said the county will assess safety concerns regarding emergency vehicle access.
“That’s part of the process,” Townsend said. “If the fire department feels it is too risky, the project will not be approved.”
Other residents have raised concerns about dust emitted from the mine and its traffic, and how mine operations could affect wells, aquifers and agriculture, such as a nearby tropical fish farm.
“I have young children,” said Craig Stokes, 35, who has lived on Carlton Road for about six years. “Dust – what is that going to do to their respiratory system?”
In response to residents’ concerns about dust, developers have indicated plans to create natural landscaping buffers.
“The idea of the buffer is to counteract some of the noise that the mine is making, and the second thing is to make sure there aren’t any traces of dust there,” said Joe Capra, a civil engineer at M Ranch.
The offloading road used by trucks to move material will be asphalt, not gravel, in an effort to reduce dust clouds, Capra said.
M Ranch and its developers have confirmed that only water discharged from the mine will be treated with storm water that meets or exceeds requirements for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District.
Project details
M Ranch spans 2,300 acres and is managed by Anthony Mastroianni, who works for Allied Capital and Development of South Florida. The mine will extend over an area of 164 acres, of which 80 acres are for excavation.
The mine will excavate the Cochina rock, which is made of limestone shards and shells and is a valuable resource needed for new residential developments, according to M Ranch.
The mine will operate eight hours a day, six days a week, according to the Traffic Impact Report. After seven to ten years of operation, the 80-acre excavated site will be converted into a water reclamation project.
The project has not yet come to the county commission for permits and other approvals.
“I think we put some very valid questions on the table, some disingenuous fears that should have everyone in the county surprised,” Jack said.
Thomas Weber is now a digital reporter at TCPalm. You can reach him at [email protected] or 813-545-9113. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.