The Stafford County Planning Commission on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, will decide whether or not to recommend approval of an expansion of the Vulcan Quarry.

Vulcan has asked the county to rezone nearly 50 acres of land that surrounds quarry in North Stafford, from agricultural to heavy industrial land. The move would clear the way for a new concrete plant to be built on the property and expand the area in which rocks are extracted from the Earth.

Vulcan has asked the county to streamline proffers and rezone land to get at a new cache of amphibolite rock used for paving roads within a nearly 600-acre stretch near Dun Rovin Lane, just off Route 610.

Since the 1990s, Vulcan had been buying up the parcel by parcel, spending over $12 million to acquire the properties. In 1990 and again in 2019, Vulcan acquired land from Clark Leming and Patrica Healy, who has been an elected official serving on the county's school board since 2000. Lemming is an attorney that has argued multiple land-use cases, like this one, before the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, which will make the final decision on the rezoning request.  

The couple received nearly a combined $1.3 million for the sale of 174 acres. The biggest parcel of 150 acres passes between Leming and Healy and Vulcan twice, once in 1990 and again in 2006 when Vulcan re-acquired it.

Another family, Martin, Gloria, and Shirley Jones received $9.5 million in 2013 for the sale of 100 acres.

The Stafford County Planning Commission is charged with making a recommendation on the case to the Board of Supervisors. The commission, along with representatives of Vulcan, held a special question and answer session on June 16 at North Stafford High School, to try and assuage concerns from the residents who live near the quarry.

Those concerns ranged from issues with the roads to interruption in the patterns of local wildlife migration. Still, the main concern that many of the residents of the Eastern View neighborhood, which sits across from the high school, made was the possibility of damage to their homes if Vulcan ramped up its blasting and mining efforts. 

Many residents also complained about the possible reverberations causing damage to homes. One resident, Dr. H.L. Barner, surmised that the blasting that was already going on had caused cracks to form in the foundation of his home due to the underground vibrations of the blast.

This was repeated by many who complained about cracks forming not just in the foundations but also in walls and support beams and pillars. Vulcan, for their part, denied that their blasting had anything to do with the damage citing the nearby ordinance range at Quantico Marine Corps Base as a prime suspect.

Vulcan also said that their use of berms, boundaries made of dirt, sand, and foliage, which it plans to erect around its expanded operation, should be enough to absorb any reverberations. Vulcan also mentioned that it monitors vibrations coming from their mines detected by seismographs planted between the quarry and the bordering neighborhoods.

According to Vulcan, the readings from those monitors show that the strength of the blasts put them at levels regulated by the Virginia Department of Mineral Mines and the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

Dr. Barner, an engineer with over 20 years of experience, disputed the ability of the berms to buffer underground vibrations due to their weaker root systems. Although, according to Barner, the berms had been put in place after natural foliage had been removed. The roots from that foliage would have grown much thicker over the hundreds of years there and able to absorb vibrations.

Because the root systems of the berms are newer, they wouldn’t have the thickness to absorb such shockwaves, said Barner.

Residents also asked how does the county benefit from the expansion. One possibility remains that once the quarry is closed and the land is conveyed to the county government in 2035, it would fill the old quarry with water and use it as a reservoir. In addition, the county is expecting huge population growth in the next 20 years, and water services currently wouldn’t be able to support such growth.

However, Vulcan is also asking for a lengthening of its contract regarding the east pit of the quarry, which would be extended to 2055, which would tack on another 20 years and make the quarry unavailable as a reservoir.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, at the Stafford County Government Center, at 1300 Courthouse Road, where the commission will hear the rezoning case. In addition, the Commission has commissioned an engineered sound study which is expected to be presented at the meeting.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the county's public water infrastructure would not keep up with the anticipated population growth.