Parleys Canyon is not the place for a quarry
The Wasatch Front is a fast-growing collection of communities, and growth requires rock aggregate products for everything from new home construction to sidewalks and roads. That, in turn, requires rock quarries that may take a toll on the environment.
This can’t be avoided, but it can be mitigated and controlled. Most importantly, the need for quarries shouldn’t require undue hardship on a community or its reputation. That is especially true for a metropolitan area famous for its natural beauty.
A proposed 20-acre privately owned limestone quarry in Parleys Canyon, which recently received a permit from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, is one project that raises too many concerns.
The quarry would mar mountainsides near I-80. The company seeking the permit, Granite Construction, said on its website that drivers would have to strain to see it. Still, any marring of the mountains east of the city should be avoided, especially one near an entrance to the Salt Lake Valley.
That is one reason to oppose the project, but not the only one. The proposed mine raises concerns about dust that might be carried into the valley by winds that rush down Parleys Canyon. Its opponents have raised concerns that the water needed to tamp this dust would exacerbate ongoing drought conditions. The impact of truck traffic on I-80 is another concern.
The permit is not the final word. The Division of Air Quality has begun a 60-day comment period on its stated intention to approve the project. The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining already has granted its approval of the quarry. Other entities still must weigh in.
And a case concerning local jurisdiction is brewing. Salt Lake County passed an ordinance last year banning mining and mineral extraction in forestry and recreation zones, including Parleys Canyon. The owner of the Parleys Canyon property, Tree Farm, had filed a vested mineral right on the land before the county passed its ordinance and has since sued the county.
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A lawyer for the owner has said the county ordinance violates a state law that prohibits local governments from stopping operations related to critical infrastructure materials.
Opponents of the mine, whose positions are outlined at the website saveparleys.org, complain that state law is too weak to adequately regulate such operations, especially when it comes to monitoring threats to air quality.
They raise a good point. However, state lawmakers have shown little interest in tightening those regulations. On the contrary, a bill introduced late in this year’s legislative session would have stripped the county’s authority to stop the project. It failed, fortunately.
Perhaps the most influential concern was raised in recent days by Fraser Bullock, chief executive officer of Utah’s latest bid to host another Winter Olympics. Utah has a strong bid to host the games in either 2030 or 2034, but Bullock said a lime quarry near I-80 could hurt that.
“The International Olympic Committee is very focused on preserving our environment, very focused on sustainability, such that our bid has a big part of it around the environment and sustainability,” he told the Deseret News.
The enormous economic benefits of another Olympics far outweigh any need for a small quarry.
Utah should be proactively working toward a better environment. “But there are also things we can stop from happening in our community,” Bullock said, referring to the proposed quarry. He and others say northern Utah has plenty of other, more suitable sites for such a thing.
Indeed, location is the biggest reason to oppose this proposal. We are sensitive to the property rights of Tree Farm. A 2005 study by the Utah Geological Survey identified many sources of high-calcium limestone throughout Utah. It identified 84 such quarry operations that had been developed during the previous 150 years. It also noted the intense need the state has for more such aggregate as its population continues to grow.
No doubt many potential quarry sites exist on state-owned land. Perhaps the state could identify some of these and arrange a land swap with the owners of the Parleys Canyon quarry site.
It is true that the farther such a quarry sits from where it is used, the higher the impacts on traffic and the higher the cost of construction. We don’t doubt the need for this vital construction resource but are confident other suitable sites could be found in locations not too far from the Wasatch Front, where important mountainsides so close to a main Salt Lake County entrance would not be marred.
