JESSUP, Md. — Homeowners in the Pleasant Chase neighborhood have been fed up with their next-door neighbor, the Savage Stone Quarry.
The debacle over the industrial site has been drawn out more than 20 years now, as neighbors believe the weekly blasts have damaged the structures of their homes, among other issues. However, quarry management continues to deny these claims.
“We're not going anywhere. we're also not going to be silenced,” neighbor Andrew Rushton said. “It's very frustrating when you're paying the tax dollars and you expect to have a seat at the table and to have a voice and it's clear the residents' voices do not carry the same weight as a wealthy campaign contributing quarry owner.”
Rushton moved into the neighborhood six years ago, unaware of the quarry nearby. Many who have moved in recently have not been informed beforehand, and from ground level it’s not obvious how close the neighborhood is.
Meanwhile, Gary Prestianni has lived in the neighborhood longer than the quarry. He says he remembers a time when ownership seemed to care about its neighbors, as the neighborhood's first association president. The quarry even conducted pre-blast surveys, taking photos of the exterior of his house.
Years later, after meticulously tracking new cracks that have formed, Prestianni says ownership has been dismissive, claiming his house is settling.
“The house was built in 1948, so in the 50 years after it was built, it waited till now to settle?” Prestianni said. “I would say many of the homes are probably going to need maybe $100,000 worth of repairs. The sidewalks are moving. The garage floors aren't level, the doors are out of whack. So how much money would it have cost them to fix this early on?”
There is a $25,000 fund, established as part of the original agreements with the community, that the quarry maintains to quickly address damages related to vibrations.
However, not a single dime has ever been paid out.
“This fund was never intended… to simply give people money with zero proof that the quarry caused their issue,” operations manager Randy Heckler told WMAR-2 News’ Blair Sabol in an email. “In an area comprised of hundreds of homes, select homeowners are demanding money to pay for routine maintenance items and other problems that were not, and could not have been caused by [the] quarry.”
The quarry has sensors around the area and Heckler claims the blasts remain “well under regulatory limits”, as confirmed by inspections conducted by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Neighbors fight to close down quarry for good
“The problem is that the permit limit doesn't account for the cumulative impacts associated with repeat blasting over that period of time,” associate professor at the University of Maryland King Carey School of Law Jon Mueller said.
Mueller runs the Environmental Law Clinic that has been working with neighbors seeking to shut down quarry operations.
“It kind of stretches credulity to think that you can operate a facility like this for over 20 years, shake people's homes badly enough that things fall and break, people fall out of their chairs, animals, you know, are scared to death and run around the house, and that it's not having any impact on it structurally,” Mueller said.
"It's like if you have a litter box in your house and every time you go by it you accidentally hit it, you're shifting that," Prestianni said. "Every time they blast it's shifting all the way through here."
Rushton says, some neighbors have delayed getting work done, for concern about repeated costs.
“Why should we spend money then to have that exposed to all the blasting and it starts to crumble again?” he said.
Two years ago, a county hearing examiner ordered the quarry's zoning permissions revoked, siding with neighbors.
But then, the quarry’s lawyers appealed the case and won.
It’s continued its operations despite neighbors’ protests, which are not just limited to the blasting but also include air quality concerns from the gabbro rock fallout that coats windowsills and patio furniture in a black dust.
“It’s gotten to the point where we would like to get it shut down because they're not being responsible. They've ignored us for so long. What remedy do we have?” Prestianni said.
In the spring, about 40 neighbors filed grievances with the county's planning and zoning department. The county's subsequent code enforcement investigation is expected to conclude this week with the findings sent out next week.
Regardless of a clean air quality inspection by MDE last month, neighbors also plan to challenge the renewal of the quarry's air pollution permit that's up in September.