Stop the rock quarry in the side of Gunter Mountain, North Marshall County, Alabama.

Vulcan Materials has applied for permits to locate a quarry on 353 acres of leased land along Old US Highway 431. Immediate communities impacted will be Hebron, Grant, Grassy Mountain, Snug Harbor, and Merrill Mountain.

Vulcan Materials plans to process 200 tons of rock per hour at this quarry. Initially, they plan to use Little Paint Rock Creek to supply their water. They have said they do not plan to use water from North Alabama Utilities. The treatment plant that supplies drinking water to the area, located at Honeycomb Creek, is not far from the proposed quarry. The possibilities of landslides from blasting (1 to 3 times per week according to their own informational sheet), sinkholes, reduced levels of groundwater, polluted runoff into our lake and waterways, dried up creeks and ponds, unsafe roads, structural damage to our homes, and lower property values are real.

The state of Alabama has no mining act, as other states do, that would regulate the location of quarries and air, water and noise pollution caused by their operation. There are no zoning laws in Marshall County to stop yet another quarry from coming into our area. There are currently two quarries already in operation in Marshall County. All a quarry operation needs to begin construction is a water and air pollution permit from A.D.E.M. The residents of our area currently have no way to monitor or restrict quarry operations once they are open for business.