{"id":1311504,"date":"2019-06-17T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=981516"},"modified":"2019-06-18T07:40:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T13:40:18","slug":"glenwood-citizens-gather-to-fight-quarry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/glenwood-citizens-gather-to-fight-quarry\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenwood citizens gather to fight quarry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Hikers stop to look at the RMR Quarry near the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on Thursday evening during a hike around the quarry with Wilderness Workshop.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI have not heard from one person who supports the quarry,\u201d Jeff Peterson, executive director of the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance, said during a Thursday hike into the public land where RMR Industrials wants to expand a limestone extraction mine.<\/p>\n

The Citizens Alliance and Wilderness Workshop organized the hike to offer a close look what it would look like for the quarry to expand from 20 to nearly 400 acres.<\/p>\n

One of the hikers was West Glenwood resident Ryan Randolph, who said the hike gave him \u201ca lot more understanding of the actual impact we can expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve hiked up into the actual area they\u2018re going to disturb, and it\u2019s beautiful. It\u2019s gorgeous, the birds and the trees. Places like that should be protected,\u201d Randolph said.<\/p>\n

The proposed expansion of RMR Industrials\u2019 quarry could be months or years out. RMR has submitted two draft proposals, but the Bureau of Land Management returned both of them as incomplete.<\/p>\n

After the BLM says the proposal is complete, the environmental review process, including public meetings, would have to be scheduled.<\/p>\n

The Citizens Alliance\u2019s online petition against the quarry has gathered around 1,500 signatures, Peterson said. Now, the group is working to solidify the coalition and find meaningful ways to fight against the proposed quarry expansion.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThis is our land. Of course it\u2019s multiple use, but it\u2019s our job to voice our opinion on how it should best be used, or not used. And the wildlife itself has an inherent value and right to this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Jones, Wilderness Workshop<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The hike into the BLM land where RMR wants to expand the quarry was meant to show what the impacts of the quarry could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot at stake here,\u201d Brandon Jones of Wilderness Workshop told the small group of hikers. \u201cReally, appreciating what we have is something that I want us to do while we\u2019re out here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brandon pointed out the flowers blooming, and the amount of tree diversity on the hillside. The juniper, pinon, and the spruce trees on south-facing hillside above the current quarry help provide winter foraging for wildlife, Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our land. Of course it\u2019s multiple use, but it\u2019s our job to voice our opinion on how it should best be used, or not used. And the wildlife itself has an inherent value and right to this place,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Local officials are doing what they can to push back against the expansion. The Glenwood Springs city council passed a resolution<\/a> in March opposing the proposed expansion.<\/p>\n

Garfield County Commissioners found RMR was not in compliance with the current permits, but have not officially weighed in on the proposed expansion. Days before the deadline to come under compliance with the county\u2019s permit, RMR sued the board of commissioners<\/a>, saying it had no jurisdiction to enforce a permit that conflicted with federal guidelines.<\/p>\n

One of those issues is that RMR is operating on about 21 acres, when the county permit, and the BLM\u2019s initial permit, only allows for about 16.<\/p>\n

During the hike, Peterson acknowledged that RMR did inherit some issues from the previous owner, CalX.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did inherit some boundary issues,\u201d Peterson said. The BLM had required CalX to issue a new plan of operations that reflected they were operating outside their permitted area by January 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalX didn\u2019t do it, the BLM didn\u2019t follow through with any enforcement,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cWhen RMR purchased the quarry and the mineral rights [in 2016], they were again told they needed to come into compliance within a reasonable time period, and issue a new plan of operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut instead of issuing a new plan of operations that would take care of the permit issues, [RMR is] going big guns for the whole enchilada,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n

Local officials have scheduled meetings with BLM officials for this week, and Peterson wants to capitalize on those discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re asking that people email the head of the Colorado BLM, Jamie O\u2019Connell, and [local Colorado River Valley Field Office Director] Larry Sandoval, to note this issue and how important it is to our valley and our community ahead of their meeting this week with the community of Glenwood Springs, to make them aware of what this is and why it\u2019s so broadly opposed,\u201d Peterson said at the end of the hike.<\/p>\n

Watch:<\/h3>\n

Jeff Peterson of the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance explains the impacts of a proposed quarry expansion during a hike on Thursday, June 13.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hikers stop to look at the RMR Quarry near the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on Thursday evening during a hike around the quarry with Wilderness Workshop.Chelsea Self \u201cI have not heard from one person who supports the quarry,\u201d Jeff Peterson, executive director of the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance, said during a Thursday hike into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 05:58:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311524,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311504\/revisions\/1311524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}