Suzanne Montgomery and Jack Robertson spoke before the Chambers County Commission Monday night to express their concerns about a possible rock quarry in Cusseta.

A permit has been submitted to ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) for a proposed quarry and aggregate mining facility on County Road 389. Many Cusseta residents oppose the quarry and have been asking the county commission for help.

The land is privately owned.

After the commission’s last meeting, Commission Chairman James “Moto” Williams told the Valley Times-News that the commission has no control over the proposed quarry because the county does not have zoning laws.

He added that citizens should contact ADEM if they have concerns.

Montgomery spoke about the adverse effects the quarry will have on the land surrounding the site, as well as air and water quality. He asked who was responsible for maintaining county roads that could be damaged by trucks coming in and out of the quarry.

“Who will bear the cost of this irreversible destruction?” -Montgomery asked.

Montgomery also said the county should protect wildlife in the area, such as bald eagles.

Montgomery said he has always believed in a person’s right to use their private property for the benefit of themselves or their family.

“However, if the right to use or develop your property prevents, interrupts or destroys a neighbor’s use of your property or causes harm to your neighbor, then you must cease and desist from that activity or pay just restitution to your neighbors. neighbors for the damage,” Montgomery added.

Robertson, a fifth-generation landowner in Cusseta, said his farm is 1.2 miles from the proposed quarry. He talked about his association with other local farm owners in the county.

“Now, with this proposed mining site, we are being asked to agree to expose ourselves and our livestock to degraded air quality, louder and unnatural noise, likely contaminated water from foreign sources and even water disposal,” Robertson said, “and we are being asked to expose ourselves and our families to a much more dangerous road environment ten times more.”

Robertson said the Cusseta community should not have to accept a development they see as disrespectful and detrimental to their own land.

“We are being asked to accept this mining site because of the greed of a few, and this would be detrimental to our community, our city, our county, and it is totally (disrespectful) to the landowners, farmers and ancestors who have already sacrificed so much. in the name of progress,” Robertson said.