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County Planning OKs King Coal continuance

Company gets Feb. 25 deadline to submit land use permit application

Groupo Cementos de Chihuahua Energy (GCC) will have an extension until Feb. 25 to complete a class II land use permit application, provided it continues efforts to mitigate noise, traffic and other issues surrounding the operation of King Coal Mine II.

In a 3-2 vote, La Plata County Planning Commissioners recommended the four-month continuation, with a warning to the company not to ask for more time.

Commissioners Jim Tencza, Tom Gorton and Charley Minkler approved the extension, with Lucy Baizel and Frank Lockwood against.

About 50 citizens – many of them disgruntled County Road 120 residents who bear the brunt of King Coal truck traffic – attended Thursday’s meeting to tell the company they’ve been living in a world of noise, dust and truck congestion.

Hundreds of trucks per day stir up dust along the county road in an area of Hesperus known as Hay Gulch, where crews at King Coal Mine II have worked since 2007 when GCC expanded its operation.

King Coal I began operating in Hay Gulch in 1938. In 1976, the company received a contract for its first commercial sale to cement manufacturers, a branch of the business that has continued since then. When King Coal II opened in 2007, county planners at the time did not require a class II land use permit, but officials changed their minds in 2010 when GCC wanted to expand its acreage.

Local J.T. Coyne said Thursday’s discussion should have begun in 2007, and the gravel portion of Hay Gulch Road should have been paved by now.

“I think you should give them an extension but a short one,” he told commissioners. “You need to motivate them to get their act together and get it done.”

Julie McCue played a video showing County Road 120 in front of her residence, clouded by dust from the hundreds of 85,000-pound trucks going by daily.

“We live where the pavement ends and the gravel begins,” she said, adding that she and her husband have “co-existed” with the truckers for years, but the situation has reached a breaking point.

“Now, it’s like, ‘holy cow,’” McCue said. “You think about quality of life: We have none. Put them on a timetable. They told us we’d get pavement in front of our house in May. It’s October.”

Lockwood asked GCC if the company would increase production or traffic over the next four months, which was met with a pause that agitated the public. Ultimately, company representatives said they had “no plans” to expand the coal business throughout the continuation.

In the months ahead, mine Vice President Trent Peterson said there are plans to continue reducing noise from the mine fans and upgrade an existing silencing device next year, stabilize dirt portions of the road with recycled asphalt and complete widening of the county road by the end of October. Company trucks will also continue to abide by reduced speed limits.

Tencza had his doubts about GCC’s ability to meet the February deadline with winter looming.

“I’m looking at this and saying, ‘OK, let’s say we go with this extension date,’” he said. “It could be a hard winter. I want to make sure those items we say we’re going to do between today and then get done.”

Peterson said he was confident in the time frame.

Jack Llewellyn, executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, attended the meeting and gave his support for the continuation because of the jobs, economic impact and tax revenue – namely $1 million for local schools – the company generates.

But company officials didn’t satisfy Baizel when she pressed them to answer why they didn’t secure a permit years ago.

“I’m going to be a fly in the ointment,” she said. “But I think they’ve had years.”

If GCC submits an application in February, the planning commission will consider it and then make a recommendation to the board of commissioners.

jpace@durangoherald.com

Jun 24, 2016
County Road 120 repaving to begin Monday
Apr 11, 2016
Planning commission to vote on King II permit
Feb 29, 2016
La Plata County Planning Department recommends denial of King II permit
Feb 26, 2016
King II Coal Mine permit may be approved next week
Feb 13, 2016
Uncertain future for Hesperus-area coal mine


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