My husband and I have lived on County Road 120 since 1984. We have coexisted with King Coal semi trucks that have hauled tons of coal every year. Before cellphones, we let them use our landline if they were ever stuck in the snow or broken down. We lived together as harmoniously as possible, even when they were mining 400,000 tons per year.

The mine is now owned by GCC, a company from Mexico. Over the last few years, they have slowly increased production to the tune of 1.3 million tons. County Road 120 north is definitely not designed to handle that much tonnage.

Families that could play in their yards, jog, ride bikes, see occasional wildlife and sleep with their windows open in the summer now have to deal with dust clouds, sleep deprivation and rare wildlife roaming the hillside.

I am asking our elected county officials to please listen to the taxpayers of La Plata County to get lives back to what is humane. Guidelines need to be set to limit the number of trucks using the county road. For one hour on Tuesday, March 23, I recorded 23 semis driving either east or west on CR 120 at my home. My family and I endure this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I know that we suffer from noise pollution. Noise pollution may cause or contribute to anxiety, stress, nervousness, nausea, headaches and changes in mood.

Also, 30 decibels of continuous noise disturbs sleep. Any loud noise that occurs between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. is noise pollution with these adverse effects.

There needs to be a time set that the trucks can use the county road, although ultimately getting these trucks off the road would be the best. GCC needs to have its own road or a conveyor in place because the company’s vision is to mine coal for the next 20 years.

I welcome any elected official to sit in my yard so he or she can witness firsthand what we have endured for the last couple of years.

Julie McCue

Hesperus