Azusa Offers Rock Quarry Tough Rules to Survive By

Azusa city planners, caught between a groundswell of public sentiment to close a rock quarry and opposition from a company fighting for its life, have proposed a compromise that would allow Azusa Rock Co. to continue mining Fish Canyon.

The proposal, which would restrict quarry operations, is aimed at resolving concerns about dust, noise and air pollution, said Roy E. Bruckner, Azusa’s community development director.

Major conditions include limiting quarry operations to between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. each weekday, reducing the area that can be mined, improving dust-control measures and banning the use of dynamite.

The proposal was presented last week to the Azusa Planning Commission, which is considering whether to recommend that the City Council revoke the company’s use permit.

For four months, the commission has been grappling with the problem.

An Azusa citizens group called the Committee to Save the Foothills and officials and residents of neighboring Duarte have urged the commission to revoke the 32-year-old mining permit.

Azusa Rock has countered with a battery of consultants who have testified that the quarry is not responsible for the environmental problems nearby residents say it causes. At Wednesday’s Commission meeting, Duarte countered with evidence from environmental experts contending that the company is responsible for the area’s dust and noise problems.

“It’s become a battle of the experts,” Bruckner said. “Who do you believe?”

Azusa Rock officials say the company would be forced out of business if the permit is revoked, and they would sue the city.

Originally, the Azusa planning staff recommended revoking the permit, concluding that the quarry had violated some of the original conditions. Moreover, according to Bruckner, the city has evidence that the quarry operation may have been temporarily abandoned during the 1970s, giving the city the right to revoke the permit.

Bruckner said the compromise has been offered as a option between closing the quarry and taking no action.

Attorney Glenn R. Watson, who represents Azusa Rock, praised the compromise and said the company would attempt to respond by the commission’s September meeting.

“Some (conditions), at first blush, appear to be reasonable,” he told the commission. “Some present some problems I have to talk to the company about.”

But some opponents said they still want the quarry closed.

Carol Montano, a member of the Committee to Save the Foothills, said no mitigating measures would repair the slopes scarred by 32 years of digging.

“They are still going to continue mining at the rock quarry, and that’s unacceptable,” she said.

Marlene Fox, an attorney representing Duarte, told the commission the compromise conditions should be imposed if the quarry is allowed to continue operating.