The controversial quarry in Solebury failed to finish reclamation work by a March 19 deadline.
Kyle Bagenstose reports for the Bucks County Courier-Times
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has brought the hammer down on a controversial quarry in Solebury, suspending any active mining operations there until the quarry can complete overdue reclamation work, according to officials and a notice sent to the quarry last week.
The 165-acre quarry, owned by the New Hope Crushed Stone & Lime Co., has for years drawn the ire of the township, local residents and the adjacent Solebury School, which blamed quarrying operations for the formation of sinkholes on its property. Several lawsuits were filed and settled, and the DEP’s Environmental Quality Board ultimately declared the site a nuisance in 2014, leading the DEP to require a reclamation plan in 2015.
Operations at the quarry were briefly halted in August 2017 after the DEP said the quarry fell behind on the reclamation plan, which involves filling the quarry’s pit, grading it to a safe slope and seeding it, and restoring the nearby Primrose Creek. The two-week cessation was lifted after the quarry demonstrated it was working to catch up.
But operations are now halted again after the quarry missed a March 19 deadline to complete the work. Solebury Supervisor Kevin Morrissey wrote in an email last week that the DEP then drafted a “consent order and agreement” to the quarry to address the work, due April 12. After the quarry failed to execute the agreement, the DEP brought the cessation
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