Source: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.文件倉Nov. 10--Lane County quarry owner Vernon Egge has added a new landmark to the Eugene-Springfield area, as seen by motorists driving north on Interstate 5.Joining the list of visual markers -- such as the Whilamut Passage Bridge, a distant view of Autzen Stadium and the Gateway Mall -- is Egge's basalt quarry on the east side of I-5, just north of the McKenzie River.Egge for years has mined the 40-acre quarry that sits high on a bluff overlooking the interstate. Until recently, almost all the excavation took place in a depression behind the ridge, largely obscured from I-5 traffic. It was hard to tell a quarry was even there.But in the last month or two, the mining has burst into public view as Egge's equipment has begun chewing up rock close to the freeway, tearing down the south rockface or wall of the quarry and offering northbound motorists a view into the innards of the operation.Motorists aren't the only ones taking notice.Some area residents have complained or raised questions with state and Lane County mining regulators, and the county in turn has warned Egge that he is violating aspects of the mining permit issued him in 2004.Egge is running trucks to and from the southern part of the quarry via an entrance that Egge recently paved into the quarry off winding Mc-Kenzie View Drive. That's an unpermitted route, the county says. The only permitted route to and from the quarry is via a private Egge-owned road that runs into the north end of the quarry and connects directly onto Coburg Road. The county has told Egge it may fine him up to $2,500 a day if he doesn't stop using the McKenzie View route.Egge doesn't dispute that he's using the McKenzie View access. He's contesting the county's order and asserts his right to use the southern access is grandfathered in because it has been intermittently used for decades to get to the quarry.There's also uncertainty about how much of the hillsides that have previously hidden the quarry from view can be removed by Egge."We'd like to see that south wall maintained" as a buffer, said Matt Laird, the county's land management division manager.But the county mining permit's language is ambiguous and contradictory on the buffers, setbacks and hillsides that Egge is supposed to keep intact, he said. At some points, the county permit seems to suggest that Egge must "leave a wall of natural rock" around the whole pit, but at other places the permit can be read to suggest that those buffering hillsides can be excavated away, he said.The state, which also regulates quarries, says its permit allows Egge to mine away the southern wall, but that he has to keep intact most or all of the steep west-facing hillside between the quarry and I-5."That western wall is required to stay there" as part of a 125-foot setback from the interstate, said Vaughn Balzer, a natural resource specialist with the state Department of Geology & Mineral Industries. The freeway sits snug up against Egge's clifflike hillside.That buffer is needed "because there is some amount of concern about I-5 being right there, and we don't want (the quarry) to have an impact on I-5," Balzer said. Worries include everything from the visual impact of the mining operation to dust, rock falls or slides, he said.Egge said he plans to keep the high existing hillside between I-5 and the quarry largely as is. "That high (west) wall will be left there. What you see is pretty much the way it's going to be."Egge says much of the crushed rock from the quarry is going to the Oregon Department of Transportation's rebuild and expan存倉ion of the I-5/Randy Pape Beltline interchange, for roadway bases and embankments.He said areas of his parcel have been worked as a rock quarry since as early as the 1920s and 1930s, but the place was largely idled from the 1970s until he resumed production in 2003.Egge has a long history in the local sand and gravel industry, for decades owning and running Egge Sand & Gravel south of Coburg, mining sand and river rock. He sold the business in 2006 to Ireland-based Oldcastle Materials, which continues to operate it as part of Eugene Sand & Gravel.Egge said he kept the basalt quarry on the east side of I-5 "because I still needed something to do. I didn't want to completely retire."He operates the basalt quarry under the name Coburg Road Quarry, employing 22 people, excavating, crushing and delivering rock. He figures the quarry has another five to seven years' worth of rock in it, depending on the pace of sales. Then he'll close it and plant trees on the terrain, he said.Balzer said mine owners must put shuttered quarries to beneficial use, whether planted with trees or developed with construction. "They can't just leave it as wasteland," he said.Because of public concern about the site, including buffers, aesthetics and the use of McKenzie View Drive, Lane County Commissioner Faye Stewart has been tracking the matter."The important thing for me is to make sure it is operating within conditions of approval," he said.Laird, the county's land use manager, said Egge's county permit clearly prohibits use of any other access point than the north access. Laird said he wasn't with the county at the time the permit was written, but he guesses the county wanted to keep Egge trucks off McKenzie View Drive to protect a residential neighbor on that road from quarry truck traffic."We didn't analyze the safety (of using McKenzie View Drive for Egge trucks) because there are not supposed to be trucks going in and out that way," he said.If Egge in the next few days doesn't obey the county's Oct. 23 request that he stop using McKenzie View Drive, the county will follow with fines, Laird said.But Egge asserts that aerial photos demonstrate the quarry driveway off McKenzie View Drive has been there for decades, and that minor quarrying has been carried out for decades at that end of Egge's property, meaning he's grandfathered in. "It's a pre-existing, non-conforming use," he said.Egge said he needs to use the McKenzie View driveway because the south end is about 200 feet lower than the north end. The bulk of the remaining rock is at the south end, and it needs to be trucked out, he said. The elevation difference would make it "virtually impossible" to haul the rock out via the north access, he said.As for the aesthetics, Egge said he's complied with his state and county permits, building a berm and planting trees to try to create a screen. But because the mining operation rises up so high above I-5 and McKenzie View Drive that there's really no way to shield it from view, he said.Rock quarries are fairly common near I-5. Many, including Egge's, were dug specifically to provide raw materials to build or expand the freeway and its interchanges.Stewart said he drives daily on I-5 past a basalt quarry south of Creswell. The Solomon Rock Pit faces directly toward I-5, about 300 feet from the traffic."I drive past that rock pit. It's been there forever. I guess I'm maybe used to those things," Stewart said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) 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