Albrecht and Heun and its subsidiary Future Mining Inc.’s controversial Indian Trail Road mining operation application again brought a packed house to a Middle Township municipal board’s meeting last week.

Individuals have expressed concerns regarding the project including dust, traffic, environmental contamination, watershed contamination, loss of forested areas and decrease in property values.

Prior to that zoning board meeting, they most recently attended the April 2 township committee meeting when Future Mining sought a mining license for its 256-acre Indian Trail Road site.
Not only was there a large group of citizens at the April 12 zoning board meeting, but there was also an increased presence from national conservation groups.

Representatives from the American Littoral Society and the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge were present to back the residents in opposition to the proposed mining project saying it would be detrimental to the environmentally-sensitive areas surrounding the site.

The zoning board started to hear testimony from attorney Jeffrey April and other professionals for the applicants, but postponed further testimony until the May 10 meeting, when it became apparent that they would not finish by the board’s 11 p.m. deadline.

The meeting ran long because two other applications were heard before Future Mining, and the board had to go into closed session to review a letter from Carole Mattessich that cited several concerns regarding the mining application.

Mattessich is the Herald’s real estate editor, but wrote the letter as a private citizen of Middle Township.
Mattessich is married to township tax assessor Joe Ravitz who owns property adjacent to the proposed mining site.
The letter suggested Township Engineer Vincent Orlando’s recusal and the alleged misleading nature of the company’s use variance application were grounds for the board to readdress its earlier approval.
Board Solicitor Victoria Steffen said the board would accept the letter as a request for a rehearing.
After showing a short movie that depicted the company’s operation at its site on Goshen Road, and its plans for the Indian Trail Road site, April began questioning the project planner Timothy Michel.
Michel said Albrecht and Heun have been good neighbors in the township for 60 years and listed the numerous local projects in which it participated.
The company has never gotten negative citations from the state Department of Environmental Protection or complaints from their neighbors in Goshen, he said.
Regarding the proposed project, Michel said the site would be buffered, fenced and landscaped. “There will be a buffered area around the mining operation of 200 feet when only 100 feet is required in the mining ordinance,” he said.
He also said he had reviewed all of the relevant environmental documents concerning the site and believed there would be no adverse environmental impact caused by the mining operation.
The public was given a chance to question Michel on his testimony and several people got to take advantage of that, but many were disappointed that the meeting was stopped short.
Ralph Shuman was unable to voice his concerns about the watershed and the often-overlooked recycling operation also slated for the site.
“When the project clears 100 acres of trees from the site and starts to mine it, how will that not affect the water table?” he said. “All that land is protected from the sun and evaporation by the trees.”
“And I can’t understand why they’re putting the recycling operation directly behind the homes on Indian Trail Road,” he said. “Recycling is even messier than the mining operation.”
Linda Pennycook was visibly shaken when discussing her concerns as a neighbor to the project.
She held back tears when she told the Herald, “I really don’t want to move, but if this operation goes through I’ll have to.”
She said the traffic problem on the road is already bad. She thinks the loaded trucks from the mining operation will make it worse.
“There’s been six accidents in front of our house over the last four years,” she said. “And we’ve had to replace our mailbox three times.”
Another neighbor, John Hickman, said he remembers when North Wildwood Boulevard was being completed and the sand and gravel trucks raced along Indian Trail Road because they were paid by the load.
“The truck drivers have an incentive to speed on the road,” he said. “And the dust and noise they created was immense – my house actually shook as they went by.”
Still another neighbor who asked to remain anonymous said he had spent a lot of money to build his retirement home on Indian Trail Road, but now he’s reconsidering his plans.
The conservationists were able to question Michel, if not as completely as they wanted.
Matt Blake, of the American Littoral Society, said he reviewed the applicant’s environmental impact statement and found it to be inadequate.
“It lacks any discussion of the parcel’s wildlife resources, potential for impacts to wetlands, to the aquifer, your drinking water, Green Creek or the Wildlife Refuge,” he said.
In a letter dated June 19, 2006 Refuge Manager Howard Schlegel wrote about major concerns his organization would have with a mining operation as a neighbor.
“The potential impacts of riparian or in-stream sand and gravel mining can be generally characterized as physical/fouling effects including channel instability, erosion and deposition, deleterious effects on aquatic habitat and riparian ecology, and even property boundary changes,” he said.
At the zoning hearing, he questioned Michel about his review of the environmental issues in the properties surrounding the proposed site.
Schlegel, dressed in a polo shirt with a Cape May National Wildlife Refuge logo and held a binder with the same logo, asked Michel if he knew who owned the property directly to the left of the mining operation on the proposed site plan.
Michel said he thought it was a conservation group, but wasn’t sure which one.
Schlegel said he wondered how extensive a review Michel had done when he didn’t even realize that the refuge was that next-door neighbor.