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2 J. Envtl. L. & Pol'y 1 (2022)
Blasting Quarry Operations: Land Use Compatibility Issues and Potential Property Value Impacts

handle is hein.journals/jevlp2 and id is 162 raw text is: ISSN 2564-016X I December 2022 BLASTING QUARRY OPERATIONS: LAND USE COMPATIBILITY ISSUES AND POTENTIAL PROPERTY VALUE IMPACTS Tony Sevelka International Valuation Consultants Inc., Suite 38, Matheson Mews, 2601 Matheson Boulevard East, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5A8 Canada. E-mail: info@intval.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2210-421X Received: 30 October 2022 1 Accepted: 30 November 2022 1 Published: 28 December 2022 ABSTRACT Aggregate resources are essential for road and building construction. In 2019, the US domestic production reached 1.53 billion tons of crushed stone valued at $18.7 billion produced by an estimated 1,430 companies operating 3,440 quarries, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries. But, it is also recognized that a quarry blasting below the water table is one of the most noxious, toxic and destructive uses of land, with no reasonable prospect of post-extraction- rehabilitation. If permitted and established in the wrong geographic location, a blasting quarry operation can result in significant deleterious impacts on the environment and local inhabitants and can disrupt short and long-term land use planning objectives. Because a quarry can remain operational for 100+ years, impacting five or more generations; quarries have the potential to cause permanent environmental degradation, destabilize communities, damage, sterilize or diminish the use and enjoyment of residential and non-residential properties, and reduce property values. Blasting is the preferred method of extracting rock in a quarry operation, the consequences of which can lead to environmental and property damage, and to injury or death of human and non-human life. In North America, licensing and operational oversight of a pit or quarry are primarily controlled by the individual states, territories and provinces, and address matters of compliance, while issues related to land use planning and zoning are entirely within the jurisdiction of the local municipalities, counties or regions. Accordingly, this research paper seeks to inform land use planners of the importance of protecting the environment and its inhabitants from the adverse effects, including the diminution in property values, associated with aggregate extraction operations generally and blasting quarries specifically, through the use of permanent onsite setbacks and offsite separation distances to avoid land use incompatibility and sensitive land uses. Keywords: Quarry; Blasting; Mining; Environmental degradation; Legislation; Reclaim Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Kamrul Hossain I Deputy Editors-in-Chief Dr. Evgeniya Kopitsa, Prof. Dr. Ngozi Finette Unuigbe I Executive Editor: Dr. Hasrat Arjjumend How to cite this paper: Tony Sevelka, 'Blasting Quarry Operations: Land Use Compatibility Issues and Potential Property Value Impacts' (2022) 02 (03) Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 1-78 <https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp2.03.01> Copyright © 2022 by author(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International license (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Open Access

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