House Bill 288, passed in the Utah House and now before the Senate, would legalize gravel quarry operations to continue and to expand regardless of local government input.
This type of overt big-government/big-industry partnership for corporate and legislator profit lays waste to our political agency at the local government level, and craters our confidence in good government. HB288 should get the no vote.
Bluff, where I live, lies within a Bermuda Triangle of active and inactive gravel pits where clean air often disappears during active mining. Unlike Bermuda, though, breezes carrying silicates far and wide are no mystery.
Neither are the pits that operators leave behind, some acres in diameter, defying any living thing besides tumbleweeds to take up residence. At the very least, it is not appropriate for a local government entity to lack permitting authority for this type of mining, which is a blight when too near residences.
Legislative sponsor Rep. Logan Wilde, R-Croyden, apparently believes gravelocracy in our state is a great idea. Wilde himself claims loyalty to HB288 because he claims to care deeply about “critical infrastructure” and needed construction in Utah’s growing communities.
Even so, the facts suggest his motivation is peddling enabling legislation to LaFargeHolcim U.S., the parent corporation mining his family-owned ranch in Morgan County. This corporation has a number of gravel operations. HB288 would legalize the override of most local zoning for gravel mining
Current law allows community zoning to limit gravel operations. The Wilde idea in HB288 would allow gravel operations freedom from most zoning that currently allows local government entities to reject having to suck up bad air and a further-cratered landscape.
There are lots of good reasons why Wilde Bill 288 should end where it began, in a Morgan gravel pit.
At the very least for the sake of Utahn’s belief in local control, we should kill HB288.
Jim Sayers, Bluff
Jim Sayers is a member of Bluff Town Council.