Residents concerned over possible sand mine

Several residents felt there was a cause for alarm in regards to a recent legal notice about a mining operation that will be setting up shop literally in their backyards. The mining operation, also known as the Oteka Quarry, is a project of Unisands, LLC out of McCloud, Okla. The company recently applied for apermittoengageinnon-coal mining.

The permit is for the surface mining of limestone, shale, sand, sandstone, gravel and clay. The location of the mine is off of Highway 70 at Simpson Road 11 miles west of Madill, which records show is owned by Dan Little and the living trust of Prudence Little.

The operation will sit on 532 acres of land surrounded by residential homes, farm land and pecan groves. With such a large industrial operation setting up shop in the backyards of multiple residents, many are now asking how this is possible.

All residents are wondering what is going to happen to the land and the water supply in the area. The surface mining operation will be a 24-hour operation with blasting allowed from sunrise to sunset.

Kelly Goff, who lives nearby, said she is concerned about the noise and lights from the 24/7 operation as well as how the water supply will eventually be affected by the mining.

“We are on water wells out here,” she said grimly. “If they drop the water table and my well dries up, it will cost me thousands of dollars to run a new water line. In addition, we do not know what chemicals will be getting into the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer from the mining process.”

Goff is not the only resident that raises concerns about the mining. Jeff Landgraf, Ray Robertson, Chris Bradshaw and Dustin Combs called their neighbors into action with a meeting to discuss the operation and invited Madill City Manager James Fullingim to attend, as well. The result of the meeting was to create a petition to stop the mining operation. Chris Bradshaw said the legal notice in the paper is what sprang him into action. “I saw the legal notice in the paper and got to looking into it,” Bradshaw said.

The proposed equipment storage area for the operation is right behind Bradshaw's house.

“I can look and see the storage area from the back of my house,” he said dourly. “The lights and noise will run 24 hours a day.”

With 100 trucks or more predicted to run the operation at full production paired with the blasting, residents have banned together to protest the operation. Bradshaw shared that there were concerns within the permit itself.

“It is an open ended permit with no parameters for how deep they will be mining and for how long the life of the operation is,” Bradshaw noted.

He continued to say that there are others worried, as well, and there seems to be no buffer zones for the operation other than the blast zone on the north end of the property where phase one of the operations will begin.

“The only buffer zone is within 500 feet of a 24 ft. gas line on the north end of where the blasting is in phase I.”

Bradshaw said he also worried about the quality of the water and air; how they will likely be affected once production gets going.

“The potential effects to the air quality are in question with the process.”

The operation, which will be drawing water out of the ground during the process of the mining, could eventually affect the water from Turkey Creek Tributary that is nearby as well as Hauani Lake which supplies a large part of the drinking water for the city of Madill. There are also concerns about possible water contamination from chemicals that could be used during the process of sand extraction and end up in the same water supplies.

Fullingim said his concern is for the residents.

“I am concerned for the residents having to tolerate it,” Fullingim said.

He continued to say that he didn’t know what legal ground the city had to stand on at the moment and that he was still doing preliminary research about it and how it will affect the water supply.

“No one spoke to the city of Madill about the operation,” Fullingim noted. “I did speak with the city council members to inform them of the situation.”

Fullingim said the issue will be on the agenda for the March 12 city council meeting.

“We do not know what contamination will be washed into the lake from the mining process,” he said. “If we could just press pause until the city has questions answered or until we feel comfortable about it.”

Residents have created a Facebook page geared towards stopping this incident. It can be found under Stop the sand mine.