Quarry

A Timonium-based developer unveiled plans yesterday to build offices, shops and restaurants in a 230-acre mixed-used development on the site of the former Greenspring Quarry in Baltimore County. Obrecht Properties LLC said LifeBridge Health Inc. has signed a lease for office space in the proposed Quarry Lake at Greenspring, becoming the first tenant in what is projected to be 225,000 square feet of offices and 112,000 square feet of shops. LifeBridge will, in turn, lease office space to physician groups in its health network.

Owen Neighbours, director of mining services for Arundel Sand & Gravel Co., takes a deep breath as he scans the company's huge rock quarry near Havre de Grace. The air, he says, is clean. Monitoring tests show better air quality here than in many other parts of Harford County. That is proof, he says, that the company can safely consolidate two piles of mining waste into a single 150-foot mountain elsewhere on its property so it can mine the land underneath. Area residents aren't so sure and have objected to the proposed move of the material, which contains crystalline silica, a substance that some experts say can damage lungs in a way similar to asbestos.

The body of a 37-year-old Whiteford man who drove his all-terrain vehicle off the edge of a Harford County quarry yesterday and fell at least 100 feet was recovered after being submerged in freezing water, police said. Members of a Baltimore County tactical rescue unit rappelled into the quarry and discovered the body of Robert Boileau under the ice about 1:30 p.m., a spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office said. Boileau and a friend were operating ATVs about midnight yesterday near the Whiteford Quarry, near the Pennsylvania line, when Boileau went over the side.

Community opposition to Arundel Sand & Gravel Co.'s plan to expand the operations of its rock quarry near Havre de Grace is growing as the company seeks zoning approval from the county. Harford County's zoning hearing examiner held a public hearing on the company's request for a special exception of its zoning permit last week. Six more hearings are scheduled before the end of next month. "The activity is picking up and the opposition seems to be growing," said Valerie H. Twanmoh, a Bel Air lawyer who serves as the people's counsel.

Almost 10 years after the Lehigh Cement Co. received a mining permit from the state, the company wants to begin quarrying in earnest at its 700-acre tract south of New Windsor - provoking a flurry of activity from a somnolent local residents action group, formed 18 years ago to deal with mining issues in the area. Lehigh had not planned to mine there for another 10 years, said George E. Maloney, chairman and charter member of the New Windsor Community Action Project. Then, at a Dec. 14 meeting, he said he learned that a subcontractor for Lehigh has applied to the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to install a 400-ton-per-hour rock crusher at the site.

Harford County's zoning hearing examiners will meet Tuesday to determine the dates for public hearings on a request by Arundel Sand & Gravel Co. for a zoning change at its big quarry off Interstate 95 near Havre de Grace. The company needs zoning approval before it can move two large piles of overburden -- dirt from mining operations -- from one part of its property and combine them into one mound at another part of the quarry. The shift of about 8 million cubic yards of overburden is needed to allow mining of stone beneath the piles.

Members of the Harford County legislative delegation have asked the state to look into the possible health hazards to area residents of a proposed change in mining operations at the Arundel Sand & Gravel Co.'s big quarry off Interstate 95 near Havre de Grace. In a letter mailed Monday, nine of the county's lawmakers asked the Maryland Department of the Environment to respond to residents' concerns about potential air-quality degradation and elevated incidence of lung cancer in the Havre de Grace area before awarding the company a requested modification to its mining permit.

Residents of communities surrounding the giant Arundel Sand & Gravel Co. quarry in eastern Harford County are rallying their forces to protest the company's plan to shift two large piles of mining waste from one section of its property to another. Foes of the proposal argue that Arundel's plan poses a serious threat to the health of people nearby and to pupils at Meadowvale Elementary School. "They are trying to move two ugly piles that you can see from I-95 to one larger pile," John Blomquist, president of River Hills Club Inc., told a gathering of about 120 people at the community association's meeting Monday evening at Havre de Grace High School.

WASHINGTON - Pakistani troops, operating in the rugged terrain on the border with Afghanistan, traded heavy fire yesterday with foreign fighters who U.S. officials said might be defending al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. If al-Zawahri were captured or killed, the U.S. officials said, it would mark perhaps the most significant victory yet in the U.S.-led effort to crush the al-Qaida terrorist network. Islamabad officials said Pakistani forces were to resume their assault against an estimated 200 heavily armed foreign fighters by daybreak in the mountains of the South Waziristan tribal region, long believed to be the hideout of al-Qaida's top two leaders.

More than a decade after it was proposed, a plan to mine an ingredient for roadways between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 in Jessup has received crucial state approvals. Chase Mining LLC received a surface-mining permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment last month for a quarry and was given a permit this month to work in a wetlands area. "We're delighted to be able to do what we've been trying to do for over 10 years," said Caleb Gould, the son of Washington parking lot magnate and Howard County resident Kingdon Gould Jr. Nearby residents say they are concerned about environmental effects, and they intend to oppose plans to build additional operations such as concrete and asphalt plants.