Does quarry blasting damage houses?  Please read . . . .

Pottstown Mercury, December 20, 2010,  page A-1

Mercury reporter, Evan Brandt, interviewed a man from West Pottsgrove who lives more than three blocks from the Pottstown Trap Rock Quarry in Douglassville.  The homeowner  has appealed to quarry owners Haines & Kibblehouse and inspectors from the PA Department of Environmental Protection because of the many cracks in  his house  - inside and outside and in the basement.  The Quarry does not claim responsibility and the DEP says the vibrations are within acceptable limits.

The homeowner states that from his front lawn you can’t hear the explosives or feel the vibrations where the State DEP first set up a vibration monitor in 2007.  But the resident says the blasting can be felt inside his house where the whole house shakes.  The resident has kept careful notations on each quarry blast timed with the shaking of his house.  And he reports the cracks have been developing at a faster rate in the last 5-6 months.

If you would like to watch the video of the cracks in this man’s home and the steel bracing he had installed along a foundation wall, go to - -

www.pottsmerc.com

-          below the Mercury name, choose “Videos”

-          go to page #3 or Video #37

-          “Stowe man claims quarry blasts ruining his house”

Subsequent to the printing of this article in the Mercury, several homeowners from Stowe have called in to the Mercury’s “Sound Off” with the following:

“I’m another Stowe resident.  In regards to the Quarry, I can also hear it when they are blasting and feel it; my house shakes also.  I live on Grosstown Road not too far down from Holly Drive, and I do have cracks in my walls.”

. . . from another resident:

 “This is in regards to the blasting at the Quarry and people saying they can or can’t hear it.  I hear it every time they blast.  I live on West Race Street and the cracks in my walls and ceilings get worse every time.”

Our question to New Hanover and Gilbertsville residents:  Do you think the company proposing a quarry in our area will take responsibility for any damage?

 If the company who owns the Douglassville Quarry is quoted as saying they would like to help the resident with damage in Stowe but it would just open a whole Pandora’s box, do you think Gibraltar Rock in New Hanover township will help the homeowners when cracks appear here?