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   Introduction
   Water Availability
   Water Quality
     Asphalt
     Concrete
     Stone Crushing

This section will deal with two aspects of the impact of quarries, concrete and asphalt plants upon surrounding water: water availability and water quality.

This refers to the impact that removing an estimated 500,000 tons of rock each year will have on the water in the underground aquifer that supplies the wells of area residents.  What will the impact of removing this much rock have on the underlying aquifer? Will a quarry of this size drain the aquifer and hence the wells of local residents? These are the questions that this section will, over time, attempt to answer.

References
The following are articles that review some of the tests and research that have been conducted on Montgomery County, PA watersheds and aquifers.

This information shows that Montgomery County is a Southeastern Pennsylvania groundwater protected area.  It also has links to other PA water-related information.  

This news bulletin from the Delaware River Basin Commission provides a resource for obtaining water regulation information for Southeastern PA.

Water quality refers to the impact that runoff of the byproducts of operating a concrete plant, asphalt plant, and a stone crushing plant will have on the surrounding watershed and underlying aquifer.  

What Is Asphalt? Put simply, it is the bottom of the barrel of crude oil. Crude oil is separated into components such as gasoline, jet fuel, light oils, diesel fuel and finally into asphalt.  It is obtained either as a residue from the distillation of petroleum or from natural deposits. Asphalts used in road construction may include petroleum and tar.

In time, the effects of the chemicals that compose asphalt will be listed on this page.

Concrete consists of a hard, chemically inert particulate substance, known as aggregate (usually sand and gravel), that is bonded together by cement and water.  Lime (calcium oxide) and gypsum are used as binders. All of these chemicals will be runoff particles into the surrounding area.

The process of crushing stone also produces solid particles of rock that will eventually be runoff and washed into the local aquifer. The impact will be discussed in this section