An inspection from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sheds light on why dust is blanketing a neighborhood in Westmoreland County.
Residents who live on Isabella Street, right at the border of Westmoreland County and across the river from Blairsville, say dust from the Derry Stone SMT site has them worried about their health.
Charlie Sherba and his neighbor Bill Feldbusch raised several concerns to the state DEP, saying the nearby site routinely failed to control the spread of the dust as it crushed sandstone.
The neighbors shared text messages from a quarry employee that said they had not been using water to wet the stone before crushing for various reasons. Still, the men said they saw little action or concern.
“When it started to become a health issue, that was my biggest complaint, and it seemed like they were just dragging their feet. Nobody was doing anything about it,” Sherba said.
The state DEP recently visited the quarry and discovered the very things these neighbors feared. The inspection report found that the water sprayers were disconnected due to maintenance issues, and the crusher was failing to spray down the rocks before rushing them.
Investigators also spotted multiple trucks leaving the facility without tarps, allowing the dust and debris to fly off the backs and into the air.
After the inspection, the state DEP’s Air Quality Division shut the crushing plant down because of all the dust until the issues were fixed.
“Why didn’t you take care of this at the beginning? You’re in violation,” Sherba said.
KDKA Investigates reached back out to the attorney representing the quarry, and he said he’d follow up after reviewing the inspection report, adding, “My preliminary information is that many of the items noted by DEP have already been corrected and that any remaining items are being addressed on a priority basis.”
The state DEP told the two men not to expect things to be fixed at the quarry overnight, adding that it is coming back to install monitoring equipment to track just how much dust is escaping the quarry. The agency said it will also be doing quarterly inspections.
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