Just after the New Year, the U.S. Interior Department notified Rocky Mountain Industrials, or RMI, operators of a limestone quarry above Glenwood Springs, Colorado, that mining of so-called “common variety” limestone at the quarry must stop. KDNK’s Amy Hadden Marsh sat down with Heather McGregor, vice-president of the board of directors for the Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance, a local group that has been fighting the expansion of the quarry, to find out what it means. THis conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
AHM: Heather McGregor of the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance, what's the news with the Rocky Mountain Industrials Limestone Quarry near Glenwood Springs?
HM: What's happened is that we have received a copy of a decision, a three page letter, written by a top level official in the U. S. Department of Interior, which is the federal department in which the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resides. The letter from the Interior official, Stephen Feldgus, is addressed to Rocky Mountain Industrials. It basically implements the findings of an extensive report that BLM issued a year ago called the Determination of Common Variety, and it essentially tells Rocky Mountain Industrials that it is time for them to stop mining common variety limestone, at least for now, a tiny fraction of that being “locatable” limestone.
The other thing that the decision document does is it orders RMI, Rocky Mountain Industrials, to communicate with the entity that is holding an escrow account and ask that escrow account holder to disperse funds from this escrow account that's been building up since 2019 that Rocky Mountain Industrials has been paying into in lieu of making direct payments to the government. Now that the split is evident for what is “locatable” versus what is “common variety”, then the escrow money gets split accordingly as well and the “locatable” sales receipts can be returned to [RMI]. That amounts to $10, 851, the remainder of which - the dollar amount is not stated in this document - must be paid to the U. S. Department of Interior.
AHM: What's the difference between “common variety” and "locatable” here?
HM: So, basically, the BLM has split those two things apart based on their end use. In other words, the purpose that the customer uses it for, rather than, say, the chemical composition of the limestone itself. BLM said that almost every single end use that customers of Rocky Mountain Industrials were using the limestone for was “common variety”. Things like road base, riprap, asphalt shingles, aggregate, just general aggregate, all those things are considered “common variety”, generally because they can use any type of limestone and that limestone is widely available across the continent.
The “locatable” portion of the limestone in this case is limestone that is only being used for the construction of airport runways that meet the standards of the Federal Aviation Administration.
AHM: Well, that sounds complicated.
HM: Oh, yes, it's very complicated.
AHM: Can you give a brief history of [the quarry]? Didn't it start off mining “locatable” limestone?
HM: Right. The quarry was opened in 1982 by Midcontinent Resources, which had the coal mines up at Redstone. The quarry was opened to mine high grade limestone, which was then pulverized, taken up to Redstone, and used as rock dust in those underground coal mines. It suppressed the methane and added to the relative safety of the underground coal mines by suppressing methane releases.
AHM: So tell me what this most recent development means.
HM: I think for now, what it means is that Rocky Mountain Industrials cannot do any mining at the quarry in Glenwood Springs. What it means in the future, there's a lot of question marks. The letter suggests that Rocky Mountain Industrials, if they want to continue mining, has to do two different things: If they want to continue to mine limestone for the “locatable” purpose - airport runways - then they have to show some proof that they are entering that market. What the letter cites is getting permits from local governments to develop a loadout facility at the rail yard to carry that limestone to a construction site or to the Front Range.
To continue to mine limestone for “common variety” purposes, they would have to pay fair market value for that limestone that they take off the public lands. In order to do that, they will also have to go through a process to obtain what is called a mineral materials sales contract directly from BLM.
AHM: So, it sounds like no more mining for now at the quarry at all. And in order for RMI to resume mining, it sounds like they have to jump through a bunch of those hoops that you just mentioned.
HM: You got it.
AHM: How does this impact Garfield County and the county's efforts in this issue?
HM: The Garfield County commissioners have been aligned with us since 2020 in our litigation against the Bureau of Land Management, arguing this very point that RMI has been mining and selling limestone for uses that are not allowed under its federal permit. So it is a win for the Citizens Alliance. It is also a win for the Garfield Board of County Commissioners.
AHM: What's next for Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance?
HM: Well, we're not going anywhere because there's a good chance that Rocky Mountain Industrials is not going anywhere. They could contest that decision. They could follow through on the suggested actions to resume mining under those various circumstances. You know, it's a win, but it's not ultimate by any means. We are not done.
