Park agency extends public comment period for Barton Mines expansion proposal

Commenters complain about noise and encroachment on wilderness

By Gwendolyn Craig

The public will now have until Nov. 6 to submit comments on a North Creek garnet mine’s expansion proposal.

After the Adirondack Park Agency received criticism for scheduling a two-week public comment period on the thousands of pages of the Barton Mines expansion application, the agency rethought its position and Thursday extended the comment period by 15 days, something mine representatives also agreed to do. 

APA spokesman Keith McKeever said he expects the board will hold to its plans to review the application at its meeting on Nov. 14 and 15. 

David Gibson, managing partner of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve, called the mine’s proposal “one of the most technically complex and resource impactful private land use applications to come before the APA.” He called the two-week comment period “unfair.”

“Following three years of project review, four NIPAs (notice of incomplete applications), alleged violations of existing permit conditions, and multiple complaints from neighbors about existing conditions, you inexplicably provide the public with just two weeks of formal comment opportunity ending on October 10,” Gibson wrote in an initial comment letter. 

Gibson said Thursday he was glad the comment deadline was extended. But he, and others, said the project should go to a hearing before an administrative law judge. Such a hearing is the only way the agency, which oversees public and private development in the park, can deny or substantially alter a permit. The agency has not held such a proceeding in over a decade.

Barton produces abrasives from Ruby Mountain’s garnet. Its operations are in the towns of Johnsburg and Indian Lake and the mine is adjacent to the 114,000-acre Siamese Ponds Wilderness.

The company is seeking amendments to its permit to allow it to continue operating for another 67 years. The amendments include expanding its residual mineral pile. The tailings would rise another 100 feet. The company proposes to lower the quarry floor and increase trucking and mining vehicle operation hours.

As a result of Barton’s letter-writing campaign, dozens of current and former staff informed the APA of their support of the mine’s expansion.

Seven people spoke during the APA’s Thursday meeting about the proposal, six with concerns and one voicing support.

Those with frustrations noted the 24-hour, seven-days-per-week drone from the mine’s mill that disrupts their home life. They said the noise began to escalate in 2018. During a meeting with residents and Barton in 2019, mine operators suggested the height of the tailings pile, the unused byproduct, was causing an amphitheater effect. 

Frances Rucker, co-owner of the Garnet Hill Lodge in North River, said guests have complained about the incessant sound. 

An employer of approximately 55 local residents in full- and part-time positions, Rucker said her business, too, is important to the community. She made a plea directly to APA Chairman John Ernst, who owns Elk Lake Lodge, a resort in North Hudson.

“As a hotel owner yourself, Mr. Chairman, you must understand having the impact of an expanding mine in your backyard,” Rucker said. 

Rucker and Alan Belensz, a member of the Friends of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness, said Barton has backtracked on its acknowledgement of the noise, blaming it on new neighbors unused to the mining operations. 

John Brodt, spokesman for the mine, said “Barton has never agreed that there has been an increase in noise from our site.” Brodt said those who claim “an amphitheater effect” are wrong, and pointed to the company’s sound studies.

Belensz said Barton should have evaluated other alternatives, including a smaller residual minerals pile. He was also concerned about the lack of monitoring of the mine’s dust suppressant practices. “We ask that Barton be required to address the environmental problems they’re creating,” Belensz said. 

Gay Gordon-Byrne, a local resident and a member of the town of Johnsburg’s planning board, said the town cannot afford to lose the mine, which employs about 100 people. Her neighbors’ complaints, she said, stem more from concerns about their real estate values.

The mine’s proposal involves cutting nearly 17,000 trees and decreasing a forested buffer between it and the Siamese Ponds Wilderness area. 

Chris Amato, conservation director of Protect the Adirondacks, said the mine has already expanded into that buffer, called a critical environmental area, which he alleged violates the existing permits. Amato said his organization has studied Barton’s permits and cannot find any indication that it is allowed to expand in that buffer zone. Protect the Adirondacks does not want to see the buffer reduced in the permit amendments.

Brodt denied that Barton has violated its permit. He said it allows the mine to operate in a portion of the critical environmental area “because we do so with minimal impacts to the adjacent wilderness.”

Jerry Delaney, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, warned board members that the mine may be next to a wilderness area, but it is still private land.

“Tree cutting is not prohibited on private land,” he said. “We can do that.”

To learn more about the project application and review comments already submitted, go to https://apany.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/(S(dttn0lwhn3gfuectmyshqixp))/BusinessDirectory.aspx?sSessionID=. 

To submit comments, go to https://apa.ny.gov/Hearings/ApaCommentPopup.cfm?ProjectNumber=2021-0245.

Top photo: Barton Mines’ residual minerals pile from the former Hooper Mine in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Photo by John Passacantando