THE QUARRY STORY

The estate or heirs of James A Smejkal, of Banks Oregon, owns a 1900 acre property called “The Ponderosa,” located on Mt Emily’s S flank. Robbs Hill Road, a public road, runs through this property, and forms part of its east boundary. Robbs Hill road runs downhill until it terminates in Lower Perry Rd. The estate owns a small quarry at the base of Robbs Hill Road called “the Webster Quarry,” which supplies base rock and aggregate to local markets. The County has inventoried this quarry, and is operated under a permit from the Oregon Dept of Mines. 

In 2018, Mr. Smejkal, via local agents, presented an application to the Union county Planning Commission, proposing to expand the quarry to 500+acres, and to hook it up to rail transport via 3 railroad sidings stacked up the hill above the freeway. This proposal was turned down by the Commission for a number of reasons, most importantly because only “significant” aggregate sites can be expanded, and the Webster quarry is designated as “non-significant.” The Commission meeting was well attended, and many residents of Perry spoke against the project. No-one except Smejkal’s agent spoke for it.

Mr. Smejkal returned in 2020 with a new application, this time represented by an agent from Montana named Curtis Shuck. This proposed the same concept, with a reduced area of 274 acres. The footprint of the proposed quarry would occupy the hillside East of Robbs Creek Road, directly above I 84 and the Grande Ronde River. The site is 2.5 miles from La Grande, and approximately .5 miles from Perry.

This application was more complete than the first one - for example, it includes a Big Game Plan and a Transport Impact Study. It also proposed placement of the rest of the property in a Conservation Easement as partial mitigation  for the environmental impact of the mine. It asked for designation of the site as “Significant,” and asking for rezoning from the current Timber and Grazing status to Aggregate Mining.

However, the application faced many challenges. Some of them were technical in nature, having to do with rights-of-way and the requirements of local and State statutes and regulations. The right of way issues led Mr. Smejkal to propose (threaten, actually) the closure of Robbs Hill Road, and abandonment of the public right of way. There were multiple other deficiencies in the application, which ran to 500 pages in length.

The project was also extremely unpopular locally, and a grassroots organization was been formed : “Stop the Robbs Hill Road Quarry.” Well over 1100 people signed a petition against the quarry. The organization prepared detailed objections to the project, and was prepared to go to the Land Use Board of Appeals should it be approved.

Perhaps recognizing that their second application was likely to go down in flames, Smejkal’s agents withdrew the plan at the last minute. The County Commissioners at the time allowed them to do so, leaving the door open for re-application, which is what is happening now.

This is a terrible plan. Transport of a product that will not be used locally will burn 1.5 MILLION gallons of diesel a year (this extrapolated from the last application). The probability of a polluting event affecting the River is high. The negative affects of an industrial site at the entrance to the Valley on tourism and “in-migration” will more than offset the 5-7 jobs the quarry said it would generate. The noise, dust and diesel pollution will mostly impact the rural town of Perry - a classic case of environmental injustice. However, the increased rail traffic and pollution will also directly impact La Grande. 

Please sign our petition and join the effort to save Robbs Hill and the Grande Ronde River!