Residents of the small north Alabama community of Belle Mina are breathing easier after reaching a settlement with a limestone quarry they say was disrupting their homes and places of worship.
Three Belle Mina residents and four churches located near the quarry filed a lawsuit against the operators of the Stoned LLC limestone quarry in 2024, alleging that the quarry’s dust, noise, blasting and truck traffic were interfering with their ability to enjoy their property or to keep congregants coming to their churches.
The plaintiffs, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, had initially sought an injunction to close the quarry entirely. Barry Brock, director of SELC’s Alabama office, said in a news release that the compromise was a good one.
“While we sought to stop the quarry, the judge concluded that the law required a middle ground,” Brock said. “This is the best outcome for our clients and mitigates very serious long-term impacts on the community,”
The settlement requires the quarry to change its operations to reduce its impact on the community. The changes include:
- Establish buffer zones around homes and churches for quarry operations.
- Reduce the quarry’s hours and cease operating from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and on Sundays.
- Move the entrance farther from the plaintiffs’ homes and churches, and install turn lanes to ease traffic concerns.
- Pave roads to reduce dust impacts on the community.
- Plant trees to create a buffer around the quarry.
- Notify residents by text or email approximately 24 hours before blasting operations.
The SELC news release said the quarry operator, Grayson Carter and Son, will also compensate plaintiffs for the diminished value of their property.
Attorneys for the quarry and its affiliated companies said their clients were unable to provide a response statement before publication of this story.
In an emotional court hearing in January, residents said they were living in a “nightmare” that included sleepless nights and layers of dust blanketing their property.
“We don’t let our daughter play outside,” Belle Mina resident Brad Vice testified in the hearing. “The dust has altered our lifestyle completely.”
After the hearing, Limestone County Judge Matthew Huggins granted a partial injunction that closed the quarry and required it to meet several conditions before reopening. Many of those conditions were incorporated into the settlement agreement.
“Our clients devoted so much time and energy to this fight, including testifying to very personal stories about how the quarry changed their lives,” Brock said. “This relief benefits them and everyone near the quarry.”
Nina Perez, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she still plans to leave the area due to health concerns, including asthma.
“This situation was never what any of us wanted, but we tried to make the best out of something difficult,” Perez said in a news release. “While there is a lot to be grateful for in this settlement, it’s still outrageous that families had to go through a legal battle just to get action and accountability.”
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
Reporter, Alabama
Dennis Pillion is a reporter for Inside Climate News based in Alabama. He joined ICN in 2024 after 17 years working for Alabama Media Group, including nine as the statewide natural resources reporter. His work for AL.com and The Birmingham News, won numerous Green Eyeshade and Alabama Press Association awards for his coverage of environmental issues in Alabama. He was born and lives in Birmingham, Ala.