Blasting Data Kept Secret From La Grange Resident

LA GRANGE, IL — La Grange resident Richard Rasch had a seismograph in his yard for more than a year. It was courtesy of Hanson Aggregates, designed to measure the effects of blasting at its McCook quarry.

He said the company has told him the device found the company's blasting was within standards. But he said that after many inquiries, he cannot get the actual readings.

Blasting from the Hanson Aggregates quarry has been a longtime concern in La Grange and other towns. A La Grange official said recently that the village has received a number of complaints about the effects of blasting since the mine shifted to underground mining a couple of years ago.

Patch asked the spokesman for Lehigh Hanson, the parent company, about whether it would share the data on the blasting. He said the company could provide the readings to Rasch.

"What I have learned is that we have shared the seismograph data verbally with the resident in the past, and we can also provide him with historical seismograph readings if requested," spokesman Jeff Sieg said. "The data from the seismograph confirms that our mining activity has and continues to remain below the threshold to prevent damage to nearby structures."

In an email to Sieg on Monday, Rasch, who lives in the 400 block of Sixth Avenue, said he has been told many times by different Hanson representatives that the readings were always within the guidelines for strip mining in Illinois.

"And on many occasions, I had asked to see actual results from the daily blasting but was told every time that they would have to check, and then never would hear back," Rasch said. "If you could provide the full readings from the time the seismograph was in my yard, it would be greatly appreciated."

Rasch's house is less than a half mile away. He said his house shakes during the blasting.

In a 2018 public letter, plant manager Jeff Hrachovsky announced the quarry was moving from surface mining to underground. He said the effects on neighbors would be "much smaller and less impactful."

In an email to Patch earlier this month, Sieg said his company was blasting in McCook between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

"Because the areas we mine change as we work through the deposits, some residents who were not in areas close to our surface mining may now be close to our underground mining area," he said. "As for how our underground mining compares to surface mining, our underground blasting is less intense as compared to surface mining and well below the established threshold to prevent damage to any nearby structures."

Village Manager Andrianna Peterson told Patch earlier this month that the village shares complaint information with the quarry and requests that the quarry consider amendments to its operations to reduce impacts on residents. She said the state and McCook regulate the quarry's operations.

Hanson is the same firm that is in litigation with La Grange over flooding. It has not returned messages in that matter.

In an interview with Patch earlier this month, McCook Mayor Terrance Carr said the village has received no complaints about blasting in the Hanson quarry. He said some residents outside McCook have complained about the dust and that issue has been addressed by spraying areas with water.

"It's working a lot better than it was," he said. "As far as blasting, we haven't gotten one complaint, and they know our number."

The state Department of Natural Resources said it has the power to regulate surface mining, but not underground operations.