Glenwood Springs residents rally to fight Rocky Mountain Resources’ quarry plans
The newly formed Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance is gearing up to fight the pending plans to expand the Mid-Continent limestone quarry north of town.
The group will hold an informational meeting regarding the forthcoming Transfer Trail Mine expansion, as it’s known, at 6 p.m. tonight at the Hotel Colorado.
Rocky Mountain Resources (RMR), which currently extracts limestone on the federally leased land near the base of Transfer Trail north of Glenwood Springs, has its eyes set on a major expansion of the operation.
Right now, the company, which, according to its website, “focuses on the identification, acquisition and monetization of unique natural resource assets,” runs up to 20 dump truck loads a day of mined material taken from 13 acres of land behind Iron Mountain.
If the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approves RMR’s forthcoming formal proposal, Glenwood Springs roads would potentially see an increase in dump truck traffic to 250-350 trips daily.
And residents and tourists alike may also see 13 acres of mined mountainside above town turn into a 260- to 300-acre excavation site.
Tonight’s meeting, hosted by the Citizens’ Alliance, including several residents of the Oasis Creek neighborhood in North Glenwood, safe to say, will be anything but “quiet.”
Open to the public, those in attendance will learn about the company itself — Rocky Mountain Resources, its proposed Mid-Continent limestone quarry expansion, project concerns, the BLM approval process and how residents can get involved. The informational assembly will last roughly an hour, according to organizers.
The group has also created a website, loveglenwood.org
The site provides information regarding RMR’s possible plans and even a petition residents can sign, which states, “I Love GWS and am concerned about the potential economic and environmental impacts to Glenwood Springs if the proposed Transfer Trail Mine expansion is approved.”
Meanwhile, the BLM and RMR’s Vice President of Colorado Operations Bobby Wagner have been tight-lipped regarding divulging any information about the details of the expansion to the community ahead of the company’s formal proposal.
BLM Public Affairs Specialist David Boyd told the Post Independent on Monday there have been “no updates on the formal proposal or timeframe since we last spoke” in early May.
Wagner stated on April 24, “We are currently in a quiet period and therefore have to decline an interview or statement. We look forward to reconnecting with you after this timeframe is over.”
In a previous interview, Glenwood Springs Mayor Michael Gamba told the Post Independent, “I have not had any communications with anyone from Rocky Mountain Resources at all.” The mayor did say, however, in that same interview, “They [RMR] have attempted to set up meetings with me.”
RMR has also created a website exclusively for the company’s plans surrounding the quarry, called glenwoodrocks.org.
With Mount Sopris as its background photo, the site reads, “Rocky Mountain Resources (RMR) is a Colorado based, and Colorado focused, company. We operate the Mid-Continent limestone quarry, and are developing plans to modernize the site operations with enhancements that will directly benefit the Glenwood Springs community and the environment.”
RMR’s main website — rmrholdings.com — advertises having offices in Denver and Los Angeles.
In addition, the website created specifically for the quarry states, “Rocky Mountain Resources purchased the Mid-Continent limestone quarry in late 2016 and is developing plans in coordination with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to enhance and modernize our local operations. We are excited to share our future improvement plans with the community.”
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