Bob Mount: Ebenezer Swamp safe for now

When Florida Rock Inc. proposed to open a granite quarry near Loachapoka, residents were overwhelmingly opposed.
The governing bodies of Loachapoka, Notasulga, Auburn, and Lee County passed resolutions expressing disapproval. ADEM held a public hearing and a vast majority of area residents who attended expressed opposition. Almost all attendees who were in favor were from Georgia, who I assume were employees of the company.

Did ADEM pay the least bit of attention to residents’ concerns or to the opinions of their elected officials? No more than Queen of France Marie Antoinette did to the plight of the peasants under her rule. “Let them eat cake,” was her response to the peasants’ complaints.

The editorial in a recent edition of this newspaper addressed the proposal by Martin-Marietta to open a quarry near Loachapoka, closer to downtown Loachapoka than the one opened by Florida Rock, which is now operated by Vulcan Materials.

The editorial stated in words to the effect that quarries couldn’t be stopped regardless of the public’s (or anyone else’s?) opinion. That may not be correct in every instance. A few years ago, a Tennessee company applied for a permit to open a quarry in Shelby County a few miles north of Montevallo. The residents were strongly opposed, as was the University of Montevallo.

The site was not far from Ebenezer Swamp, a wetland area fed by several permanent springs. Ebenezer Swamp was owned by the university and was used as an outdoor laboratory by faculty and students. Geologists were of the opinion that the proposed quarry would adversely affect the swamp and the springs. I assume university officials had been made aware of damage to the spring at Spring Villa Park and the adjacent wetlands in Lee County.

I taught field biology courses at Montevallo a while back, and my students and I would often take field trips to Ebenezer Swamp. When it began to appear that the company was paying little attention to the concerns of the residents nor to those of the university, and that litigation was the only way to get the company’s attention, I received a call from a university official asking if I would be willing to testify in court as to the value of Ebenezer Swamp in the event it was necessary to file a suit against the company. I told him, “Having seen the damage done to aquatic systems here in Lee County by quarries and being familiar with Ebenezer Swamp and its value to Montevallo, I would be happy to render testimony.”

Thankfully, the company must have realized it would be fighting a losing battle to site the quarry if it had to go head-to-head in court with a state university and a large number of area residents who adhered to Winston Churchill’s admonition that when confronting an adversary, “Never, never, never give up.”

The company slunk back to Tennessee with its tail between its legs, and Ebenezer Swamp is safe, at least for the time being.

Bob Mount is emeritus professor of zoology and entomology at Auburn University and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.