February 24, 2005

Annabeth Surbaugh, Chair
Board of County Commissioners
Johnson County, KS
111 S. Cherry
Olathe, KS 66016

Statement by: C. Elaine Giessel, Vice-Chair, Conservation Committee
Kanza Group, Kansas Chapter, Sierra Club

Madame Chair and Board of County Commissioners:

As current Vice-Chair of the Conservation Committee of the Kanza Group of the Sierra Club, I would like to submit the following comments on behalf of our Executive Committee, the elected governing body for more than 1600 Sierra Club members in the Johnson County area.

We are opposed to the mining activities at the Sunflower Quarry. We urge you to deny the Conditional Use Permit (C.U.P.), primarily because quarry operations are not compatible with the anticipated use of the adjacent area as an integral part of the proposed Johnson County streamway park and trail system. We also have concerns about the negative impacts that this facility is currently having on the health of Kill Creek and the wildlife habitats it supports.

Kanza Sierra Club members are committed to safeguarding our quality of life in Johnson County , for our families and for our future. Our volunteers work to ensure clean water and air. We support the creation and maintenance of public parks and hiking trails, as well as the protection of wildlands. Our members enjoy exploring green spaces and observing wildlife. These are values shared not only with the Sunflower Neighbors Group, but also with residents throughout Johnson County .

If you have any doubt about the significance that your constituents place on our parklands, you need only to revisit the conclusions of the 1997 Johnson County Citizens' Visioning Committee, which included goals and specific recommendations related to parks and recreation, environmental stewardship and future land acquisition. Another citizen-led initiative called "Preserving Our Future" determined that the county's second highest infrastructure priority was to address a shortage of parkland.

If you have any doubt about whether your constituents will use the proposed Kill Creek Streamway Park , you need only to review the survey done by Johnson County Parks and Recreation District and summarized in its 2003 Annual Report. The results showed that 80% of District park users were from Johnson County , and that the most frequently reported activity was hiking/walking/strolling. There were well over 123,000 visitations to Kill Creek Park recorded in 2003, and more than 800,000 visitations to county streamway parks.

The development of the streamway park between the trailhead south of DeSoto and Kill Creek Park will offer Johnson County citizens a unique opportunity to transit several miles of trails along the wooded riparian zones of the creek and through restored tall grass prairie habitats. But, if the Sunflower Quarry is allowed to operate, and to expand to the north and south as proposed, almost two (2) miles of the new trail will be situated within approximately twenty (20) yards of the western quarry property line. As you have seen from the photo packet you received, there is virtually no setback of quarry operations from this property line.

The quarry is clearly visible from the west banks of Kill Creek where the trail will be located. Hikers and bikers will have to cope with high levels of noise from quarry activities, including blasting in the pit, crushing of rock, loading and stockpiling of materials within the operations area, and transporting of products by trucks on the haul road. Air quality along the trail will be compromised by dust from quarry operations and from the haul trucks; the proposed asphalt plant is likely to add noxious odors. Since the planned streamway park is between Kill Creek and the haul road, there are also serious safety issues for trail users, particularly where the pathway will cross the road near the quarry entrance.

The aerial photos provided to you indicate that quarried materials have not been controlled adequately and are washing into Kill Creek at the haul road bridge and at the "ramp" at the southern end of the working area. I have had an opportunity to observe Kill Creek some distance upstream of the quarry within the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, as well as along the property line both above and below the quarry, and at the 95 th street streamway park trailhead. As an aquatic ecologist, I have concerns that the quarry operations are already having an impact on local stream quality and habitat. If operations persist, the conditions that spoil the area for park users will also discourage utilization by local wildlife.

I would like to close by quoting from the brochure of the Parks and Recreation Foundation of Johnson County, a citizens' group established to help secure park lands and recreational opportunities in our county, In acknowledging that one of Johnson County's strengths and sources of pride is its parks, the text asks:

"Who among us has not sought out the refuge of the wilderness at one time or another? A silent walk along a wooded trail. The solitude of a lazy afternoon fishing at lake's edge."

Clearly, Sunflower Quarry operations are not compatible with this vision. Nor are they compatible with existing recreational opportunities in nearby Kill Creek Park , with anticipated streamway trail use, or with the wildlife habitats that many of your constituents consider worthy of protection and restoration.

Therefore, the Kanza Group of the Sierra Club urges the Board of County Commissioners to deny the Conditional Use Permit, to close mining operations at the quarry immediately, and to develop and enforce a reclamation process that is both timely and harmonious with projected land uses in the area.

C. Elaine Giessel 913-888-8517
Vice-Chair, Conservation Committee
Kanza Group, Kansas Chapter, Sierra Club
11705 W. 101 st Terrace
Overland Park , KS 66214