Quarry Dust Covers Westerly in Concern.
In fact, the quarry in the village of Bradford was once home to world-famous Sullivan-Westerly Granite.
He said he was “disgusted” and “fed up” with the town’s lack of concern regarding working quarries so close to people’s homes.
The homes were bought by people who were told and/or thought the quarries would never be mined again, at least not as large-scale operations.
In 2011, however, the abandoned Bradford quarry was reopened by Copar Quarries of Westerly LLC, to blast once-prized granite into rubble small enough to be crushed into pebbles for asphalt manufacturing.
The diesel-powered industrial equipment required to produce asphalt pebbles emits particulate matter, also known as particle pollution.
The moratorium came as a council committee works on an ordinance that would better regulate this local industry.
Both companies were cited by local, state and federal agencies for violating various regulations.
Besides the quarry in Bradford and the mining operation on Old Hopkinton Road, Cherenzia Excavation Inc. also operates a quarry on White Rock Road.
Clayton bought her home in 1982, about a dozen years after the quarry had last been worked.