The owner of a sand and gravel mine near Brazos has backed off plans to expand his operation there, and he is attributing his decision to protest from nearby residents.
“Obviously they were very opposed to it,” Russell Casados, owner of Russell Sand and Gravel, said Monday.
Before Casados withdrew his application, a vote by the Rio Arriba County Planning and Zoning Committee on the expansion had been scheduled for Wednesday (11/4). The Committee postponed a vote Oct. 7 after more than three hours of heated debate about the operation, including speeches from nine residents who opposed the expansion.
The Las Cruces-based company asked the Committee for a change of designated use on 53 acres it owns along the Rio Brazos to heavy industrial use.
Casados’ business already mines on 30 acres adjacent to the proposed expansion, and the concerned residents voiced complaints about the current operation. They said the mine pollutes water in the area and makes huge amounts of noise, and its trucks tear up the local road.
Casados said he had no plans of resubmitting the application in the near future.