MANKATO — Blue Earth County is preparing to modernize its aggregate mining regulations, proposing updates to an ordinance that has remained largely unchanged for nearly 60 years.
The gravel-mining standards, originally established in 1977, are set for a comprehensive review aimed at addressing modern environmental concerns, operational practices and community impacts. County land use planner Scott Salsbury and zoning administrator John Considine presented an overview of the proposed changes to the County Board during a work session Tuesday.
“If our ordinance isn’t clear on what we need to have for an application, sometimes it makes it difficult to ensure that we’re getting the right information to the Planning Commission and County Boards. We want to have that all standardized, up to date and realize we want to minimize the environmental impact of mining,” Salsbury said.
The draft ordinance will establish clearer guidelines for mining sites, detailing specific application regulations and proximity to residential areas, parks and water resources.
Salsbury said the goal is to balance industrial needs with environmental and community considerations. He said aggregate mining is critical in infrastructure development, noting that materials such as sand and gravel are essential for constructing roads, bridges and various development projects.
“Aggregate is super important, so having our standards such that they’re not increasing costs, or having people have to truck from other places that are further away,” he said. “One really important accessory use that happens at mining sites is crushing of concrete. They’re able to crush it, blend it in with their other aggregate products that they’re mining and recycle it,” Salsbury said. “It’s really an environmentally friendly use.”
The changes also addressed other areas, including standardized setback distances from residential properties, simplified operational hours, enhanced stormwater management requirements, more detailed dust and noise control plans, site survey and boundary documentation, and improved reclamation standards.
Considine told the board many current mining sites eventually become community assets and pointed to where former mining locations have been transformed into parks and recreational facilities, citing Red Jacket Valley Park as an example.
“These mines are temporary,” Considine said. “So there’s other reclamation projects at some of these mines that are going to be really important parts of the community for recreation. There’s a lot of positives that can happen if reclamation is done properly, and they can be really an asset to the community after that temporary land use system.”
The process of updating the ordinance will involve stakeholder consultations, including meetings with mining operators, public works departments and state agencies.
Public education will play a role in the update, with plans to develop a dedicated webpage and host informational meetings and public hearings to help residents better understand the complexities of mining operations and their benefits to the community, Considine said.
“A lot of the easy mining sites have been already mined,” Salsbury said. “I think this can be an issue. No matter what we have for standards, it’s still likely to be controversial, or people don’t want the noise or dust potentially there.”
Board Chair Kip Bruender and Commissioner Kevin Paap both said it’s important to balance industrial needs with community concerns, acknowledging the challenge of implementing mining regulations that satisfy multiple stakeholders.
“We need to have a balance. And that sounds a lot easier than it is, but it’s really not a fair fight as we look at the map. Not everybody has ground, you know, so not everybody in the county is treated the same, but yet everyone in the county wants to see road improvements and better roads and everything else,” Paap said.
He said if the county can’t use its own local mineral resources, those materials will still need to come from somewhere and importing gravel from farther away would increase transportation costs and have a greater environmental impact due to greenhouse gas emissions from longer trucking distances.
“I think you have to let people understand we need the product. You have to mine it. You can’t not mine it,” Bruender said. “You can’t just move it down the street, because then you got a different group of people mad, and you can’t just move a mining operation down the street because sand and gravel is in a certain area.”
The draft ordinance is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with initial discussions already underway with the county Planning Commission. Staff anticipate bringing a comprehensive draft to the County Board for consideration in the coming months.
“It’s tough,” Paap said, “Because you can’t treat everybody in the county exactly the same, because everyone in the county doesn’t have the same amount of gravel potential in their backyard.”