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SAVE LACKAWAXEN!

This web site is a community information and news site dedicated to saving the town of Lackawaxen from the incompataible industrial activity in the center of our community. Quarry Management is using the railroad to export bluestone from the area to New Jersey and this once peaceful hamlet is on the verge of losing the local businesses that operate in the town of Lackawaxen.

How are Quarry Management, the Holbert Family, and the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad impacting the community and Town of Lackawaxen?

  • Quarry Management has a history of destroying communities, check out this news article: https://jessica50f.substack.com/p/deerpark-quarry-debris-tumbles-and
  • Quarry Management Stone Exports create loud industrial noise pollution in close proximity to hotel, bed & breakfast inns, restaurants, retail, and other businesses which discourages overnight stays, quiet lunchs on the river and visitors in the town of Lackawaxen.
  • Sound levels impact the ability of other businesses to conduct their operations. Sound includes taligates banging, back-up warning alarms, equipment noise, and loud machine operation sounds.
  • The increased train traffic results in loud train whistles over the course of an hour typically from 10:00 to 11:00 pm several nights a week. This prevents children nearby from getting adequate sleep before school the next day.
  • Clouds of stone dust, a known carcinogen, impact local businesses, families, wildlife, and increase the risk of lung cancer. See photos below, if you look closely in some of them you can see the clouds of dust floating toward the Lackawaxen Inn and the Roebling Bridge. This impacts the public health of residents and visitors to the area.
  • When the railroad and Quarry Management changed the peaceful rail siding into a noise producing transloading facility, they did not conduct a endangered species study to determine the impacts on several andangered species in the area.
  • OSHA requires employers to protect workers from respirable crystalline silica, a common component of stone dust, by limiting worker exposure to a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 µg/m3 as an 8-hour time-weighted average. There is no active air monitoring, protective gear, dust control equipment or engineering controls to protect employees or the public.
  • Bluestone dust can contain up to 10% crystalline silica. Silica Dust and Carcinogenic Risk: Stone dust, particularly when it contains respirable crystalline silica (RCS), poses a significant health risk, as prolonged exposure can lead to lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. 
  • The industrial activity is negatively impacting property values in the community by up to 25%.
  • Instead of building a rail siding at the Quarry to contain all of the activity on private property, Quarry Management decided to push local businesses out of business and shift their cost of doing business to the local community to bare the negative impacts and potential public health risks. We will be adding a section on the financial impacts that this operation has already had on the community.
  • Local attractions such as the Zane Grey Museum, Roebling Bridge, and activities such as trout fishing are all impacted by this incompatible operation.

How Can You Help?

  • Attend Lackawaxen Township Meeting and demand that the supervisors protect public health and local businesses. The next meeting is April 21st at 7:00 pm the township building. All the information can be found at www.lackawaxentownshippa.gov
  • Call the township and ask them to do something about the impact on the Town of Lackawaxen 570-685-7288.
  • Call or email Quarry Management and tell them to build their own rail siding and to stop hurting businesses in Lackawaxen - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 570-517-9702. Tell Quarry Management to protect their employees and the public from any potential health risks.
  • Report any dangerous activity by Q&M dump trucks that often haul stone uncovered, cross the center line, text while driving, and create other hazards, to the public to the local state police. The non-emergency number is 570-226-5718.
  • Tell your friends and neighbors know what is happening in Lackawaxen.
  • Donate to this site and the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition a not for profit organization to help create materials for awareness and explore legal options to protect the community.
  • Consider not buying products (such as cement) or hiring contractors that use Quarry Management stone products. In our opinion, there are other quarries in the area that are better neighbors.
  • Send your stories of how Quarry Management has negatively imacted your quality of life in the region using the contact form on this site.
  • Support local businesses in Lackawaxen.
  • Post pictures to social media to help create awareness and use the hashtag #savelackawaxen
  • If you work for Quarry Management, consider changing jobs and working for a company that supports the community. There are plenty of good jobs within 30 minutes of Lackawaxen. We will be creating a section featuring these jobs in the near future.

Check back here for information, audio, videos, photos and other information showing the industrialization of a small historic Pennsylvania Delaware River town. We will be posting full articles on many of these issues, adding a section on public comments that we have received, and posting lots of photos and videos that you are free to use to help create awareness of these issues.