02/11/2024
‘The place we love isn’t healthy’: Millcreek couple weighs moving due to poor air quality
STOP HB 502
1 Just like SB 172, HB 502 preempts local land use authority and places the property rights of mining / gravel pits above the property rights of residents, businesses, schools, churches, etc. It creates industrial “superzones’ by requiring political subdivisions (cities and counties) to allow mining and gravel pits in any zone where there is land that is more than 1000 feet from a residence AND within 500 feet of an interstate or rail line. So, for example, Salt Lake County could not prohibit mining anywhere in the Forestry and Recreation Zone which covers most of the central Wasatch Mountains, including Parleys Canyon.
2 HB 502 requires utility districts to provide water service to these mining operations even if located outside of, but are within 2 miles of the service district’s boundaries. So, for example, Salt Lake City Public Utilities would be required to provide the proposed 635-acre I-80 South Quarry with all of the water it needs for its operations and dust control- water that would otherwise flow to the Great Salt Lake.
3 HB 502 requires each county, by November 30, 2024, to assess their sand, gravel, and aggregate supply and demand over the next 20 years and develop a plan to meet that demand from within their county. This scope of a study is not feasible in this timeframe. The legislature in this section is saying, “we don’t have sufficient information to understand whether or not there is enough raw construction material being produced” and in the first section they are saying, “the counties are preventing the production of the raw construction material and are creating a shortage, so the legislature needs to step in and override their land use authority.”
