Committee review of proposed borrow pit delayed, again

Concerned residents waited at the South Walton Courthouse Annex on May 7 for the scheduled Technical Review Committee's discussions of the proposed Azland Borrow Pit. The pit is located on Ed Brown Field Road, a half mile from Rock Hill Road.

Unfortunately, they will have to keep waiting until May 21 at 8:30 a.m. to voice their continued opposition to the project, since the meeting was delayed.

Leola Lyall was one of the residents waiting to voice her objections. She said that under the Northwest Florida Water Management District guidelines it's actually a sand mine.

"Shut all of them down, none of these guys have permits," said Lyall.

Gayle Brotherton, another resident, said she has been contacting numerous government agencies but nothing is getting done about the "wash outs," which she said occurs every time it rains, washing sand into the creeks and streams.

"Every pit is washing out into wet lands and choking them out," said John Pugh, another resident of Rock Hill Road.

Brotherton and the other residents want the problems from the existing pits corrected before approving another one.

County officials are currently finalizing a list of all the borrow pits in the county and any violations they may have. "We are starting to take violations one by one," said Pat Blackshear, planning and development director.

Lee Perry, owner of the proposed Azland Borrow Pit, believes his pit will be much different than the current ones.

He said most of the borrow pits were never permitted, were not required to do any engineering and may actually be operating illegally.

Perry wants his borrow pit to be the industry standard by using engineering to prevent erosion, creating an effective reclamation process with native vegetation and ensuring minimal disturbance to the neighbors by putting up a fence and having a set schedule of operation for dump trucks and excavation equipment.

"We've done everything the right way," he said.

According to Perry, most of the residents bought their property with at least nine pre-existing pits in the area, including the large county pit.

In addition to meeting the requirements for the borrow pit, Perry has given up property in an attempt to appease the residents and county officials, he said. The donated land will be used to widen the intersection at Ed Brown Field Road and Rock Hill Road. Perry also stated that he created a buffer zone of land between the actual digging area and the road in an attempt to minimize noise.  

"No one wants to buy land near one of these things," said local resident George Osburn. "The biggest thing to me is every pit is washing and no more should be started until a system that works is found."