CAYCE — A quarry that has operated on the Cayce riverfront for over a century has been quietly buying hundreds of acres of nearby land. It is still unclear what exactly the company could use it for.
Martin Marietta Quarry on State Street purchased more than 220 acres for more than $1.8 million in 2020, according to county tax records. The new land joins its existing 300-acre property making up its current quarry operation.
After four years of the quarry sitting on the land, Cayce City Council denied a request to amend the zoning of the new property to allow mining operations there in a unanimous vote at an April meeting.
Mayor Elise Partin and other council members said at the meeting that the decision did not reflect negatively on the quarry.
“I do want to be thoughtful that none of this would be saying anything negative about Martin Marietta,” Partin said. “They’re a great corporate partner and really involved in our community.”
Council and city staff consulted with local environmental groups about their concerns for the potential expansion, Councilman Byron Thomas said at the meeting.
The quarry did not communicate with the city in regards to the zoning amendment, said Scott Gibbes, Martin Marietta’s general manager for the company’s South Carolina quarries.
The company doesn’t have any concrete plans for the land, he said.
"Martin Marietta has no plans to develop this property at this time,” Gibbes said. “It's normal business for our company to acquire land near our operations for a variety of reasons. A large part of our business is general land holdings."
The land and zoning has not come up again in the City Council meetings since. Locals maintain concerns about the potential of an expanded quarry operation.
Local environmental organization Congaree Riverkeeper and other residents spoke against the zoning amendment and quarry expansion at the April council meeting, citing environmental concerns.
The land acquired by the quarry and targeted by the amendment sits between the banks of the Congaree River; residential neighborhoods; tracts of city and state-owned property; and the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, a state wildlife preserve housing animal habitats.
“I know that there's always this balancing act between having extractive industries and industry," Bill Stangler, director of Congaree Riverkeeper, said in an interview with The Post and Courier. "But near a neighborhood, along the river and next to a protected space is just not the right fit for that kind of activity, especially if it's going to go on for potentially decades."
Stangler said he hoped the property would be permanently protected from mining and used to create more preserved natural lands.
Representatives for the state’s Department of Natural Resources, which owns the Congaree Creek preserve, said they were unaware of Martin Marietta’s long-term plans for the land or what effect it could have on the protected area.
“The SCDNR as an adjacent landowner would need to understand Martin Marietta’s future plans for the property to determine any potential impacts and compatibility concerns to continued conservation and protection of the adjacent SCDNR Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve,” SCDNR Office of Environmental Programs Director Lorianne Riggin said in a statement.
Martin Marietta is one of multiple quarries abutting the Congaree. These mines are regulated by local and state oversight but often release sediment into the river that lowers water visibility, buries habitats and can carry other pollutants into the river, Stangler said.
The quarry also conducts periodic blasting that rattles nearby neighborhoods.
The quarry company is “committed to utilizing the Earth's resources responsibly while minimizing our environmental impact,” according to a statement on its website.
The quarry “understands there’s concern” about its operations and potential expansion and complies with state and federal environmental regulations, Gibbes said.
“We operate with a long-term horizon and are a long-term business, as such we value the relationships with our community,” he added.
Raleigh-based Martin Marietta operates quarries across the U.S., in Nova Scotia and the Bahamas. The company has four other sites in the Midlands and several more across the state, according to its website.
The Cayce site has been used to mine granite for construction materials since the 1890s, according to the Cayce Historical Museum.
Martin Marietta sponsors several community events and organizations, including Soiree on State, the community tool shed, Cayce Beautification Foundation, CWC Chamber, Steel Paws First Responders and the Cayce Women's Club 5K, Gibbes said.
Martin Marietta has no timeline for when the Cayce quarry could be decommissioned, Gibbes said.
“We look at our business in 40, 50, 60-plus year time frames,” he said. “We'll be where we are for a very long time.”
Potential reuses for the quarry site whenever the mine reaches the end of its service life are “identical” to those outlined by the owners of the Vulcan Quarry across the Congaree in neighboring Richland County, he said.
That quarry’s owners also have no definite timeline for when the site could be redeveloped, but possibilities for the location include housing, public lands or a water feature for flood control, recreation or drinking water.
Martin Marietta would work with Cayce officials to come up with plans for the site, Gibbes said.
“The entrance to our quarry goes right into downtown Cayce,” he said. “When this thing does play out in the future, downtown Cayce and all the community members would be able to enjoy that area, without a doubt.”
The Richland County quarry has no plans to expand, Vulcan Construction Materials officials told The Post and Courier.