Since 1960 what is now Solberg Aggregate, a gravel quarry just outside of the City of Hastings’ border, has been providing gravel to a diverse client base, from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, landscaping companies, and counties and townships across the southeast metro.
Located in Nininger Township, Solberg Aggregate has long sold itself as an asset to its surrounding community. The gravel that comes from the quarry is often sold directly to local communities for gravel roads among other uses, which cuts down on transportation costs and passes along savings to those communities and therefore the taxpayers that fund them. According to General Manager Dan Redner, local developments including Heritage Ridge buy from Solberg Aggregate: “Their homes were built with some of our products.”
To say that the quarry was quietly minding its own business for decades might be a misrepresentation. Trucks rumble in and out of the site daily and Solberg Aggregate maintains a regular blasting schedule every 6-8 weeks. Despite that regular blasting, many in Hastings and the surrounding area had no idea that the quarry existed so close to the city.
That is until the town grew out to meet it.
Hastings has been sprawling to the southwest for decades, inching closer to Solberg Aggregate with each annexation. Several developments now follow General Sieben Drive and are in close proximity to the quarry, well within audible range of the blasting.
One such development is the Heritage Ridge development located along General Sieben Drive. The development’s southernmost houses lie directly on the property line next to Solberg Aggregate. One-hundred yards past that property line, now marked with barbed wire and “No Trespassing” signs, is the quarry.
The question on many residents’ minds as developments have crept closer to the quarry is “is the blasting within the quarry damaging our homes?”
According to Redner, the answer is no.
“We aren’t going to be cracking drywall or shifting foundations,” he said.
Blasting in the quarry is not the Hollywood spectacle one might imagine.
“It you see a video, its nothing to watch,” said John Reamer, a consultant with Solberg Aggregate. Blasting occurs generally from March to November every 6-8 weeks. Solberg Aggregate uses a third-party blasting company, Olsen Explosives, which generally blasts 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. due to atmospheric pressure.
Blasting has become a precise field that, while able to be felt or heard some distance away, has a relatively small area of impact.
“Ninety percent of that movement is air,” said Reamer, which is why the blasting can be felt and heard, even being specifically controlled.
As an insurance requirement, Solberg Aggregate places seismographs at nearby homes to measure the impact of blasting to their neighbors. The data gathered from these seismographs is kept to demonstrate that blasting in the quarry isn’t strong enough to damage homes.
“It’s to cover ourselves,” said Redner.
Nick Hackworthy, President of Creative Homes, spoke to the fact that the development’s proximity to the quarry was never an issue.
“There are no material issues with the blasting,” he said.
While the quarry was “certainly part of the conversation,” early on for the site, it was not an issue in order to not move forward with the development, said Hackworthy.
Residents of Heritage Ridge are given notice regarding “the existence of mining operations, including blasting, on property adjacent to the Heritage Ridge property, the potential for disturbance to foundations of the dwellings and/or other improvements to the Unites and the sights, sounds, dust and smells customarily associated with such activities,” according to documents provided by Creative Homes.
Over time, as the city has moved closer to the quarry, Solberg Aggregate has made it a point to be a good neighbor. St Elizabeth Ann Seton Church located less than a mile away from Solberg Aggregate communicates regularly with the quarry to ensure that blasting doesn’t take place during events at the Church, like funerals.
“We want to be good neighbors. Now we just have more of them,” said Redner.