Neighbors have long claimed the site on Schultz Road is an illegal sand mine, and La Porte County has again issued a stop-work order. File photo
La PORTE — A stop-work order has been issued at two La Porte County sites involving land disturbance that have drawn scrutiny from county officials and claims of illegal sand mining from neighbors.
On Tuesday, in her role as MS4 general permit holder, La Porte County Board of Commissioners President Sheila Matias signed stop-work orders at both the D&M location off Schultz Road, and the Versaw location on CR-1000N.
Matias announced the stop-work order at Wednesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
“I have made the determination that, unlike all the other MS4 permits granted in our county that list specific ‘construction’ or ‘projects’ requiring land disturbance, both of these permits simply say land contouring or tree clearing.
“Land contouring and tree removal simply describes while a site is being prepared. It doesn’t describe an end use or construction,” Matias said.
She explained that because of changes made to MS4 permitting around the state, she now has the responsibility of certifying that the county’s permit program is fully compliant in all aspects of federal and state law.
As of Dec. 18, 2021, the Construction Stormwater program was replaced with the Construction Stormwater General Permit (CSGP) Utilization advisory, and the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) was replaced with the MS4 General Permit.
On March, 15 the Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued a proposed Notice of Intent to all MS4 General Permit Holders requiring a newly executed Notice of Intent be submitted to IDEM within 90 days.
Matias said she must certify that all MS4 permits “comply with federal laws, and these permits as currently written do not describe with any specificity what construction is planned and how stormwater runoff from that construction site or building project is being prevented from affecting nearby streams and waterways,” Matias said.
Andrew Voeltz, the attorney representing both the D&M and Versaw sites, said they will be “pursuing every administrative and injunctive relief available under the law.”
“This is nothing other than a naked political play by the sitting president of the Board of Commissioners and MS4 Permit Holder Ms. Matias to pander for and secure votes in an election year.
“The timing of this ‘stop work order,’ which has no basis whatsoever, is not coincidental,” Voeltz said in a statement to the Herald-Dispatch on Friday.
“I find it interesting that of the hundreds of MS4 permits issued in La Porte County, my clients are the only ones targeted in a joint ‘stop work order,’ which again has no basis for enforcement,” Voeltz added.
Both permittees, Matias said, will be allowed to reapply now that their existing permits have been declared null and void, but will have to describe specifically the nature of residential, commercial or industrial construction intended, and secure building permits and zoning variances.
“I’m not going to allow open-ended five-year permits for land contouring or tree clearing without knowing what construction project is planned,” Matias said.
According to the stop-work order, unlike all other MS4 permits granted by MS4 that list a specific “construction” or “project,” these “are fatally deficient in that they list the ‘project’ as simply ‘land contouring for future development’ in the case of the D&M permit and ‘tree clearing and contouring’ in the case of the Versaw permit.”
The stop-work order also states that neither of the permittees have building permit applications on file with the La Porte County Building Commissioner’s office.
Additionally, no zoning variances have been obtained from the Board of Zoning Appeals to permit construction of residential, commercial or industrial structures at either location. The Versaw site is zoned for agricultural uses and the D&M site is zoned for residential.
Neighbors have alleged for several years that the sites are illegal sand mining operations.
Schultz Road resident Randy Veatch told the board that his household and nearby landowners are greatly affected by the operations and are tired of the smell of diesel fumes.
“We’re tired of hearing the equipment; we’re tired of tracking through the sand; we’re tired of hearing the tailgates. Worse yet, we’re tired of traveling through all the debris left on the roadways, tired of cleaning the sand out of our homes, in our cars. Silica sand is real. The health problems it causes are real,” Veatch said.
Veatch has appeared regularly before the board since July 2021 seeking a resolution to the matter.
“I am a persistent person. I expected this to be accomplished by now. I was wrong,” he said.
“We now find another meeting where I’m standing in front of you. I could be naming names again, giving time frames again, pointing out activities again that should never have happened according to the codes all three of you swore to uphold.”
Veatch asked when the neighbors will get the truth and their property rights back.
“I have spent many hours and many dollars trying to stop a mining operation, operating on land connected to mine. This mine is helped in its daily operation by elected and appointed, helped by closing blind eyes to wrongdoing, helped by preparing paperwork that is erroneous at best, helped by not following a clear and precise zoning code book that clearly states an industrial operation must have a variance to operate,” Veatch said.
According to previous reports, work on the D&M site began after the La Porte County Plan Commission granted a permit for construction of a home and 4-acre pond on the land in July 2015.
In February 2019, La Porte County Attorney Shaw Friedman recommended the commissioners issue a “red tag” stop-work order for the project, as the building permit for the pond had expired in July 2017. The commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of the order, with the Board of Zoning Appeals opting to uphold the decision on appeal.
In September 2019, La Porte Circuit Court Judge Thomas Alevizos ordered the county to rescind the work stoppage, ruling D&M had the right to move and transport loose soil on their property without approval.
In July 2020, the La Porte County MS4 department issued another stop-work order after MS4 revoked its approval of an application D&M Excavating submitted.
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