For years, Steve Whitmire noticed a granite outcrop while driving in what was then rural Lumpkin County, Ga., about 60 miles north of Atlanta. As development moved north, his market research indicated the area was going to grow faster than the 2% to 3% rate projected by the U.S. Census Bureau and various regional agencies. So in October 1994, Whitmire, president of Long Branch Quarry, LLC, secured an option on the property and started core drilling.

However, opening a quarry near Dahlonega, Ga., the seat of Lumpkin County, would be an uphill battle. Dahlonega was the site of a major gold strike in 1828 and home of the second U.S. mint. Since then, the town has become a major attraction, with tourism contributing nearly $44.2 million to the local economy in 1997.

"In the last four to five years, quarry companies in the southeast have been turned down on two out of four quarry sites," Whitmire estimated, "but not because they couldn't get the environmental permits. A permit is a compliance issue. If you can prove compliance, government agencies must issue the permit. However, if the local citizens perceive you as an uncaring company that is going to use high-priced attorneys to bulldoze its way into a site, they're going to stop you through zoning ordinances and court orders."

Having been raised on a farm that was a National Cattlemen's Association Environmental Stewardship Award winner gave Whitmire an understanding of environmental management. With Operations Manager David Edelberg, he put together a plan and presented it to the county.

Whitmire reported his intentions first to the neighbors located within a mile of the site-visiting door-to-door-then to the local newspaper, and then publicly in a town hall meeting. Almost immediately, a local group organized to challenge Whitmire's plans. They did not want a quarry disturbing their rural community.

Whitmire used education to face the challenge. He placed information ads in the local newspaper, gave talks to neighborhood groups, met one-on-one with opponents and neighbors and chartered a bus to allow opponents to visit his Penrose Quarry in North Carolina. According to Whitmire, the inside of a quarry property says more to neighbors than the outside. "Anybody can put up a pretty sign and entrance," he said.

After several months of negotiations and compromise, an agreement with the neighbors allowed development of the site to proceed.

Environmental designs Through careful planning and design of the greenfield site, Whitmire anticipated creating a quarry that would be visually attractive inside and out, operate virtually dust free and not be heard beyond the property boundaries.

During excavation and grading, all bare areas were seeded with a variety of grasses and seed-bearing plants whenever the ground was to be left undisturbed for six months or longer. Also, patches of native plants and trees were left intact wherever possible.

After plant construction was essentially complete, more than 150 evergreens, flowering cherry trees, maple trees, apple trees and other decorative trees and shrubs were planted. Deer, turkey, rabbits, squirrels and numerous birds commonly are seen on site.

Using an AutoCAD system for site plans, the processing plant was positioned below all surrounding ridge lines and out of the line-of-sight of nearby housing developments. Where natural ridges did not exist, overburden from the plant site and mine was placed to form berms to block sound.

The dump hopper and grizzly feeder were placed in an opening excavated from a hillside and stabilized with reinforced-earth retaining walls. This surrounds the dump hopper and grizzly feeder on three sides. The dump hopper is 35 ft wide with a flat bottom so that trucks dump rock on rock and never on metal. This mitigates both maintenance and noise. The grizzly feeder is 10 ft above its concrete pad, making maintenance and repairs easier and safer. A 32- Yen 42-in. jaw crusher is located on a pad and structure designed and built for a larger unit-a 42- Yen 48-in. Hewitt-Robins Grizzly King-which can easily be installed as needed in the future. The jaw crusher structure and pad are located in an area framed on two sides by retaining walls. This limits the travel of low-frequency noise created by the crusher.

All of the vibrating screens are either equipped with urethane or rubber media. Chutes are lined with the same materials. Although these items are expensive up front, noise reduction and longevity more than compensate for the additional cost, according to Whitmire.

Edelberg designed a noise-dampening, velocity-reduction device on the scalping screen using old car tires. Rocks bouncing down the top screen decks pass under the tires at the discharge end. The tires move freely up and down like piano keys and quietly absorb some of the rocks' energy, decreasing its velocity.

Long Branch uses a Nesco dust suppression system in its manufacturing process on a continual basis and a water truck for haul roads and the stockpile area. "We learned through experience at Penrose that we save money by containing dust," Whitmire said. "People don't get sick as often, there is less downtime for our equipment and our computerized systems are more reliable."

The company also developed a passive tire-wash system for customers' trucks. A shallow concrete pond holds water deep enough to clean the tires as they roll through, but shallow enough not to touch any of the running gear. Not only are the trucks cleaned before reaching the scales, but the scales and customer haul road also remain clean. At the end of the day, the pond is washed out through a drain. Dirt is captured in a sediment trap and the water is recovered.

A plant built for efficiency Efficiency is one of the cornerstones to the success of Long Branch Quarry. A 6-cu-yd hydraulic shovel loads 50-ton haul trucks that transport the rock to the primary crusher. The crushing plant consists of a 28-ft vibrating grizzly feeder with an 8-ft, double-stepped grizzly section preceding a 32- Yen 42-in. jaw crusher.

Rock is fed to a 6- Yen 20-ft, triple-deck scalping screen. Plus 111/42-in. clean stone is fed to a small surge bin then by vibratory feeder to a cone crusher. Crushed product is conveyed to a 6- Yen 16-ft, triple-deck dry sizing screen. Oversized material from this screen is recirculated to the cone crusher.

Stone retained on the middle or bottom deck can either be stockpiled or conveyed to a 6- Yen 16-ft wash screen for final product sizing. The through product of the bottom deck is split into dry screenings (M-10s) or washed and dewatered with a 42-in. sand screw.

The processing plant is controlled with a touch-panel screen connected to a programmable logic controller. All conveyor tail pulleys are monitored through the system with zero-speed switches.

Long Branch Quarry began operations with only a jaw crusher and the cone crusher. It was able to consistently produce 350 to 400 tph of a full product line consisting of riprap, base material, #3s, #4s, #6s, #7s, #57s, #89s, manufactured sand and M-10s. Producing a complete product line with this initial two-crusher configuration allowed the company to delay capital expenditures of about $600,000.

Now into its second year of crushing, a surge tunnel is being installed to feed a Hewitt-Robins Pegson 1500 cone crusher (the first in the United States), which is being added as a secondary crusher.

An open door On May 2, approximately one year after beginning quarry operations, Long Branch had a Grand Opening Open House. More than 400 residents from the surrounding area were given a tour of the plant and mine in operation and treated to a barbecue lunch on a hilltop overlooking the quarry.

"Many people commented on the way we were able to blend the quarry into the existing landscape without being seen or heard," Whitmire said. About 1% of the construction budget was used for landscaping, wildlife plantings and beautification, he estimated.

Whitmire credits accessibility as the key reason for success with the permitting process and for the limited number of complaints. "We handle problems or answer questions immediately," he said.

Whitmire hopes to use Long Branch Quarry as a case study to present to future neighbors, demonstrating that it is possible to construct and operate a quarry without having to compromise the environment or unduly disturb neighbors.

Early in the century, people left the South to find better jobs, better opportunities, and better lives. Today, they are returning by the thousands. The South now claims one-third of the nation's population. In Atlanta, residential building permits have increased more than 8% since 1994 and the city's bedroom communities have grown even faster.

In Lumpkin County, about 60 miles north of Atlanta, building permits are increasing an average of 13% per year. Dawson County, about 45 miles north of Atlanta, is growing at 18%. Hall County, which was only projected to grow about 2% to 3% per year, grew 10% in 1997. This has significantly increased the need for construction aggregates in formerly rural areas of Georgia.

One key to success as a small aggregate producer, according to Steve Whitmire, president of Long Branch Quarry, is forming long-term relationships with a limited number of vendors and equipment companies and depending on them for specific expertise necessary to solve problems.

"As a small company, it is impossible for us to have the depth of talent necessary to know everything," he said. "We form strategic partnerships with quality companies and in return, we are a very loyal, easy-to-work-with customer. Once a year, we have a vendor appreciation luncheon to show how much they mean to us."

Vendors serving Long Branch Quarry include:

* Centric-consisting of Hewitt-Robins, Seco, W.S. Tyler and KueKen-which was involved in plant layout and design for the quarry, as well as a substantial upgrade and change at Whitmire's Penrose Quarry;

* Trax Inc., the Hitachi and Volvo dealer in Atlanta, which provides mobile equipment at both quarries unless machines are bought at an auction;

* E.F. Marsh of St. Louis, which provides conveyor expertise; and

* Tema Isenmann, which provides screening media.