COQUILLE - Oregon Resources Corporation's bid to boost industry on the South Coast by establishing a chromite mining operation collided head-on Thursday night with a group of neighbors who contend the mining operation would threaten their way of life and health.

“We're here for a reason,” said Larry Schneider, who raises Arabian stallions on his rural Tokyo Lane property about eight miles north of Bandon. “I'd hate to see that reason disappear for the sake of the almighty dollar.”

Schneider said his property is near where Oregon Resources' bulldozers could dig up to 60 feet below ground to extract minerals bound for a processing plant about 20 miles north in Bunker Hill.

More than 50 people showed up to the Coquille Annex to listen or testify, in favor before the Coos County Planning Commission about the project. The two sides squared off for nearly three hours of testimony during two public hearings. One hearing concerned the siting of a permanent chromite processing plant in Bunker Hill, while another focused on permitting mining on about 360 acres of land north of Bandon.

In both cases, the commission opted to keep the record open for another week, followed by a rebuttal and final argument deadline, before making a decision at its Aug. 2 meeting.

Steve Abel, a Portland attorney with Stoel Rives LLP hired by Oregon Resources, told the commission the plant would be located in an area zoned for industrial uses; that the plant would not disturb cultural or riparian areas, and that the companies goal to use barges as a mode of transporting minerals met the water-dependent land use criteria.

Dan Smith, Oregon Resources' chief operating officer, said the company planned to bring 750,000 tons of mineral sands to the plant each year from six different pits located between Seven Devils Road and Beaver Hill Road. The plant would operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week for about 340 days each year, he said, extracting mainly chromite, but also garnet and zircon. He said trucks hauling the material from the pits to Bunker Hill, and waste products destined back to the pits would equal about 10 roundtrips per hour.

It was that traffic volume that concerned many of those living around where the mining would occur, and also those who lived near the plant.

Janet Holst, who lives on the main road into what turns into Oregon Resources' plant entrance, helped oust a former mineral plant at the same location in the 1990s after a fine red dust coated her neighborhood daily.

She contends the same could happen with Oregon Resources.

“The trucks are going to be a big issue - a big issue. I'm really worried about it - and the dust. It made my life a living hell. And they want to run 24/7? What about me? What about my quality of life?” she said.

Smith said the dust would not be a factor because the ore deposits would be a liquid mixture and the stockpiles would be sprinkled with water.

“We don't see that as an issue,” he replied.

Commissioners Dave Smith and Blair Holman both expressed concerns about having truck traffic coming and going all day long for most of the year.

“I can't get very excited about seeing trucks in there on weekends,” Holman said.

The company executive said if the hours of operation were limited, for fiscal reasons, the company likely would increase the number of per-hour truckloads the remainder of the week.

Holst also expressed concern, that just like with the nickel plant, the noise from the industrial dryers would keep her awake at night. However, Commissioner George Gant pointed out that Holst purchased the property knowing it was zoned for industrial purposes. Abel concurred.

“Industrial uses may mean truck traffic,” he said. “Industrial uses may mean noise or any number of issues.”

Not all those at the meeting were against the plant.

Robert Vandervelden, who owns a construction company, told commissioners that part of town has always been devoted to industry - from coal to lumber - since the late 1800s. He said the jobs are more important than the neighbors' concerns.

“We need some type of industry in this area that is going to have a trickle-down effect,” Vandervelden said.

Martin Callery, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay's director of communications and freight mobility, said the plant would create additional longshoring and ship-assist work. Ron Opitz, the executive director of the South Coast Development Council, said the approval of the overall operation could mean as many as 70 jobs and a $35 million investment to the local economy.

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Several opponents cited concerns about possible adverse health effects associated with the minerals. However, David Weatherby, a geologist with URS Corporation, an environmental and engineering firm in Portland that Oregon Resources hired, explained the distinction between two different types of chromium.

While hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, is toxic, he said Oregon Resources was going after trivalent chromium, or chromium-3, which is not toxic. He noted that neither the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality regulates chromium-3.

But Sharon Comden, who lives on Seven Devils Road, said she wanted the company to disclose the results of the chromite samples to be certain aquifers and the air would not be contaminated.

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Many of those who disapproved of the mining aspect cited concerns about heavy trucks traveling on what they contend are dilapidated and dangerous county roads, and fears that property values would plummet in a hot real estate market and that groundwater could become contaminated.

“If they are going to go down 60 feet, and we do get a lot of rain, contaminants will get down into that basin,” said John Bosshardt, of Bandon, who owns a herd of Scottish highland purebred cows.

“I'm extremely concerned about the quantity of water I'm going to have available to me,” he said.

Many tried to persuade the commissioners that fire fears also would likely increase.

“Gorse is a major fire problem - the town has burned down a number of times because of it,” said Todd Petrey, who lives on Tokyo Lane. He was speaking of the noxious fire prone weed that's clogged much of the South Coast and sprinkled among the lands Oregon Resources would be mining on.

Others chose to focus on the risks associated with more traffic in the region.

“Whisky Run Lane is dangerous,” said David Comden. “It's dangerous the way it is now. You put that many heavy trucks on it and you're going to kill somebody.”

- Staff Writer Carl Mickelson covers Coos County issues for The World and can be reached by calling 269-1222, ext. 234; or by e-mailing him at cmickelson@theworldlink.com.