State Quarry Bill: No Impact on Stony Creek's Operation

A law signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy in a ceremony Aug. 12 that will require the state to approve any new application to open a quarry or change a quarry’s footprint will not impact the famous granite from the Stony Creek quarry, according to First Selectman Anthony "Unk" DaRos.

“There wouldn’t be,” said the first selectman, any impact of the law on the 47 acres the town to the Stony Creek Quarry Corp.  “It’s not likely they’re going to expand the quarry.  There’s many years [of granite] left,” DaRos said.

According to Joe Gresko, an aide to Deputy Speaker of the House Kevin Ryan (D-Montville, Bozrah, Franklin, Lebanon), the new legislation assigning approval of any new quarry operation to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection or DEEP, which is termed the quarry bill, is the first of its kind in the state.  Previously, the power to approve a new quarry rested in the hands of the planning and zoning commissions of each municipality. 

The DEEP will rule on an application based on any potential adverse affects on the quantity or quality of any surface water or groundwater. 

Gresko said the source of the legislation was an application to potentially open a quarry in the very center of the small town of Bozrah, and the harsh reaction of the local residents to it.

“It’s not like the quarry in Branford is going to have to jump through these hoops. This is going forward from here,” Gresko said.

of the Stony Creek Quarry Corp., which has owned the quarry operation for five years, agreed with DaRos and Gresko.  Mancini responded “Most definitely not” when asked if the corporation expected any fall-out from the new law. 

The Stony Creek Quarry Corp. is the latest of several different companies to own the quarrying operation, which, with a distinguished roster of clients, has functioned on Branford property since the mid- to late 19th century. 

of the Stony Creek quarry is part of Grand Central Station, the Statue of Liberty and Chelsea Piers in New York in addition to a slew of distinguished buildings. In Branford itself, the features the stone, as do the and the in Stony Creek itself.

Today, the quarry continues to supply stone to projects that include Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan – this, for a design by the landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.  – and the Newark Museum in Newark, N.J., which is under the direction of legendary architect Michael Graves.