"They've been using our area and scarring the landscape"

Viewers in Cecil County reached out to WMAR-2 News about an effort to mine forest land in Perryville, making clear their concerns about everything from noise to truck traffic on a narrow road to the environment.

The 90 acres of woodland Pennsylvania-based York Building Products is proposing to mine for sand and gravel are east of Mountain Hill Road and north of Carpenter's Point.

"They've been using our area and scarring the landscape," said Reta Reynolds, a concerned Perryville neighbor.

Reynolds, joined by a group of Cecil County residents at a Board of Appeals meeting Monday night, lives near the proposed mining operation.

"When does this stop? When are we going to be able to protect the resources we currently have and be good stewards of the resource?"

An online petition has hundreds of signatures as of Monday.

At the Monday night meeting, the Cecil County Board of Appeals heard a York Building Products request for a Special Exception, a step in the process to make the proposal a reality.

According to a presentation by York Building Products, the closest home is at least a thousand feet away. Representatives for the company argued benefits for the local economy, pointed to a traffic study from this June, and said the facility would conform to all state environmental requirements.

Mining, a slide in the presentation said, would not take place for about 3-5 years and would continue for 15-20.

"I just want to ask the council to please protect this area. Please consider what we're talking about," a neighbor said in testimony to the board.

Neighbors stepped up to the podium in lockstep in opposition to the proposal.

Testimony went into the late evening hours; the board tabled a vote on the application's fate.

If the hurdle is cleared, the company would still need to go through a process with the Maryland Department of the Environment and back before the County Council, with opportunities for public comment.