Here's our response to a March 10th Letter to the Editor in the Star Tribune against a mining operation. It was published in its entirety in the March 15 Star Tribune.
"We believe the University of Minnesota is taking prudent action by converting the unused farmland it owns in Rosemount into a gravel pit as part of sustainable community project. Aggregate is as natural to our world as lakes, meadows, trees and more and yet is, understandably, underappreciated; it’s not pretty, there aren’t poems written about it and golly, it’s just too practical a resource. Yet, every person will need 1.55 million pounds of stone, sand and gravel during his or her lifetime.
Aggregates are used in nearly all residential, commercial and industrial building construction and in most public works projects. UMore Park will provide gravel not only for neighborhoods in suburbs but to rebuild crumbling infrastructure in the urban area.
But perhaps the greatest but most misunderstood benefit of UMore Parks’ gravel pit is its convenience. The less trucks have to travel to and from the mine, the less the emissions and impact on the environment.
UMore will be the most self-sustaining kind of community because it will not be dependent upon other communities for its aggregate."
(To read the Letter to the Editor opposing UMore Park, click here: Sustainability is a goal and yet.)
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