University of Virginia Library

Company Buys Green Springs Land
For Possible Strip Mining Operation

By SCOTT TOLLEFSEN

A New York mining
company has purchased 532
acres of land in the historic
Green Springs area of Louisa
County for a possible
vermiculite strip mining
operation.

Historic Green Springs, Inc.,
an environmentalist group,
opposes mining in this area
because of "possible adverse
environmental effects."

Deed Dated Dec. 29

W.R. Grace and Co., a
conglomerate, purchased the
land in two tracts from Mr. and
Mrs. M.F. Peers Jr., of Green
Springs. The purchase deed was
dated Dec. 29, and the total
sale price of the land
approached $200,000.

The Grace Co. had been
prospecting for vermiculite in
Louisa County for about three
years, a company spokesman
said. The company had
previously purchased about

eight acres of Green Springs
land and had obtained drilling
rights on more than 3,250
acres.

"No decision has been made
to mine vermiculite," said
Thomas L. Lyall, vice president
of Grace's construction
products division, "but we
believe our drilling studies will
show there are sufficient
quantities of vermiculite in the
Louisa County area to justify a
mining operation."

If Grace decides to mine the
land, Mr. Lyall said, such
mining "would be several years
in the future."

In order to begin mining the
area, the company would have
to request rezoning from the
Board of Supervisors,
according to County Executive
Secretary Dean Agee. Grace
"would have to convince the
county that mining would be
beneficial to the county and
would comply with all local,
state, and federal regulations,"
said Mr. Agee.

'Still Unclear'

Mrs. Hiram B. Ely,
spokesman for Historic Green
Springs, Inc., pointed out that
it is "still unclear" whether all
of the land in question lies
within the boundaries of the
designated "critical historical"
Green Springs area.

She said that the group is
still "very much opposed to
mining on lands adjacent to the
critical area because of
potentially adverse
environmental effects."

Prevent Rezoning

Historic Green Springs, Inc.,
will attempt to prevent the the
county supervisors from
rezoning the land to allow
mining, Mrs. Ely said. There is
reportedly a "distinct
likelihood" that court action
will be brought.

According to Mrs. Ely,
Grace's mining threats may be
"a tactic to try to create
'blockbusting' by convincing
neighboring landowners that
their land may be so totally
devalued by the mining
operations that they should go
ahead and sell, too."

Mrs. Ely commented that
the sale price of the land per
acre, which was about $375,
was a "farmland price." "It is
too bad that others who are
interested in the preservation
of Green Springs were not
offered the opportunity to buy
the land at such a low price,"
she said.