Questions about Quarries

[Kevinhooa]

So today after checking out some locations in the South Jersey area on Bing.com, a question came to mind about the hundreds of quarries that dot our landscape. How deep do these things go? Is there a set depth that companies can dig to or is the depth limited by the length of bucket cable or vacume hose? Almost all have water in them, but I guess it varies by location wheather it's just runoff or ground water. And thinking about the older quarries like the one at Old Half Way (I know most of that is newer), how could they dig so deep for clay and still keep the water from filling things back in? Steam pumps? I used to live right next to a huge sandstone gravel pit and it seemed like the water table was around 10 below the grounds surface but any equipment would get stuck if you went deeper. Can newer quarries tap into all the water tables like the Cohansey Aquifer as it seems like that would open the water to pollution? If anyone here knows, I'd appreciate the feedback.

 

[Kevinhooa]

Wow, I guess no one else knows either. Guess I might have to make a trip to Arawak or Hanson and see if someone there could tell me. Searched everything I could on google, and couldn't find anything about the water pumping or depths, only why it was blue.

 

[Boyd]

I believe the blue color comes from minerals that are exposed during the digging - probably clay? We have discussed this here before.

I was reading Howard Boyd's newest book and he is very critical of these pits. Also, in discussing the pines in general he says that there is no such thing as standing water, even in a small spung. It is always flowing along with the aquifer which is very close to the surface.

 

[wis bang]

depends

It all depends on what they are taking out, how deep it is and what the DEP has permitted.

Some of the first successful steam engines during the industrial revolution were used to pump out the cornish coal and tin mines in England.

Often sand pits have been dredged, like the one just north of Turnpike exit 8A where the Operating Engineer's union has their training ground, it uses a floating dredge to pull up sand.

I grew up in PA where there were numerous cement and slate quarries that depended on large pumps to operate. Different conditions and less threat to the ground water. The cohansey aquifer could be damaged by deep quarry operations except the cost of going that deep, if the DEP would allow it, would be prohibitive.

One cement quarry [Hercules] near Stockertown, PA was fined when they caused a sinkhole that drained a local trout stream until the shut some of their pumps down. It also caused some of Route 33 to sink and they had to pay for the repairs for that too!

Merril Creek lake in Stewartsville, NJ was originally called Ingersol Dam as it was the test site for the huge pumps built by their Cameron Pump division before becoming a power generation storage lake.

Flooded quaries, especially older ones, often contain the remains of any equipment that didn't have enough value to be pulled b/4 the hole flooded. They make very poor swimming holes.

 

[Jerseyman]

So today after checking out some locations in the South Jersey area on Bing.com, a question came to mind about the hundreds of quarries that dot our landscape. How deep do these things go? Is there a set depth that companies can dig to or is the depth limited by the length of bucket cable or vacume hose? Almost all have water in them, but I guess it varies by location wheather it's just runoff or ground water. And thinking about the older quarries like the one at Old Half Way (I know most of that is newer), how could they dig so deep for clay and still keep the water from filling things back in? Steam pumps? I used to live right next to a huge sandstone gravel pit and it seemed like the water table was around 10 below the grounds surface but any equipment would get stuck if you went deeper. Can newer quarries tap into all the water tables like the Cohansey Aquifer as it seems like that would open the water to pollution? If anyone here knows, I'd appreciate the feedback.

Kevin:

Sorry, but I missed this query first time around. The following information may not answer all of your questions, but I can address how pits and quarries handled water in the past. The control of infiltrating water in mines and quarries has been a challenge since man first broke the earth’s surface to extract material, be it sand, clay, coal, et al.. I cannot speak to what, if anything, aboriginal populations did to control such hydraulic flow, but I can tell you that western man initially adapted maritime bilge pumps, at first operated manually. Over time, quarry pumps became a specialty, especially with the rise of steam power. Many of the nineteenth-century clay and sand pits that dot the landscape likely employed steam pumps to drain water from the pit floor. In addition, clay miners understood the need to leave a clay lens across the bottom of the pit to prevent vertical hydraulic pressure from pushing water through the floor. The pumps, whether manually or steam operated, dealt with any collected rainwater and infiltration from the pit sides. In the case of clay, the pit operator would often test the remaining recoverable material using an open-barrel sampling spoon.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Kevinhooa]

Thanks for the replies guys. As for the water being blue, yeah I had read about that a couple of times and from everything I read it has to do with the iron content in the water. The higher the iron content, the more blue the water becomes. Strangely, this is the same situation in making glass too. As for the pumping, I had read about the coal and mineral mine pumping before, but that seems like it could be a whole different animal. Although leaky, mines in rock seem to be a little more like an underground pool, where in a South Jersey sand mine, it seems like the water could really just seep through everything and fill up the pit. That bit about the clay floor makes a lot of sense and I had never thought about that. The part about whatever the DEP says about depth makes sense to me. I'm sure there are surveys done before or during a sand mining operation to determine where the water tables lie underneath and then the sand mining is dug according to restricted depths. Thanks again for the info everyone.

 

[devilstoy]

Thanks for the replies guys. As for the water being blue, yeah I had read about that a couple of times and from everything I read it has to do with the iron content in the water. The higher the iron content, the more blue the water becomes. Strangely, this is the same situation in making glass too. As for the pumping, I had read about the coal and mineral mine pumping before, but that seems like it could be a whole different animal. Although leaky, mines in rock seem to be a little more like an underground pool, where in a South Jersey sand mine, it seems like the water could really just seep through everything and fill up the pit. That bit about the clay floor makes a lot of sense and I had never thought about that. The part about whatever the DEP says about depth makes sense to me. I'm sure there are surveys done before or during a sand mining operation to determine where the water tables lie underneath and then the sand mining is dug according to restricted depths. Thanks again for the info everyone.

yea i think it has to do with where the water table lays under it , theres a quary a block from my house and most of my life its been a second home to me lol , i know a few years back after they mined most of the area they had some speacial machines back there digging holes straight down determining how far they could dig befor they hit an underground spring , and ever since then they have gone any deeper they just keep digging out farther

 

[RednekF350]

I did some Pinelands permitting for a sand operation in Hamilton behind the AC racetrack a number of years ago.
The Pinelands Commission recognizes the indigenous qualities of sand mining in the pines and the permitting process is not as bad as it is with residential development

This operation was limited to a certain depth below the groundwater elevation. I remember 40' below groundwater as his limitation
He used dozers to cut banks and wheeled loaders to move the material in the upper, dry reaches.
When he hit the groundwater table he switched to an old Manitowoc with a dragline. It was fascinating to watch the dragline cast and retrieve in a seemingly effortless rhythm.
The dragline would create stockpiles that were allowed to dewater and then the wheeled loaders would load it into trucks for sale offsite.

He used a huge Detroit pump motor to lower the water table just to expose more bank for easier excavation. The pumped water was discharged across a pasture that eventually found its way to the Jack Pudding Branch.
Every two or three years we had to perform an asbuilt to document his progress.
He did not do any hydraulic dredging, although the Detroit was capable of doing it.

I had permission to hunt and fish there but the the property has been sold. They were starting to market lakefront lots a few years ago but that went bust as far as I know.

Scott