News

Apr 28, 2023

Answer Woman: French Broad mining operation beside Carrier Park?

Today's Answer Woman question involves what appears to be a sand mining

Today's Answer Woman question involves what appears to be a sand mining operation on the French Broad River near Carrier Park.

Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Interim Executive Editor Karen Chávez at [email protected] and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: On the back side of Carrier Park there is a sand mining operation. When you're in the park you can see it from the front side. I have also kayaked on numerous occasions past that facility. It appears that they are drawing the sand out of a particular location in the French Broad River. There is a small barge on the river in which tubing extends into the water and a diesel generator is used during what I assume is the extraction process. What's the story on that operation?

Answer: The sand mining operation belongs to local business Harrin's Sand and Gravel. The company was founded over a century ago in 1910.

The products mined from the French Broad – stone, gravel and sand – are purchased by consumers for a variety of purposes. Company Vice President James Minton says they remove the sand, clean and filter it and sell the product for use in landscaping, septic systems and bioretention ponds.

The barge in question is a dredge, and you’re correct that it's being used in the extraction process. Dredges are vessels used to remove minerals from bodies of water by loosening the sediment, then using an attached vacuum pump to pull it up and filter it. Dredging actually serves a number of purposes beyond industrial use:

The Environmental Protection Agency has its own assigned dredging team, a group that works nationally to both ensure that dredging is available to waterways in need of cleanup, and enforce rules around industrial dredging that ensure safety and health of dredged bodies of water.

Minton describes their use of dredging in simple terms.

"All the trash goes in one section, and we have to wash the sand to be able to use it as a product for the landscapers and the farmers," he said.

Industrial dredging used by mining operations like Harrin's are monitored not only by the EPA, but are generally required to answer to several separate organizations.

Minton listed some of the organizations that Harrin's reports to:

Minton said they report to other government agencies as well, "so we're good stewards."