Isn mining a necessary evil to get material for construction and road building?
Sure, to an extent. But the explosion (literally!) of mining in rural Rensselaer County isn’t about need–it’s about greed. There are plenty of mines in operation already in Rensselaer County–more than 60 covering nearly 1,500 acres (see Ken Dufty’s letter in “Resources”). But most of the cost of providing rock, gravel and sand is in transportation, so to maximize their profits these companies want a mine on every corner. At the expense of local homeowners.
