A quarry with a big community heart

There’s a card hanging in the administration office at Whitehall Quarry from the local primary school that simply reads, “From us to you – thank you”. It has two black and white photographs – one of the assembled pupils of Whitehall Primary School, the other of a truck unloading aggregate.

The small rural school is situated just a few kilometres away from the Whitehall Quarry in the central Waikato. The school children have grown up within the vicinity of the quarry site and its commuting trucks.

Accepting and appreciating that the school is at the heart of its local community, Whitehall Quarry believes it has a responsibility to support it. The quarry sponsors the school’s newsletter and outfitted the students, who regularly visit the quarry, with t-shirts and smart polarfleeces. Whitehall also supplied the school with product to improve the safety and appearance of its front entrance.

“Once people have a better understanding of the need for quarrying operations, they are more likely to be accepting of the operation and its effects,” says quarry manager Garth Stacey.

“One way of promoting the aggregate industry is to work with local school children.”

Whenever any significant development projects have been planned, Whitehall Quarry also invites the local community to its open days for the opportunity to view plans, join tours and provide feedback on proposals.

“We want to be seen as an integral, constructive member of the community in which we operate,” says Stacey.

About four kilometres from Karapiro, Whitehall Quarry is around 112 hectares in area, including areas of rock excavation, crushing, overburden disposal areas, and stockpiles. With a staff  of 12, it currently has an annual output of between 300,000 and 500,000 tonnes of aggregate distributed to a wide consumption area stretching to the Taranaki and the Auckland regions. 

Operated by Winstone Aggregates since 1988, Whitehall has been operating for over 60 years, first supplying material for farming operations and then, in the 1940s, providing aggregate resources for the construction of the Karapiro Hydro Dam on the Waikato River.

As a member of the Winstone group, Whitehall has had a formal community relations policy in place since the late 1990s. The parent company says its community policy is “mainstreamed”, in that it is pervasive throughout the organisation with all staff sharing its responsibility.

“Community relationships at Winstone Aggregates is an integral component of the day-to-day operations of both our central support office and site-based staff,” says general manager Bernie Chote. “Rather than having one person responsible for those activity, go0d community relations permeate the roles and responsibilities of all.

 “Trust is not achieved because we pay our share of taxes or hire local residents to work in our company. People expect us to become partners in solving community problems. They want the private sector to support programmes and institutions that improve the quality of community life.”

While modern quarrying techniques such as creative management of overburden, and well-maintained landscapes have gone a long way to help reduce the impact of quarry operations on communities, there are still widely held negative perceptions about the industry.

In particular, people have concerns over noise, dust, vibration/overpressure from blasting, heavy traffic, hazardous substances and cultural heritage. 

At Whitehall Quarry a lot of effort has been put into managing and mitigating these potential effects and thereby easing the community’s concerns. These include enhancing the entrance or face to its site.

“For most, the entrance to a quarry site is all that most people will ever see, and therefore forms the basis of their perception of the quarry and the company as a whole,” says Stacey.

The access road to the site is sealed to reduce sediment being tracked out onto the road, and overburden is placed so that it is integrated into the existing landform character – slopes and ridges – and is sown and planted as soon as possible. If there are major changes to the blasting operations and sensitive receptors are advised beforehand.

Whitehall has a complaints procedure in place that sees all complaints dealt with personally by the quarry manager with the complainant kept well informed during the investigation process.

Relationships with Maori communities are specifically provided for in Wintsone’s company policy and Whitehall is a very model of this corporate strategy.

A strong relationship with the Raukawa people in the area of the Whitehall Quarry resulted in the setting up of the Te Mana Taiao Environmental Trust to source plants and labour from the local Marae for projects such as the realignment of the Karapiro Stream which created a new watercourse that was re-vegetated in native plants. This is a long-term project carried out in conjunction with both the local iwi and conservation volunteers. The founding of the trust also resulted in a national internship every year for a student of Maori descent to work with Winstone Aggregate over the summer.

On a larger scale, Whitehall Quarry is involved with the Maungatautari ecological project, an internationally significant restoration project involving 3400 hectares of native forest and extinct volcano stands in the Waikato basin.

The vision of trust is to rid the forest of introduced pests and restore an indigenous forest. This project is on the doorstep of the quarry, which has donated over 3000 tonnes of aggregates (including cartage) for the creation of tracks.

During the 2009 planting season Winstone Aggregates also covered the expenses of the conversation volunteers so they can undertake three days of track maintenance and monitoring work.

Garth Stacey says the overall approach of the comapny’s community policy has provided an effective two-way communication between the quarry and its local community.

“We want the community to be proud of Whitehall Quarry. We want to be seen as an integral constructive member of the community in which we operate. We believe that this approach to community relations produces an atmosphere where business and communities can work together and prosper.”

Winstone says communities these days expect companies to respect the environment, respond to the concerns of community residents and contribute to the support of community institutions.

“Whitehall Quarry has embraced this challenger and through the process of positive relationship building, has become a neighbour of choice,” Chote iterates.

“Whitehall has achieved this by demonstrating sensitivity to community concerns and issues with both iwi and the broader community. This has been achieved by honest, on-the-ground work by those involved at Whitehall Quarry on a day-to-day basis. This relationship is ongoing one and not based on one-off projects.”

By actively becoming part of the community the staff at Whitehall Quarry have minimised local concerns regarding the company’s activities thereby contributing to the ongoing social sustainability of aggregate production, he says.

We agree and Whitehall was awarded our Q&M Community & Social Sustainability Award 2009. This award along with a cheque for $3000 was presented to the quarry at the quarry conference held in Invercargill in July.