Wake Stone, now part of Vulcan Materials, is intensifying its legal battle to keep its quarry near William B. Umstead State Park operational beyond 2031, after a Wake County judge reinstated a 50-year “sunset” clause requiring closure by that date. The company has filed to intervene in a conservation coalition’s lawsuit and submitted notices of appeal, challenging whether a 2018 permit modification and a 2023 permit allow indefinite quarrying. The dispute hinges on a single-word change in a decades-old permit and broader questions about how North Carolina agencies handle mining approvals.
Superior Court Judge Sean A. Cole ruled that the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources improperly modified the original 1981 mining permit when it swapped the word “sooner” for “later.” Cole found that the change effectively erased the 50-year cap on mining and should have triggered a public review, so his order restores the original sunset clause and directs the agency to put the old language back in place. As The News & Observer reported, Cole said the edit amounted to a backchannel move that dodged public scrutiny. WRAL noted that the ruling also requires disputed acreage near the park to be returned to state control and sets a firm cutoff for mining activity in 2031.
Wake Stone quickly responded by moving to defend the permit in superior court. Superior Court Judge Adam Elkins signed a December 23 order allowing the company to intervene in the Umstead Coalition’s lawsuit, and Wake Stone has filed a notice of appeal and related motions, according to industry trade press RockProducts. That ruling formally plants Wake Stone in the middle of the case as it asks judges to treat a later, revised permit issued in 2023 as controlling…