LA GRANGE, IL – Residents in La Grange and Brookfield have been colorful in their descriptions of quarry blasting in McCook.
One said an explosion “sounded like the whole upstairs was falling in.” Another told a complaint hotline she didn’t appreciate “the house moving.” Yet another said, “I feel like I am in Ukraine. Maybe Brookfield should be called Little Ukraine.”
Over the last three years, complaints about blasting at quarries in McCook have increased, according to the companies’ data.
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In particular, complaints from La Grange residents have spiked. The others are from neighboring Brookfield.
Under a longtime arrangement, quarry owners Heidelberg Materials and Vulcan Materials run a complaint hotline (1-866-934-3278). They regularly provide information on the blasting and complaints to area towns.
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Through a public records request, Patch obtained the blasting complaints going back to 2022.
In 2022, the companies reported 60 complaints, with only six coming from La Grange residents.
In 2023, 252 complaints were recorded. Of those, 189 were from La Grange residents. For the first eight months of this year, the hotline received 157 complaints, 94 of which were identified as coming from La Grange.
It’s believed that Heidelberg Materials’ blasting most affects La Grange.
It’s unclear why there has been an increase, particularly in La Grange. Since fall 2022, La Grange Trustee Beth Augustine has repeatedly brought up the blasting during Village Board meetings. She has touted a Facebook page in which residents discuss the problem.
In October 2022, Augustine told her colleagues about what she said was the loudest blast that she had heard in her 10 years in the village. She was referring to the blast on Oct. 10, which drew seven complaints, tying for the highest among blasts that year, according to the quarries’ data.
In February 2023, Augustine told the board she was again jolted from her desk chair by another big blast, which drew one complaint on the hotline – from Augustine. At the meeting, she suggested the blasting affects local roads, pipes and homes, which Heidelberg Materials denied.
“You know when your house physically shakes and you’re seeing new cracks on your walls continually,” Augustine said at the time. “That’s not just an old house. It’s happening to new houses as well in La Grange, Brookfield and Countryside.”
A few years ago, Heidelberg Materials, previously Hanson Aggregates, shifted from surface mining to underground, which Augustine has said makes a big difference.
In an email Wednesday, Heidelberg spokesman Jeff Sieg said his company understands that people have different experiences and responses when hearing or feeling a quarry blast, particularly if it is unexpected or takes them by surprise.
“Heidelberg Materials strives to be a good neighbor, and we are committed to operating in a safe and responsible manner at our Federal Quarry,” he said. “We make every attempt to minimize any impacts from our operations to our neighbors.”
Sieg said the blasting is designed to be below the established threshold to prevent damage to nearby buildings, including homes.
“Looking at the data from the complaints, our blasts were well within the threshold to protect nearby structures from damage in all of these instances,” Sieg said.
In an interview this week, Trustee Augustine said calling the hotline does not seem to help. She said residents get the same canned response: “It’s not damaging your home. Have a good day.”
“I don’t call much anymore. I know what’s going to happen when I call,” Augustine said.
She said she and others associated with the local Facebook group are gathering data, which they hope to present to regulators.
Augustine also said the blasting has different effects on houses. One of her neighbors, she said, has no problem with it. Others do.
Several factors such as changes in bedrock go into why some are impacted and others are not, Augustine said.
Augustine said residents don’t want to put the quarries out of business.
“We just want better regulation,” she said.
Here are the blasts since 2022 that resulted in at least five hotline complaints:
Here is a selection of residents’ comments on the hotline (as written by hotline receptionists):
2024
2023
2022
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