330 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



trolled and well-supervised disposal in depleted pits can bring pit 

 areas back to surrounding grade levels and can then be followed by 

 building construction or recreation uses. A good example near 

 Washington can be seen along the Shirley Highway in Fairfax 

 County, Va., where a large operation in steel warehousing and fab- 

 rication has been erected on a landfill in a depleted sand and gravel 

 pit. In the Los Angeles area many sand and gravel pits are 125 feet 

 deep and are still above ground water. The only feasible way to 

 bring these areas back into use is through filling with refuse. Incin- 

 eration of refuse is not used in this area because of air-pollution 

 problems. The State of California is now conducting a research 

 project in one of these deep pits at Azusa in southern California to 

 investigate the effects on ground water of refuse decomposition and 

 methods of control. 



I have said that many producers of construction aggregates plan 

 and carry out multiple use of their land. It must be admitted that 

 a great many do not. Unless these operations are in remote areas 

 they can and should be required to prepare their land for afteruse 

 of some sort. With something like two-thirds of all commercial sand 

 and gravel operations taking place in areas subject to some form of 

 local or regional planning authority, we have in existence a means 

 of influencing the multiple use of aggregate-bearing lands. The 

 local industry and planning authorities can outline such lands and 

 protect them by regulation for a suitable number of years from 

 encroachment by other uses not now in existence in those lands. 

 At the same time, appropriate standards of operation setbacks, 

 area screening, control of noise, dust and vibration should be en- 

 acted for the protection of the public and surrounding properties, 

 and compliance with such regulations can be made a condition for 

 continued operation. Standards for reforming the land to appropri- 

 ate afteruses can be outlined in the regulation and covered by bond- 

 ing requirements. There are, over the country, a number of in- 

 stances where cooperation of the industry and professional planners 

 has accomplished equitable regulation conforming to a broad public 

 purpose such as I have outlined. 



In 1955 when the National Sand & Gravel Association established 

 a program on public relations, a significant number of member com- 

 panies had already been engaged in planned reclamation as a regular 

 part of their operation, some for over 30 years prior to that time. 

 The Association program has concentrated on two major objectives : 



