Presentation to Planning Commission

              On behalf of concerned citizens in Barboursville

                            Re General Shale SUP

                          Thursday 3 January 2001

Our questions for General Shale:

    1. How  much  land  that you own in the Orange County area containing
       the  Balls  Bluff or other acceptable material have you not mined?
       How  much  raw  material  do  you have that you can use for making
       bricks?

    2. Do  you  intend to mine this? If not, why? If so, how long will it
       last at current and at projected usage?

    3. Where  else  in  Orange  County have you looked for raw material -
       what type/formation? What results?

    4. Will  you  guarantee that you would not attempt to expand mining in
       Barboursville - mining more land than currently designated, mining
       deeper, blasting,

    5. What is the life expectancy of your current production facility?

    6. How old are your brick kilns at Somerset now?

    7. Would  you  guarantee  not to build a plant to process the material
       into brick at the Barboursville site?

    8. What  has  General Shale done in other areas when it runs out of 
       first choice for soil?

    9. Are  there  other General Shale plants that truck in this proportion / 
       amount of raw material from off-site locations through communities?

   10. How  much  water would it take to wash the 30 to 54 trucks per day
       before they left the site? How much water to keep the dust down?

   11. Where are all of your other mining sites?

   12. How/when  would  you  reclaim  the  land here once you are finished
       mining it? And how would we hold you to it?

   13. What are your site selection criteria?

   14. How   specifically   is   this   site  unique  and  what  specific
       considerations were there in its selection?

   15. This  is  another  15  years  worth  of  material.  What are General
       Shale's  long  range  plans  for obtaining more material in Orange
       County?

   16. Was the evaluation of impact on local ground water provided by
       an independent consultant?

   17. Who studied soil conditions?

   18. What would be the procedures for monitoring ground water conditions?
       What would be the criteria for testing?

   19. What would be the plan  if  ground  water were contaminated by mining
       operations?

   20. What would be the Hours  of  operation? What does "daylight hours" 
       mean?. 

   21. How would dust be monitored?  What levels would be compared to and
       what would be mitigation plan?

   22. Would work at site affect surface run off? 

   23. How many years would site be operational? When would reclamation plan
       be started? What would be the final objective of reclamation plan?

   24. How would the safety of the site be maintained, regarding nearby
       houses?