Possible new Georgia Dive Site

[desperate4dives]

any more news on the dive sites? I'd be interested in checking them out. I'm semi new to diving but i love being in the water. post if you're planning a trip to somplace semi local any time soon.
thanks,
Kurt

 

[Cobra852]

You might try Google Earth for your picks rather then waiting for flight time

http://earth.google.com/

 

[Clyderyde]

I've made a couple of calls, and I'm waiting for a reply.
I am unsure of how much luck you will have contacting the larger outfits like Vulcan.
There just is so much liability that their lawyers probably won't let them do it.

 

[mike_s]

Mikerault:

I think you wisely recognized a need for more recreational use of old quarries for divers, especially around populated cities like Atlanta . I know several are used for diving up here in Wisconsin and other states.

How many million did you say you have to invest??? $25 million was paid for the Bellwood property owned by Vulcan Materials Co. This company is a huge, multi national corporation and selling old quarries to private individuals is most uilikey, unless you know the CEO.

I do love the idea, but the "devil is in the details".

A large percentage of that 25million was to purchase the mining rights from
the quarry to stop them from using the quarry anymore. That and ATL has
a water problem and they are looking at this "long term" with the water issue.
this also stopped mining which was getting lots of complaints because of
the blasting occuring.

The water board in Madison Alabama is fighting to get a dive quarry from the
city there also because of their water problem.


However, if you find a quarry that is no longer usable by the rock company,
then you can most likely easily pick it up much much cheaper. For example
the one in Madison was valued somewhere like 78,000 or 82,000 for the quarry
and either 28 acres or 135 acres around it. Chump change for a municipal
water board.

 

[CineDiver]

Does anyone know of any other city that has a quarry for a drinking water which allows scuba diving? Is the water treated? Is it part of a park? Does the City run the diving center under Rec. Department?

I have a good friend which is on the City Council for the City and have an insider in the Majors office... but I need more information about other cities allowing this to happen to support an approach to them.

 

[mike_s]

Does anyone know of any other city that has a quarry for a drinking water which allows scuba diving? Is the water treated? Is it part of a park? Does the City run the diving center under Rec. Department?

.

This is a "sorta yes" answer.

the City of Madison Alabama owns the quarry there and has been leasing it to a diver operator the last 9 years. The operator pulled out late last summer and the city is swapping the quarry to the Water Board for use as an alternate water source.

The land swap deal is going on "as we speak" almost. it was voted on at the city council meeting tonight and was expected to be "all in favor" for passing. The water board then will own it and can use it as a water source. Though all of this is preliminary, they don't have a problem with divers in the quarry. In fact they like the idea of divers there as it adds to extra sets of eyes watching over the quarry. Diving will be allowed this summer pending their testing of the quarry as a viable water source. (You would figure they would have tested that before they did the land swap huh? yeah right...). Other hurdles are the ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) approval of dual use of the water source for divers, but that is now expcected to be a problem either as our other water source, the Tennessee River is definately "multi-use" and is much more polluted.

If they decide to use the quarry the water will most likely be treated though it's pretty clean to start with. The Water Board will own the quarry and it will contract a concession for the diving contract. They don't want to do a "long term" (multi-year) contract until next year when they finnish any testing and evaluation.

The quarry is expected to be open on a limited basis this year starting the weekend of June 10/11th and will be open about 2 weekends per month (which is not set in stone yet).

So... the Madison Quarry is not a perfect example yet of a quarry being used for drinking water, but it might be one you might want to pay attention to in regards to what they are doing .

-mike

 

[DiverBraz]

Anyone up for a monthly get together, an excuse to eat out really, but to also followup on all of these ideas.

Braz

 

[mikerault]

Sure, Susan and I are always up for eating dinner out...

Of course if the Cartersville Quarry is as good as they say it may be a moot point...

Mike