Good Alternatives to Martha's Quarry?

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My first dives were in Martha's Quarry - not an particularly beautiful start to diving in my not so humble opinion. After several dives there and the recent price increases, combined with the lack of shore facilities, I'm burned out on going back. With that in mind, I'm hunting for other dive sites within 1 - 4 hours drive of Nashville. What else is there?

Martha's has gotten quite pricey for a site that offers cold dives in murky water! At $60 to enter plus tanks and air (two divers), it just isn't worth it for the conditions. I don't mind paying $100 for two people for an afternoon of diving, but I would at least like to have something new to see or some decent shoreline facilities for between dives.

Is the old Rock Divers quarry open for the 2007 season? Any opinions on the KY quarries? Basically, what else is there within a few hundred miles of Nashville that may offer better diving conditions for equal or less cost than Martha's?

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I don't know what the status on Rock Divers is. I don't think it's open. There IS Pennyroyal, KY, and it's not that far from Nashville. Just over the KY border. I haven't been yet, but I've heard that the facilities are nice and that the diving is a lot better.

 

[PePaw]

Dive Cerulean is also close. 29 miles over the KY line.
And BTW..to get to Pennyroyal or Dive Cerulean you've got to pass right by my house !

http://www.pennyroyalscuba.com/PSCHomepage.html

http://www.divecerulean.com/

 

[Diveral]

The Madison Alabama Quarry will probably be open on specified weekends as it was last year. We locals will try to keep the available dates posted here. I or Mike_S will drop some links as soon as they are available. There is a quarry in Moulton AL about 40 min from the Madison Quarry. It's cold, has a natural spring. There's Bluewater in Pelham just south of B'ham.

AL

 

[undefined]

Looks like I'll be heading to Alabama and Kentucky this summer. In addition, we're putting together a trip down to the Oriskany on July 13-15 (see the trips and marketplace forum)... this should keep me happy for the time being.

If only I could pick up Nashville and drop it next to some warm water life would be perfect!

 

[utdivermatt]

Dont forget Knoxville. We have Philladelphia quarry and Loch Low Minn. I like both.

 

[mike_s]

The Madison Alabama Quarry will probably be open on specified weekends as it was last year. We locals will try to keep the available dates posted here. I or Mike_S will drop some links as soon as they are available. There is a quarry in Moulton AL about 40 min from the Madison Quarry. It's cold, has a natural spring. There's Bluewater in Pelham just south of B'ham.

AL

I haven't spoken to Bill this week, but Madison Quarry (known as the old ROck Divers), might not open. The WaterBoard who owns the quarry is (or was) having issues about letting divers back in it again this year... (this is after they decided to allow it initially).

More info next week when I get back to work.... (I'm "stuck" down in Florida right now diving, laying on the beach, relaxing, etc......)

 

[bigDave]

I haven't spoken to Bill this week, but Madison Quarry (known as the old ROck Divers), might not open. The WaterBoard who owns the quarry is (or was) having issues about letting divers back in it again this year... (this is after they decided to allow it initially).

Not too much of a shock, though I thought ADEM laid some pretty strict requirements on them to use the quarry for a water source or storage.

I guess you can't expect much else from a city and water board that is driven by dollars and development.

Good news for the other quarries, though....

David

 

[mike_s]

Not too much of a shock, though I thought ADEM laid some pretty strict requirements on them to use the quarry for a water source or storage.

I guess you can't expect much else from a city and water board that is driven by dollars and development.

Good news for the other quarries, though....

David

Well there are other issues also. The waterboard (and the city of Madison) is trying to prove it's "indepence from Huntsville. Year before last, they had to buy $100k worth of water from Huntsville Utilities. They want to be independent.

However, they didn't consider the fact that using the quarry as a water source is likely to cost more than $100k they paid to HSV Utils. Oh well. D'oh! number one.

2nd thing is they failed to get ADEM (Alabama Depmartment Environmental Management) to see if they state would approve it as a water source before they "traded" for the land.

3rd, they failed to actually see if it was a viable water source before they traded for it. ANother big "D'oh!". The bottom of the quarry sits at a higher elevation than the water table in the area. That's why when the did the pump test which lowered the water level, it failed to re-fill in a reasonable amount of time. Basically, all the water that's in it is rain water.

4th, and the biggest D'oh! is that they traded a million dollar piece of property for a hole in the ground without checking any of the above. Some state audit board is investigating this from what I've been told.... It also looks very fishy that 5 of the water board members that approved the deal also have a vote on the city council as the mayor and city councilmen. So it appears like a fishy deal to start with.

5th, to my knowledge, ADEM still have never approved the quarry for use as a water source, but said if they did use it, they'd have to put something like 20 or 30 million gallons in to be able to use 10 or 15 million or something lik that. Only problem with that is that to get that much water, they'd have to buy it from HSV Utils, so it kinda defeats the purpose.

I don't know what the outcome will be, but we as divers aren't on the top of their list of concerns.

Ironically, the group that wants to operate the quarry has offered to buy the 'hole in the ground' and still let the city pump water out of it in order to maintain it at a consistant pool level. What more could they ask for?


Looks like their screwup is in the news again this week also as they had to enter an agreement to buy water from both the city of Huntsville and Limestone county now. Yet another D'oh!

HSV Times: Limestone considering water sales to Madison
http://www.enewscourier.com/local/local_story_143224845.html

HSV Times: Madison to buy water from Limestone
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1179825357178020.xml&coll=1