Documentarian hopes story will stop quarry expansion project by RDU Airport
In an attempt to prevent the Raleigh-Durham International Airport Authority from expanding a rock quarry into parts of Umstead State Park, a Carrboro man is producing a documentary to "stop the quarry."
Posted — UpdatedCharlie Morris, an independent video producer, has spent the last five months working on the documentary titled "400 Feet Down."
"This is a place where I've hiked with my family," Morris said. "I've hiked here with my kid, so there's a personal history here."
The airport authority in March voted unanimously to lease the wooded areas of the park around the current quarry to Wake Stone because the airport needed money to replace the airport's primary runway and add both gates and amenities to terminals. They expect to make $24 million over the next 25 years because of this lease.
Morris hopes his documentary and the "no quarry" signs placed throughout the woods of Umstead Park will call for the project to end.
"They're saying we don't want trespassers on our land anymore, but we're going to let a company come in and dig a 400-foot hole in the ground that will be here 1,000 years from now," Morris said.
An airport spokeswoman told WRAL News in an email that opponents of the quarry have given "misleading and inaccurate" information and that RDU complies with state and federal laws.
The documentary will be screened at a sold-out show Saturday at the Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University. A second show is scheduled for Aug. 5 at the Rialto Theater.
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