SAND, GRAVEL MINES LANDFILL ISSUE OF '90S.(MAIN)

Byline: YANCEY ROY Staff writer

SAND LAKE -- About 35 Rensselaer County residents, meeting in a rural church basement on a frigid February night, angrily spoke about changing neighborhoods, public safety and a government that ignores them.

They were venting about what several state and local officials call ``the landfill issue of the '90s'' -- sand and gravel mines.

In a phenomena that is playing out across the state, residential enclaves are bumping up against hard rock mines as suburbs grow. Opposition to the state's $1.5 billion mining industry -- gravel and sand mining is nearly 60 percent of that -- has seen its peaks and valleys over the last 20 years, but criticism seems to be on the rise these days.

A hearing about a mine proposal in Nassau last summer drew 500 -- in a village of 1,200. A similar session in Round Lake in January drew about 120 in a village of 750.

Whereas landfills were the leading concern of NIMBY (Not-in-My-Back-Yard) activists less than a decade ago, ``Now everybody is …