| The Continental Brick Company is the last remaining brick
manufacturing plant in West Virginia. Located in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the
plant serves the Washington D.C., New York City, and Pittsburgh markets. The
company has a number of quarry sites located adjacent to the historic brick
plant and yard. Although not used anymore, the historic beehive brick kilns are
preserved as a part of the plant area. |
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Historic brick plant with preserved beehive kilns
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The raw material for the company’s product is
Martinsburg Shale. The method used is an area surface mining method in
which top soil is first removed and stockpiled for reclamation. The Shale
is then ripped, removed in layers, and placed into stockpile banks to
weather. This raw material is trucked out of the stockpiles as needed for
the brick manufacturing process. No blasting is required in the operation.
The Shale is usually removed to a depth of approximately 12-20 feet from
the surface elevation. |
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Original surface elevation is shown by the power poles
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The actual quarry and stockpile operation is
necessary for only about three months a year to provide enough raw
material to support the brick operation throughout the entire year. It
takes 2.5 tons of shale material to produce 1,000 bricks. Drainage
control is provided by a variety of sediment ponds, channels, and
sumps. |
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New jail facility built on reclaimed quarry
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A popular misconception is that the quarrying process
destroys the land use after mining. The Continental Brick operations are
proof that the land can be put to a productive use after mining has
ceased and reclamation has been completed. Two of Continental’s
reclaimed quarries provided the site of the WV Eastern Regional Jail
Facility. The facility was opened in the early 1990s with an expansion
completed in 1999. The relatively shallow mineral removal over a large
area allowed the blending of the reclamation work to match the
surrounding area. The top soil which was removed at the beginning of the
quarrying process was replaced and graded. This allows a final
reclamation to achieve a configuration that is conducive to development.
After reclamation of the remaining quarried sites, the anticipated land
use is for housing and industrial developments. |
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