MANHATTAN, Kansas — HAMM Companies received the 2022 Governor’s Mined Land Reclamation Award during the Kansas Aggregate Producers Association meeting in Lenexa in January 2023.
This award recognizes companies that excel in implementing mined land reclamation and convey a positive image of mining in Kansas; HAMM Companies were selected for their work at a quarry in Onaga. While speaking at the Association’s Jan. 12 meeting, Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Conservation representative Christina Koelzer presented the Governor’s Mined Land Reclamation Award to HAMM on behalf of Governor Laura Kelly.
The reclaimed area of the Onaga Quarry covers 40 acres in Pottawatomie County. The landowner wanted the HAMM company to restore the land back to usable grazing pasture with no pond or wetland. Not having any water features was a challenge but HAMM’s experienced employees followed the natural slope of the land to allow for proper drainage. Today, there is no evidence of the 28-foot-high quarry wall. The company prides itself in “proving that mining can be a temporary land use…and returned back to its original pre-mining state.” The land was seeded with the tallgrass prairie’s native grasses.
HAMM Companies is based in Perry, Kansas; it operates 16 aggregate quarries across the state and has 414 employees. The site honored with this award was mined for the Cottonwood and Neva Limestone members of the Grenola Limestone Formation. These limestone ledges provide quality construction aggregate to a variety of important construction projects in the neighboring communities.
For more information, contact Koelzer at KDA Division of Conservation, 785-564-6626 or Christina.Koelzer@ks.gov.