An asphalt plant that was scheduled this month to start using rock blasted from Santa Fe's regional landfill is on hold following complaints from nearby residents who say they were caught unaware.

The state Environment Department's Air Quality Bureau more than a year ago issued permits for the "hot-mix" plant at Caja del Rio landfill, southwest of Santa Fe. However, neighbors who only recently got wind of the project met with landfill executive director Randall Kippenbrock this week to voice their worry about its effects.

On Thursday, Kippenbrock decided to slow the project, and sent a formal request to a contractor seeking the delay due to "many environmental concerns that our area residents have raised," he wrote.

Andrew Frye, a consultant for the plant operators, said the plant would be one of hundreds supplying contractors for road-paving projects around the state and that comply with air-quality rules and other environmental regulations.

The city-county landfill already has a stockpile of aggregate materials because it has to blast rock to create subsurface cells for burying refuse. Fisher Sand and Gravel, which markets the rock and returns a per-ton fee to the landfill operation, also holds the permit for the hot-mix plant, which would combine rock and oil into asphalt.

Construction for the plant began this spring, and this week, operators notified the Environment Department that operations would begin within 15 days.

"When it's up and running and operating the way it should be, there should be no visible emissions," said Frye. "We use a bag house, which is like a huge vacuum cleaner, and that has to be monitored daily to make sure it's working properly."

That assurance was not enough for neighbors who spent much of the week calling elected officials and sending e-mails that resulted in Kippenbrock's request that the contractor delay the start of operations.

Caroline Semon, who moved to the area of Paseo de Estrellas northeast of the landfill about two years ago, said she and her husband first became aware of the asphalt plant when they spotted it from the road.

"Naturally, nearby residents are concerned, given the proximity to our homes, the public golf course, and the children's playing field," she said, referring to the Municipal Recreation Complex.

Semon said many are concerned that "the agency did not seem to look into the type or level of emissions from the plant nor how the prevailing winds would carry the pollution."

The Las Campanas Homeowners association issued an e-mail to its members about the plant and raised issues about potential emissions, asking, among other questions "What will be the result of a nearby asphalt plant on our real estate values?"

Daniel Tully, a retired architect who lives in Las Campanas, noted that he never saw the 2008 notice posted for the project at the landfill gate. Since private vehicles aren't allowed at the landfill, which is on a dead-end road, few people likely saw the notice.

"It seems that the intent of public notice was thwarted by this remote location," he wrote in an e-mail to a newspaper reporter, adding later. "My wife and I moved to Santa Fe 5 years ago because Santa Fe was reputed to have the second best air quality in the nation. Was that a mistake?"

A legal notice concerning the project was published in the Albuquerque Journal prior to a public comment period. However, regulators didn't receive any comments.

Fisher, doing business as Southwest Asphalt Paving, has a 2008 permit from the state to operate the plant at the landfill during daylight hours seven days a week, but Frye said that's not a likely work plan. Since asphalt is prepared to order for specific construction jobs, the plant would have crests and dips in activity.

Miguel Sanchez, an estimator for Advantage Asphalt in Santa Fe, said his company buys its asphalt material from the single source available in the area, Richard Cook's firm called Associated Asphalt and Materials, which operates a plant near the intersection of N.M. 599 and Airport Road.

Sanchez said having another operation could be good for local contractors seeking competitive prices on asphalt. Advantage has been talking with Southwest Asphalt, he said, but until the plant is in operation, it's unknown how that will pan out.

"We'd like to try it on a job at least to see if it meets specs and works well with our crew," he said.

Kippenbrock said he was not sure how long the potential delay of the plant's start-up could last. In addition to area residents, he's also heard from golfers who use the city-owned Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe.

"It may be forever," he said. "I was given the assurance that an asphalt plant can be in this part of the area ... but 'not in my backyard' is what it amounts to, no matter what you do."

A news release issued late Thursday by Santa Fe County indicates County Commissioner Virginia Vigil requested that the joint city/county landfill board take up the issue at its Nov. 18 meeting.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.