Every week, homeowners within 500 feet of a mine off Loop 101 and Cave Creek Road find a note on their door, labeled "blasting operations," a notice from Southwest Rock Products, saying when families can expect their homes to rock.
"We'll hear like a 5-minute warning, then you'll hear sirens, then a 2-minute warning...and then you just hear boom," said Stephanie Hautem, she says the blast mimics an earthquake.
"Everything shakes," she said, "the floor shakes, sometimes things fall off the shelves."
Hautem has lived in her home for 15 years but says enough is enough. "It looks like a dust storm....it's hard to breathe, it's not good for us at all."
She and many others along her street are looking to move, but worry they may not be able to sell or get their money's worth, thanks to the haunting quarry only a few hundred feet away.
Some neighbors took their concerns to Phoenix city leaders Wednesday, explaining the issues with lingering dust, and the violent blasts.
The Phoenix Fire Department responded at the public safety meeting, saying they have a representative at the mine during every blast, and monitor for any "physical" damage from the blast.
Beyond that, they state the company is operating within city standards, ones they say are higher than national blasting standards.
Hautem says she's contacted the Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies for air quality testing, and is looking into what more can be done to lessen the impact. "People live here," she added, "this is a neighborhood."
No one from Southwest Rock Products was on site Wednesday night for comment.
