State Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, said Saturday that he has reintroduced legislation in Montgomery that he hopes will halt plans for a rock quarry at Tanner.

“We haven’t given up on it,” Butler said. “I’m trying to get a bill passed that would make it illegal to build a quarry within five miles of a school. Tanner High School is just five miles from the Tanner quarry. If it goes, it would stop it.”

Butler said “big money lobbyists” are working to stop any legislation that is introduced on the quarry. He said the quarry owner, Rogers Group Inc., has already gotten word of his latest bill and is fighting it.

Rogers Group plans to close its quarry in the Cross Key community of Limestone County and move operations to the Tanner site, which also is within a mile of Swan Creek Management Area which houses a heron rookery and a pair of nesting bald eagles, according to a biologist for the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.

Four local bills that would have halted plans for a rock quarry on Laughmiller Road were dealt a severe blow during a public hearing before a five-member senate committee in Montgomery last month.

The committee of senators voted 3-2 not to let the bills out of committee, preventing them from making the Senate floor for a vote.

“I introduced the latest bill so it would be discussed in my committee on the Senate floor,” Butler said. “But Rogers Group got wind of it and is causing us some problems.”

Butler and State Rep. Henry White, D-Athens, introduced bills earlier this year and said that Rogers Group invested heavily in lobbyists to oppose the bills, which would give the Limestone County Commission more regulatory power on where quarries are located and set policy on water use by quarries.

While some of the bills would have statewide application, Butler said they are all local and the five-member Limestone County delegation believe they should be treated like any other local legislation and go through unopposed by other legislators.

“We’re still working on some stuff,” Butler said. “We’re trying to pull any card we can play.”