I searched the boards and didn't find a thread on this topic. I am usually a lurker but I figured y'all would have an opinion on this issue or would want to support the efforts to combat this facility from opening.

There has been a movement by the community and surrounding area of Burnet to halt the building of a rock crushing facility on Hoover Valley Rd just outside of Burnet. The companies initial petition for an Air Quality Permit with TCEQ garnered over 4800 protests.

The company has now requested a permit from LCRA. Public comments can be made until February 7th.

[url=https://www.lcra.org/water/permits-contracts/watershed-management-ordinance/applications-for-public-comment/]LCRA Link for Quarry Application and Public Comments Submission[/url]

This is the community website that is leading the efforts to keep the facility from opening. They have held public meetings, met with the media, etc. https://www.saveburnet.com/

Please show your support for Texas Groundwater and this beautiful area that we all love and enjoy!

How does a rock crushing plant contaminate groundwater?

Seems like a bad location given there is a huge amount of open space in that area away from towns, lakes, and parks but that is still on top of the Granite I presume they would be extracting.

Funky Winkerbean said:

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How does a rock crushing plant contaminate groundwater?

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From the linked website:

This Proposed Rock Quarry will be using an enormous amount of ground water and will further strain all the local wells... Many of which have already gone dry. The the contaminated water runoff will effect all of the highland lakes and Texas Hill country.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Seems like a bad location given there is a huge amount of open space in that area away from towns, lakes, and parks but that is still on top of the Granite I presume they would be extracting.

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How much of that open area does the rock crushing company own?

Easy to point out all of these great places. But that company/facility has to own the land first, and that isn't always in the cards.

SanAntoneAg said:

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Funky Winkerbean said:

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How does a rock crushing plant contaminate groundwater?

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From the linked website:

This Proposed Rock Quarry will be using an enormous amount of ground water and will further strain all the local wells... Many of which have already gone dry. The the contaminated water runoff will effect all of the highland lakes and Texas Hill country.

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How much water do you think it will consume?

A rock crushing machine that can process as much as 150 tons of rock per hour uses ~5 gallons per hour of water. There will be some water used for dust control at the quarry per TCEQ requirements, but overall the amount of water used is generally pretty minimal.

Outflows are regulated and required to go through filtration before being discharged off site.

dust control at those sites is also a big water consumer.

How do these things get away with dusting the hell out of their neighbors property? Seems the dust goes for a mile in every direction.

During the public hearing for the TCEQ application, TCEQ admitted that there are no air quality monitors in Burnet County or the surrounding area. This area has multiple rock crushing facilities to begin with and the air quality commission representative admitted that they dont have any air quality monitors in the area.

So hopefully TCEQ application is put on hold until TCEQ can get its act together and actually monitor the air before approving another application.

And thus this LCRA application is just a formality. But anything that can be done to stop or slow down this facility would be in the best interest for the area.

The address pulls up to be 2+ miles from Inks. Satellite photos don't show many developments in the immediate vicinity (maybe a mile away). there are several other rock plants just a couple miles away that have been there for decades.

My guess is someone is probably wanting to put in a subdivision fairly close and doesn't want the facility close to that potential development.

RNAggie said:

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During the public hearing for the TCEQ application, TCEQ admitted that there are no air quality monitors in Burnet County or the surrounding area. This area has multiple rock crushing facilities to begin with and the air quality commission representative admitted that they dont have any air quality monitors in the area.

So hopefully TCEQ application is put on hold until TCEQ can get its act together and actually monitor the air before approving another application.

And thus this LCRA application is just a formality. But anything that can be done to stop or slow down this facility would be in the best interest for the area.

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This isn't California

Man, that opposition website has sooo much info as to water usage, run-off, etc. I just couldn't read all of it. Pages upon pages of detail.

Meh…all these things do is provide a formality with which to make it look like everything is "not certain". Permits, meetings, etc. The fact is, in my experience living in rural America, when the big company comes in or decides to do its thing, the up front work has already been done with the local officials and government lining its pocket. It's good to go other than the details which are all gov recent related and all of the local politicians are in bed with state politicians so it's no problem.

That's why you never hear about it until someone randomly finds it or you all of a sudden get a notice in the mail. It's been in the works for months or years.

I don't know if that's the case with this rock crushing facility but betting it is.

I agree.

The location is upstream from a very prominent summer camp that has been there for decades. Runoff from the plant is a concern for all of the downstream neighbors.

What runoff is the concern here? These sites are highly regulated just like everything these days.

I don't have a dog in the particular fight, but having worked on pipelines and having dealt with the hype & hysteria over destroying the hill country and killing women and children, I can tell you that a lof of this is overblown.

At the same time the Mayor of Blanco, TX, (I can't remember her name) was trying to update/upgrade the waste water treatment plant of that fair city. Keep in mind that it has orgionally been built in the 1950s or so and was badly in need of updating.

The protesters from Blanco to Wimberly were saying, not no but hell no. What they either didn't understand, or refused to is that with the population boom in Texas in the last 10yrs, the city of Blanco couldn't keep up with projected demand and say for sure that they were absolutely releasing safe water back down stream.

Would the volume of water released have increased? Yes, Was it going to anyway? Also yes. Would a new/modern plant have helped the situation? Yes. Did that matter? No.

So, I take this hysteria with a grain of salt. I don't know the first thing about rock crushers, and there very well could be concern, especially for dust. But the opposition to these things is known to make things up. I have seen it first hand.

Crushed red granite is great material.

Quarries don't contaminate anything… dot believe the hype.. it is really hard to find the right quality of rock and if they have found it, jack wheeler will make it work!! LCRA is a joke in this process..

Ironically for work this week we had the one of the presidents for CAT Mining give a presentation on the scope/scale of of their product line, and a large portion was spent on "social license" when it comes to mining and getting buy-in from local people and government to open or expand a mine. Was pretty enlightening.

I would be concerned but as long as the facility mitigates its effects and doesn't make itself a nuisance then I don't see a real problem. The worst thing I notice about places like this or a concrete plant is the increased heavy truck traffic, which is slightly annoying but not that bad unless the local roads are relatively weak in construction.

yeah, roads are a big issue. NEar some family land in east texas they put a sand quarry in, and its not an issue in general except the road where the trucks turn in and out of the quarry is absolute !@#$

Yep that is a key component of developing a mine project. It is very much an educational process. I developed one and the same area and had buy in from local and state officials and had very minimal pushback!

Teslag said:

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RNAggie said:

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During the public hearing for the TCEQ application, TCEQ admitted that there are no air quality monitors in Burnet County or the surrounding area. This area has multiple rock crushing facilities to begin with and the air quality commission representative admitted that they dont have any air quality monitors in the area.

So hopefully TCEQ application is put on hold until TCEQ can get its act together and actually monitor the air before approving another application.

And thus this LCRA application is just a formality. But anything that can be done to stop or slow down this facility would be in the best interest for the area.

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This isn't California

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What I'm about to say has nothing to do with this particular project or whether it deserves to go through or not.

That said……..when is making sure we have clean air to breath or safe water to use, a bad thing? I see zero issues with TCEQ making sure those things are monitored, or put in place before a project commences. Seriously, what's the harm in proper monitoring?

Simply calling every attempt to insure public safety, a California thing, is just silly imo.

There are many quarries in that area, some right on Llano river. They don't seem to be contaminating anything.