Concrete companies said they were just following the law. A number of bills to address this issue have been submitted for the 2021 Legislative Assembly.
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter, which keeps readers up to date with the most important Texas news.
Peggy Watson noticed a few months ago that one of her neighbors was clearing his 78 acres. She thought it was just a matter of time. As the city grew, her rural and “eclectic” communities outside of Austin became more and more valuable.
But it will not be an apartment complex occupying unlimited land in Oak Hill, as she and her neighbors expected. They soon learned that this might be a concrete batching plant to provide services for the construction of Oak Hill Parkway, and the Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen Route 290. The owner is wooing TXDOT’s contractors to achieve this goal. (Lauri Simmons, a spokesperson for the Colorado River Construction Company, confirmed that the landowner has contacted the company, but said that the site has not yet been selected.)
Watson was even more surprised to find that there were few legal protections to prevent the factory from being built next door—she said that the patchwork of state and local environmental laws left her neighbors with little choice.
64-year-old Watson, the retired head of a bird watching tourism company who later became an anti-concrete mixing plant activist, said: “We seem to be in the Bermuda Triangle of responsibility and accountability.” “Because of us. Not in the city, so the city obeys the county in traffic. Moreover, the county listens to the city’s opinions on environmental issues. It’s like the wild west.”
Watson’s community faces issues that are increasingly familiar to rural and urban homeowners in Texas. As the state’s population continues to grow, so does the demand for roads, bridges and sidewalks. This drives the demand for the dust business of concrete, cement, sand and other aggregate materials, which are stored, transported and mixed closer and closer to residential areas.
At the same time, industry insiders say that operating locations far away from construction projects are costly and believe that the state’s environmental laws are sufficient.
Josh Lefwich, president and CEO of the Texas Aggregate and Concrete Association, an industry organization for Texas Concrete, Cement and Aggregates, said that the Texas Environmental Quality Council’s process ” Very protective” public health and the environment. “The company really works hard to work with the community.”
However, some legislators in Texas are seeking to solve the problem of mass factories being close to their homes and have already submitted some bills for the 2021 legislative session.
The area of Houston Rep. Jarvis Johnson includes the Acres Homes neighborhood north of the city center, which successfully fought the planned concrete plant and has submitted legislation in the past few years to restrict housing The nearby concrete mixing plant operates. They didn’t get much attention, but he said that this meeting might be different because the state’s continued growth has caused more communities to hinder construction projects.
“As these communities develop, as these cities develop and people move to Texas every day, it will come to your door at some point,” Johnson said. “It is important to protect everyone (from industrial development), not just those with financial means.”
According to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, TCEQ issues permits to regulate the emissions of particulate matter from concrete and aggregate companies. Inhalation of too much can increase the risk of asthma attacks and cardiac arrest. TCEQ also regulates the water runoff of the site. The city regulates other aspects—including where the factory is allowed to be located, how much noise it can make, and the damage allowed by heavy trucks on the road.
This is why residents of areas such as Oak Hill and residents of Houston’s neighborhoods without urban divisions say they are in blind spots. Local authorities have hardly restricted the layout of Texas companies. In areas without zoning regulations, concrete batch plants have appeared near homes, schools, and churches. State law requires a 440-yard buffer zone in these sensitive areas.
According to data provided by TCEQ, the number of air permit applications for concrete batching plants in Texas increased by 25% from 2014 to 2019. Of the 227 applications submitted last year, 86% were approved by state agencies, 12% were withdrawn, and a few were rejected or invalidated.
The community is increasingly opposed to permit applications for these facilities. In an unincorporated area southeast of Fort Worth, this month an administrative judge ruled in favor of Tarrant County homeowners over a dispute over a concrete processing plant’s application to operate in its community. Residents are now waiting for the final decision of TCEQ.
According to the Houston Chronicle, earlier this year, in Houston, due to years of community organization and public pressure from residents of Acres Homes, the construction of concrete mixing plants near the residence and on the street opposite the park was not allowed. The company eventually withdrew its environmental permit application.
Johnson said that the Acres Homes dispute in his area once again allowed him to focus on preventing similar incidents in the future. His bill increased the statewide distance requirement from 440 yards to 880 yards, and required stricter permits for factories operating in municipal areas that lack zoning (ie, Houston). Another Johnson bill requires written notice of permit application to every household within 880 yards of the proposed factory.
Other legislation includes a bill introduced by state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, which requires companies to include more detailed site plans in their permit applications, and a bill by state Rep. Nicole Collier, which will expand A list of persons who can request a hearing on a specific batch of permits, including representatives of schools, churches, daycare centers, hospitals, and other medical institutions. Currently, TCEQ may only consider requests from people living within 440 yards of the facility.
“There are places where you can put these facilities in places that won’t affect the community,” said Corey Williams, head of research and policy at the Houston Air Alliance, an environmental organization that focuses on air quality in Houston. He said he hopes that lawmakers can solve this problem for all communities, whether they are within the city or not.
“This has become a problem everywhere, and there is not enough land use control,” Williams said.
TACA’s Leftwich and others in the concrete industry don’t deny that being in a residential area will cause some trouble for everyone involved.
Bill Heath, the co-owner of Easy Mix Concrete Services and the manager of the company’s Signal Hill site, is just outside Austin. He drove past the anti-Easy Mix sign that said “Protect our community!” every day. He said that the company’s stone yard stores sand, rocks and other aggregates for transfer to trucks, and it has not caused the environmental damage that neighbors complain about. It is just simple old neighborism.
“They don’t like the fact that we are here,” Heath said. “People don’t like the fact that their communities are changing.”
Signal Hill in southwest Austin is a mixed-income area—some mobile homes and some ranch houses—mainly residential and rural. In recent years, due to its proximity to the city, Easy Mix and other companies have moved to the area. It is far enough outside the city limits to find unrestricted land.
But 71-year-old Lynn Ross, who has lived nearby since 1972, said runoff from the cleaning of dust and aggregates from the truck blocked the riverbed behind her house. She worries about the impact on wildlife-the last time her water tank was full, she found dead frogs floating in it.
“In the years I have been here, I have never seen such a situation,” she said. “I used to have migratory birds here. I don’t have animals coming back, and I can’t see geese anymore.”
She said that since 2014, she has contacted regulators several times to express her concerns. She added that TCEQ visited her property more than once, but the situation has not improved.
“I’m really just going around in circles, wasting a lot of time,” Rose said. “This is a very hard battle. There are no checks and balances.”
Heath said the facility uses silt fences and gabions, or heavy materials bound by iron wires and retaining walls to control runoff.
“This is not an environmental issue, but a land use issue,” he said. “People need concrete, they need roads, swimming pools and sidewalks.”
Tim Peery and his wife with cancer moved nearby ten years ago. He said that the noise from the stone courtyard made it difficult for her to rest. They are tired of dust and nuisance.
“It is very difficult to realize that we are unable to do anything about an obvious problem,” said Peery, who has also been working with Texans on responsible integrated mining, a coalition of landowners opposed to such facilities. “It shouldn’t be in a residential area.”
Disclosure: The Houston Air Alliance has always been a financial supporter of the Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization, partly funded by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters have no role in the news of the Tribune. Find a complete list of them here.
Perhaps it goes without saying-but it is not cheap to produce high-quality news. While the resources and income of newsrooms across the country are declining, the Texas Tribune remains committed to maintaining our mission: through every story we report, every event we convene, and what we send Every newsletter creates a more engaged and informative Texas state. As a non-profit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and open our events to the public. Do you value our news? Show us your support.
Post time: Oct-14-2021