California Asphalt Plant Gets Environmental OK

An Escondido, Calif.-authored environmental study for a proposed asphalt plant in the city’s industrial zone determined the project easily clears most environmental hurdles.

The report was issued July 14 and a three-week public review period ends Aug. 8. The time frame puts the project on the path to a City Council review, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 24.

George Weir, owner of Escondido Sand & Gravel, plans to expand his recycling operations to produce asphalt that he said would help meet Escondido's pavement needs in an increasingly tight market.

Weir's proposed plant would be at the same 3.72-acre site as his mobile asphalt recycling facility at 500 N. Tulip St., in the city's industrial zone.

If approved, Weir's plant would be one of only two asphalt operations in North County.

Based on the report, authored by the city's planning department, the main environmental issue the project presents would be increased noise levels in the industrial area. The report recommends that Weir install a 20-foot-high sound curtain around the operations to absorb any excess noise.

The study also shows the plant would easily meet the city's emissions thresholds.

Asphalt production involves combining a heated mix of stone, sand and recycled asphalt with a petroleum-based asphalt cement. The plants produce the same emissions as power plants, including nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, reactive organic gases, and oxides of sulfur and lead.

Escondido limits nitrogen oxide emissions to 55 pounds per day from any commercial project, well below the regional air pollution district's threshold of 250 pounds.

With the addition of the asphalt factory, Weir's entire operation on Tulip Street would produce 43 pounds of nitrogen oxide each day, according to the study. The plant would add about 35 trucks a day to Escondido's roads.

The proposed operations would include a 40-foot silo and produce approximately 500 tons of asphalt a day ---- with a maximum of 150,000 tons a year ---- according to the report. Half of the raw aggregate used for production would come from Sand & Gravel's recycled materials.

Last March, the council's economic subcommittee gave a preliminary thumbs up to the project when it approved Weir's request to fast-track his permit request and bypass review by the city's Planning Commission.

However, in 2003, the council rejected a request by Vulcan Materials Co. to build a plant in the same area. That plant would have produced as much as 3,200 tons of asphalt on a daily basis and brought an additional 300 trucks to the city's roads each day.

Weir said that, having researched the council's decision, he believes he understood their concerns and is presenting a project they can embrace.

"We were pretty much given a road map by the Vulcan's project, where the city said, 'We don't want a regional asphalt plant," Weir said.

Following the closure earlier this year of Los Angeles-based Vulcan's plant on the Pala Indian Reservation, which produced as much as 300,000 tons a year, asphalt has become an increasingly scarce and costly commodity, Weir and others said.

London-based Hanson Aggregate continues to operate an asphalt plant near Cal State University San Marcos that produces 380,000 tons a year. The permit for that facility expires in 2008.

Asphalt must be shipped and poured within approximately two hours of being mixed, and many local contractors rely on asphalt produced south of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, resulting in increased transportation costs.

Weir said his plant could help meet demands in and around Escondido for asphalt.

Because of the production limits and the smaller scale of his operation, Weir said the asphalt his company produces would have to cost slightly more than the going price of $35 a ton.

For local contractors, however, the higher price would be offset by lower transportation costs, which can add an extra $4 to $7 a ton to an Escondido project.

"Predicated on our pricing, we're only going to be competitive to businesses in a 10-mile radius," Weir said. "Places beyond that radius are going to continue going to where they get the cheaper price."

Weir's plan makes complete sense to John Martinez, an estimator for Joe's Paving Co. in Valley Center, which handles several commercial and residential paving projects in the area.

Having a small-scale plant, he said, would mean that more asphalt would be available for private projects and home improvements, such as driveways.

"The homeowners of the area are the ones that are really going to benefit from that asphalt plant, because they're the ones who are going to get the paving," Martinez said.

But the type of plant Weir has in mind could also help mitigate the region's asphalt woes, said Joe Kellejian, chairman of the transportation committee of the San Diego Association of Governments.

The cost of asphalt and other materials have driven up construction costs 7.25 percent this year, compared with previous annual increases of about 2.6 percent, he said. Smaller plants that can be moved from place to place could be one logical remedy to meeting the region's asphalt demands, he said.

"We almost don't have a choice very much anymore," Kellejian said. North County Times