Quarry Site Work Starting in Texas

Vulcan Material moves ahead with rock crushing operation in Medina.

 

Vulcan Materials is moving ahead with site work for a new quarry in Medina County while preparing to seek a state permit for the mining operation and still awaiting a federal ruling on a related rail line.

 

Critics of the controversial project are upset with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for granting Vulcan a temporary permit in December to use a portable rock crusher at the 1,800-acre site north of Quihi for up to six months.

 

"I think it was issued in error, pure and simple," said Robert Fitzgerald, leader of the Medina County Environmental Action Association.

 

Officials at the state agency say its rules were followed.

 

The machine, which can pulverize up to 250 tons of rock an hour, will be used to prepare roadbeds and the site for future buildings and a permanent crusher, said Tom Ransdell, the former president of Vulcan Materials Southwest Division who now is a project consultant.

 

He also said some rock crushed by the machine might be sold.

 

"What we're doing is moving on with the development of the quarry irrespective of the outcome of the railroad permit" request, he said Monday.

 

Ransdell was referring Vulcan's pending request to the federal Surface Transportation Board for clearance for a rail line to carry quarried rock to existing railroad tracks in Dunlay.

 

Federal authorities were criticized harshly at a recent meeting on the board's preliminary environmental assessment of the rail project. The final report is not complete.

 

Quihi-based opponents say the railroad would damage historic sites and worsen flooding.

 

They want regulators to designate the rail and quarry proposals as "connected actions," which would trigger a requirement for an environmental assessment of the quarry.

 

Contending the rail and quarry are separate projects, Vulcan says it plans to seek state clearance for the quarry by fall.

 

Denial of the rail permit would result in the rock being trucked out, Vulcan says, projecting 850 daily truck trips are needed to move the 5 million tons of gravel mined annually, versus two 100-car trains each day.

 

In objecting to the TCEQ actions, Fitzgerald cited a section of the agency's rules that say temporary permits are "not intended to create a location where (a rock crusher) would be permanently located."

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"What Vulcan is doing with this (crusher permit) is trying to prove, or verify, that the quarry could exist without the railroad," he said.

 

Ransdell dismissed that, saying, "He's reading something into it."

 

Responding in a March 30 letter, TCEQ official Dan Eden told Fitzgerald the permit was "appropriate and in accordance" with agency rules.

 

"Any permanent rock-crushing requirements will require separate authorization ... and may require public notice and the opportunity for public participation prior to issuance of a permit," he wrote.

 

Vulcan can't use its portable crusher until it obtains state approval for its water pollution abatement plan and a storm water plan. An agency air quality permit also is needed to open a new quarry.  San Antonio (Texas) Express-News

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