August 27, 2024

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm
• Bracken Cave
• 26101 FM 3009, San Antonio, TX 78266
• Raise funds to Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry!

Experience one of the great wonders of the natural world: the spiraling emergence of over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats—the largest bat colony on the planet—as they begin their evening hunt.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will support the ongoing battle against the 1,500-acre open-pit mine and quarry planned by Vulcan Materials between Bulverde and New Braunfels—just four miles north of Bracken Cave. Bat Conservation International will also receive a portion of the proceeds.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine begin at 6:30 p.m. A representative of Bracken Cave Preserve will give a bat talk at the cave, and the bats are expected to emerge at approximately 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $90 per person (plus fees). Directions and additional event details will be forwarded following ticket purchase.

Thank you to our sponsors who have graciously donated appetizers and locally grown and brewed flavors of the Hill Country: Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery and Oak Valley Vineyard.

Please join us for an exciting evening you won’t soon forget!

September 6, 2023

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm
• Bracken Cave
• 26101 FM 3009, San Antonio, TX 78266
• Raise funds to Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry!

Experience one of the great wonders of the natural world: the spiraling emergence of over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats—the largest bat colony on the planet—as they begin their evening hunt.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will support the ongoing battle against the 1,500-acre open-pit mine and quarry planned by Vulcan Materials between Bulverde and New Braunfels—just four miles north of Bracken Cave. Bat Conservation International will also receive a portion of the proceeds.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine begin at 6:30 p.m. A representative of Bracken Cave Preserve will give a bat talk at the cave, and the bats are expected to emerge at approximately 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $90 per person (plus fees). Directions and additional event details will be forwarded following ticket purchase.

Thank you to our sponsors who have graciously donated appetizers and locally grown and brewed flavors of the Hill Country: Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery and Oak Valley Vineyard.

Please join us for an exciting evening you won’t soon forget!

September 21, 2022

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm
• Bracken Cave
• 26101 FM 3009, San Antonio, TX 78266
• Raise funds to Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry!

Experience one of the great wonders of the natural world: the spiraling emergence of over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats—the largest bat colony on the planet—as they begin their evening hunt.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will support the ongoing battle against the 1,500-acre open-pit mine and quarry planned by Vulcan Materials between Bulverde and New Braunfels—just four miles north of Bracken Cave. Bat Conservation International will also receive a portion of the proceeds.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine begin at 6:30 p.m. A representative of Bracken Cave Preserve will give a bat talk at the cave, and the bats are expected to emerge at approximately 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $90 per person (plus fees). Directions and additional event details will be forwarded following ticket purchase.

Thank you to our sponsors who have graciously donated appetizers and locally grown and brewed flavors of the Hill Country: Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery and Oak Valley Vineyard.

Please join us for an exciting evening you won’t soon forget!

September 22, 2021

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm
• Bracken Cave
• 26101 FM 3009, San Antonio, TX 78266
• Raise funds to Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry!

Experience one of the great wonders of the natural world: the spiraling emergence of over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats—the largest bat colony on the planet—as they begin their evening hunt.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will support the ongoing battle against the 1,500-acre open-pit mine and quarry planned by Vulcan Materials between Bulverde and New Braunfels—just four miles north of Bracken Cave. Bat Conservation International will also receive a portion of the proceeds.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine begin at 6:30 p.m. A representative of Bracken Cave Preserve will give a bat talk at the cave, and the bats are expected to emerge at approximately 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $90 per person (plus fees). Directions and additional event details will be forwarded following ticket purchase.

Thank you to our sponsors who have graciously donated appetizers and locally grown and brewed flavors of the Hill Country: Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Oak Valley Vineyard.

Please join us for an exciting evening you won’t soon forget!

Published in October 2 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (subscription required)

This past weekend, my nine-year-old son and I enjoyed hiking Landa Park’s Panther Canyon Nature Trail, checking out Comal Springs, and floating the Comal River—being careful to keep our distance from others on the trail and river.

While pausing to reflect at the springs (the largest in Texas and the southwestern United States), my son asked where the water was coming from.

Area signs and diagrams illustrated how water generally flows underground from higher elevations in the Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones. But where exactly does Comal Springs water originate?

The answer isn’t a simple one, but over the past few decades, hydrogeologists have learned that the water naturally surfacing at area springs (Comal, Hueco, San Marcos) largely starts as rainfall over the recharge zone west and southwest of New Braunfels, including the area that drains into Dry Comal Creek (between Interstate 35 and Highway 46).

The Edwards Aquifer consists of a network of subsurface cavities, streams, and channels. These underground rivers quickly transport large volumes of precipitation over the recharge zone through sinkholes, fractures, and caverns to features such as Comal Springs.

In Landa Park, we seemed to be a world away from the dusty and barren strip of quarries, concrete batch plants, and cement facilities just southwest of New Braunfels along Interstate 35.

But was there an underground connection linking these disparate locations?

Indeed, in 2000, an event occurred at the New Braunfels Cemex quarry that demonstrated just how interconnected Comal and Hueco Springs—and our drinking water supply—are to the many aggregate mining facilities in Comal County. During the weekend of January 16, an estimated 2,800 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from a Dyno Nobel storage tank at Cemex into the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. Employees didn’t discover the leak until Monday morning and didn’t report it until Tuesday. Cleanup began on Wednesday, but the mitigation effort was evidently too little—and too late.

By then, measurable amounts of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs) such as 2-methyl naphthalene, naphthalene, and xylenes had already started showing up in both Comal Springs and Hueco Springs. In a matter of days, the spilled diesel fuel apparently entered the karst aquifer and traveled underground, contaminating water several miles away.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Aquifer contamination from an 800-gallon gasoline spill in northern Bexar County precipitated the closure of several private wells. Tetrachloroethene (PCE) leaked into the aquifer near Uvalde in 1979—and that contamination plume is still being detected in groundwater samples four decades later.

In June of this year, a tailings pond dike at the Anderson Columbia quarry, located over the recharge zone between New Braunfels and Garden Ridge, collapsed, allowing polluted water from mining and quarrying operations to flood neighboring properties. TCEQ investigated and sent notices of violation. But the toxicity level of the escaped liquid is apparently still unknown—and the damage was already done.

If we follow Dry Comal Creek upstream to the West Fork, past FM 1863 and along FM 3009, we come to the proposed site of a new, 1500-acre quarry. Since 2017, Alabama-based Vulcan Materials has been trying to convert the former White Ranch into an open-pit limestone mine that would stretch nearly three miles across the recharge zone. So far, efforts of community volunteers opposing this quarry have prevented the start of mining operations.

Jack Olivier, a Comal County geologist, recently stated that “quarries here can act as manmade funnels into the underlying aquifers. The limestone sediment and explosives used for blasting, a combination of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, can be introduced inside the pits.”

As we continue to learn more about the Edwards Aquifer, one of the most environmentally sensitive features in Texas, it becomes increasingly clear that this area is the place for parks, hiking trails, and open space—not more quarries. High-risk industrial operations and hazardous chemicals jeopardize the primary water supply for over two million people and endanger unique and beautiful features such as Comal Springs.

Landfills are already prohibited over the recharge zone. The time has come to prohibit additional quarries and aggregate mines as well. Non-profit organizations such as Preserve Our Hill Country Environment, Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining, Hill Country Alliance, and Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance; and neighboring Hays County are at the vanguard of the effort to protect our water and preserve open spaces. It’s high time our county and state elected officials join in.

As my son and I tubed the Comal River later that day, we noticed something quite unpleasant: a dead turtle floating in the water. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a harbinger of things to come in Comal County.

David A. Drewa
Director of Communications
Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry
Preserve Our Hill Country Environment

Related Video

NEW BRAUNFELS—On Tuesday morning, a resident living near the Anderson Columbia Tejas Quarry in New Braunfels began observing a steady stream of thick, chalky liquid flowing across his property and farm.

The landowner noticed the thick, whitish-brown liquid flowing from Anderson Columbia property, running under the adjacent railroad track via flood drainage piping, and streaming across his property and into a downstream pond.

The substance appeared to be coming from a breach in a dike surrounding one of the tailing ponds on the 800-acre limestone mine and quarry. Tailing ponds are used to store waste byproducts created by mining and quarrying operations. It is suspected that the liquid contains limestone particles, clay fines material, various polymers, and other unknown substances—many of which can remain suspended indefinitely. The toxicity level of the liquid is currently unknown.

Furthermore, most of the 800-acre quarry is located over the environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, the primary source of drinking water for over two million people. Because of the unique karst hydrogeology characteristic of the Edwards Aquifer, pollutants that enter the Recharge Zone can travel quickly through the aquifer and contaminate water sources in a very short period of time—sometimes as little as hours.

According to state law, it is a quarry operator’s responsibility to inform the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) of any breaches in tailing pond containment structures. We do not know whether Anderson Columbia has done this. Furthermore, we do not know whether Comal County or Edwards Aquifer officials are aware of the apparent breach and subsequent contamination.

Unfortunately, in Texas, aggregate tailing ponds and containment structures are unregulated and no permits are required for quarry tailing ponds. Because of the lack of oversight from TCEQ, incidents such as this frequently go completely unreported unless they are observed by downstream neighbors, often after contamination has occurred.

This is just the latest example of problems resulting from the lack of accountability and lax oversight of quarries and aggregate mines in Texas. Milann Guckian, president of Preserve Our Hill Country Environment, stated, “There are currently no regulations on dike engineering for tailing ponds. Release of tailing ponds materials past the facility’s property line shows an egregious deficiency with the current regulatory environment that these APOs work under.”

Several miles to the north, Vulcan Construction Materials is attempting to place a 1500-acre quarry and limestone mining operation in the middle of a residential area of Comal County. The proposed quarry is in a legal battle pitting Alabama-based Vulcan and TCEQ against hundreds of area residents, organizations, and Comal ISD.

Vulcan must still submit a Water Pollution Abatement Plan (WPAP) to TCEQ. Jack Olivier, a Comal County geologist and member of the Texas Speleological Association, expressed concern: “Quarries here can act as manmade funnels into the underlying aquifers. The limestone sediment and explosives used for blasting, a combination of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, can be introduced inside the pits. And during flood events, pollutants can get washed in, carrying chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, and septic tank effluent.”

Stay informed by visiting www.preserveourhillcountry.org and www.stop3009vulcanquarry.com, and by following our Preserve Our Hill Country Environment and Friends of Dry Comal Creek Facebook pages for news updates.

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Preserve Our Hill Country Environment is a non-profit organization formed in 2018 to preserve, protect, and restore the land, water, air, wildlife, unique features, and quality of life in the Texas Hill Country against the aggressive and insufficiently regulated expansion of the aggregate industry.

Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry is a grassroots-driven campaign opposed to the 1500-acre open-pit limestone quarry proposed by Vulcan Materials in a residential area of central Comal County, between Bulverde and New Braunfels.

Published in December 26 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (subscription required)

As 2019 draws to a close, Preserve Our Hill Country Environment and Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry are so grateful to all our supporters and volunteers in the ongoing battle against the huge, 1500-acre quarry planned by Vulcan Construction Materials between New Braunfels and Bulverde.

Over the past two years, with your help, our team has achieved many key accomplishments.

Vulcan has not started construction or operation of the proposed quarry.

We organized Comal County citizens to request a public meeting (over 500 attendees) and submit comments (over 1,000).

We trained citizens to request a contested case hearing and receive affected party status. We worked with the City of Bulverde and Comal ISD to pass resolutions both opposing the quarry and requesting affected party status in the hearing.

Hundreds of individual contributions enabled us to hire legal representation and expert witnesses to defend citizens, file legal briefs, and make written and oral arguments and responses throughout the contested case hearing process. We worked together with hundreds of neighbors to successfully convince the administrative law judge to expand the radius for affected parties to five miles.

We reached nearly 40,000 people through stop3009vulcanquarry.com and rallied support from over 4,000 Facebook followers and email subscribers.

We increased awareness of the proposed quarry and related aggregate mining issues through media coverage in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, San Antonio Express-News, Austin American-Statesman, WOAI News 4 TV, Spectrum News TV, AM 550 KTSA, Texas Public Radio, Public Citizen, and many other outlets.

Our scientific analysis and grassroots efforts resulted in the installation and operation of two new TCEQ air quality monitors in our area, including the only particulate matter monitor in Comal County.

We are actively collaborating with numerous state legislators, school districts, and other grassroots organizations on legislation to implement some common-sense regulations for the over-aggressive aggregate industry.

We are optimistic about and look forward to working closely with the newly formed APO Interim Study Committee in the Texas House.

With a great deal of help from many of the partners mentioned above, we have made tremendous strides in bringing problems with quarries and the aggregate industry to the forefront in Texas.

This fight is not just a “not in my backyard” issue, but rather one that affects the entire Texas Hill Country as well as other areas of our great state. The rapid, poorly regulated growth of quarries, aggregate mines, and concrete, cement, and asphalt plants in Texas has created serious concerns for the health of citizens and protection of our natural resources.

Our urgent and primary goal is to stop the proposed Vulcan quarry that would stretch nearly three miles southwest from SH 46 and FM 3009.

But with aggregate companies owning over 25,000 acres in Comal County (over seven percent of the total county land area), we know this will not be the last proposed aggregate facility in Comal County.

As we continue the legal fight against Vulcan and TCEQ, we’ve come to realize that real change must be achieved at the legislative level.

Over the past couple of decades, Texas legislators, TCEQ, and industry lobbyists in Austin have slowly weakened and eliminated protections for citizens. We must turn this tide.

We are an all-volunteer group of neighbors. But fighting a huge out-of-state corporation like Vulcan and our permit-happy TCEQ requires expensive legal and scientific expertise. We are absolutely ready to continue this battle — but we can’t do it without YOUR help!

Please visit stop3009vulcanquarry.com to join hundreds of your neighbors who are already helping to protect our families and our beautiful Texas Hill Country.

David A. Drewa
Director of Communications
Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry
Preserve Our Hill Country Environment

In August 2017, the residents of Comal County were hit with a bombshell – three bombshells, actually. One, the beautiful, pristine 1500-acre White Ranch at the corner of SH 46 and FM 3009 had been sold to Blue Pine Holdings. Two, at closing, Blue Pine Holdings made it known that they represented Vulcan Construction Materials, LLC out of Alabama as owners of the site. Three, Vulcan subsequently submitted an air permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for a portable rock crushing plant, aka – a quarry. Alarm signals sounded and from the dust arose a grassroots effort to stop, hinder, set-back or restrict Vulcan from operating at the expense of the more than 12,000 residents encircling the site.

Science and Tech Group

A group of concerned citizens with experience in metal and non-metal mining, not only in the United States but also worldwide, became concerned because they had a clear understanding of the inherent dangers and impact open-pit surface mining would have on humans, wildlife, natural resources and the environment. This tech team of twelve engineers, geologists, hydrologists, pathologists, and university professionals who hold master’s degrees and Ph.D.’s in numerous disciplines, as well as a lifetime of experience, came together to bring light to this problem. With their vast knowledge of the industry, they knew that not only air, but water and several other areas of mining would need to be considered. Each discipline would need the appropriate studies and standards researched in order to predict and present facts that would impact area residents.

Don Everingham stated, “What we knew and clearly understood was the industrial nature of mining and the associated impact on humans – particularly health issues, water – mining utilizes and requires huge amounts of water for processing materials and controlling fugitive dust, land (often taken for granted) – is in fact the reason life is present on this planet, soil is a key factor and most often over looked, reclamation – soils require reclamation that carefully includes many environmental concerns and multiple sciences to assure all interests are preserved, i.e., endangered species, special habitats requirements, slopes, infiltration rates, etc., traffic – a tremendous amount of equipment is used to load and haul material as well as the heavy Class 8 trucks that are used to transport product over public roads, and lastly, noise and light pollution.”

Along the Balcones Escarpment of Texas, caves create additional concerns – they are part of the “plumbing” of the Edwards aquifer. A quarry can be likened to a man-made “funnel” into the aquifer that will allow pollutants present during flood events (aka “gully washers”) to enter the water system with no benefit of natural filtration. TCEQ doesn’t have to consider all these other areas of concern in the overall impact of mining to grant a permit. In Texas, the only consideration for issuing the air permit is the rock crusher itself, none of the other point sources (haul roads, mining, blasting, truck diesel emissions, product transfer, etc.) come into play.

Since TCEQ only requires an air permit for Vulcan to set up shop, the group had no choice but to tackle this issue first. They soon found out, after much investigation, that there is zero science, no research or collection of valid data to confirm questionable elements found in our air. This is particularly true in the Hill Country Region of central Texas. Most data used by TCEQ is old data from as far back as the 1940s – long before most people were concerned with dust or what was contained in the dust. Air quality was born from research that proved and confirmed that many chemicals and elements reduced to microscopic size, too small to be visible to the human eye or even under the standard microscopes used in many laboratories at that time, are inherently dangerous to human health and the environment.

Research today by specialty laboratories, universities, and private industry have found these extremely small particles, (PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and smaller), in almost all environmental areas of our lives. This said, it is up to all responsible science, industry, and knowledgeable individuals to take every opportunity to not only understand the nature of environmental safety and health, but to accept the responsibility to prevent problems from developing into an uncontrolled problem at any level. Several members of the tech group have experienced environmental problems in their careers and know firsthand what the issues are and how to control these problems. Several individuals have been on the ground floor of developing standards, tests, mitigation, and monitoring requirements to solve and control the mining problem.

Air Monitoring Program 2018

Using this knowledge and a sense of a moral obligation, the group set out an Air Monitoring Program in January 2018. Several short-term air samples were taken and tested for ten elements to see what was actually in the local air or atmosphere. The ten elements were oxygen (O), fluorine (F), sodium (Na), aluminum (Al), silica (Si), sulfur (S), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), and calcium (Ca). They also checked for ozone elements and weren’t surprised that the ozone material consisted of carbon (C), nitrates (NO3), and sulphur (S).

Air sample filter data results provided by Galbraith Laboratories, Inc. for the listed elements determined need for further investigation. Silica (Si) material indicated far higher levels than reported by the mining operations or the TCEQ.

As a result, they developed and implemented a field air monitoring trial using 24-hour periods to collect samples from five sites in the quarry row area (the immediate area of active mining in Comal and Bexar counties) and thirty samples (presently being tested) as background samples to check the atmospheric conditions out of reach of monitors located in Bexar county. There are no monitors located in Comal County to detect or collect PM₁₀ or PM_2.5 particulate material.

The results (Table 1) of the first five samples taken in the area around quarry row showed higher levels of particulate matter than the EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 35 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) for a 24-hour test (Table 2).

While the air program for 2018 is limited in scope and depth, it is one data point of information that clearly shows the need for additional air monitoring. This monitoring should actually be done by a third-party entity as the agencies in Texas have shown complete disregard for the citizens right to know and understand what is suspended in the air we breathe.

The 2018 research also found a high percentage of silica material in the various formations. In fact, the percentages in the manufactured material sold by area mines (documented on scale tickets at the various mines along Quarry Row) are much higher than those stated by TCEQ officials in the February 2018 public meeting. When high concentrations of a known carcinogenic material are found in the parent material it will be present in the atmosphere at great distances from the mine by the nature of crushing and processing the materials.

Health Effects of Quarry Dust

Fugitive dust is an inevitable problem for almost all forms of mining. It is one of the most visible, invasive, and potentially irritating impact factors in open pit mining. It is a source of particulate matter (PM). PM is classified into size ranges. The PM of interest in terms of health risks are those that are very small, invisible to the naked eye, and are referred to as PM_2.5 and PM₁₀. Generally, PM comprises two kinds of microscopic particles, mineral (silica and other minerals from rock processing), and hydrocarbon and soot from diesel exhaust of industrial equipment and trucks that are heavily utilized in the quarrying industry. PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are invisible to the naked eye, and are easily carried in wind currents, can remain airborne for long periods of time, and can be carried up to 30 miles (PM₁₀) or hundreds of miles (PM_2.5) from the source.

Clearly dust requires special attention. Dust generation resulting from blasting, handling, processing or transporting mined materials is not the only area of concern. Dust can also be sourced from bare or poorly maintained areas within the mine, such as poor reclamation procedures and practices, lack of stockpile management, air movement, topography, humidity, and other weather factors that impact dust movement. Haul roads and poorly maintained dust control systems throughout the mine can lead to accumulative dust material that can also be reactivated. All these are unregulated source points by TCEQ rules.

Wind Rose data from several area sources, along with other weather data, were carefully studied and discussed with professional air monitoring companies and professionals. None of the work was considered out of line or abnormal considering all source data and known standards. The downside is that work and research along the Balcones Escarpment is not current or complete since little has been done in the past 50-70 years. During this time period, the escarpment has seen extremely rapid growth and development. Comal County is the second fastest growing county in the nation.

Since the EPA standard for both PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ is based on three years of data averaged (Table 2 – 98^th and 99^th percentiles), and there is no shortage of available rock to be mined, it would make sense to implement a three-year moratorium on aggregate mining air permits while an independent third party entity does a complete research project on the Balcones Escarpment. It should also include a study on water.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) and the National Air and Space Administrations (NASA) research and development of the optic density technology used by satellites were also referenced and discussed. Their findings indicate a correlation to the 2018 air data. This was compared by professionals and all agree that more work and research is needed. The fact is, this data pushes this requirement forward.

Air Monitoring Program 2019

The tech and science group are still hard at work. The Air Monitoring Program for 2019 will commence on July 20, 2019.  One of the university tech team members, with the help of graduate students and area residents will be collecting air samples from fifteen different sites in and around Comal County. Each site will collect data for an average of ten days. TSI has built a custom PM Collection Monitor with weather station. This is a world class unit that will collect very accurate samples of airborne PM material for ground concentration and background.

The Air Program results will be correlated with geological data collected along the Balcones Escarpment by member geologists. They will collect ten to twelve parent material samples from the escarpment stretching from Medina County to Hays County. The samples will be tested for several elements including crystalline silica (silicon dioxide – SiO₂), based on the various geology and faults that may be encountered. In addition, purchased material from several area mines will be tested for crystalline silica.

Texas Government and Agency Response

In our opinion, TCEQ has not given all these factors enough consideration in granting Vulcan’s draft permit. The commissioners and the Executive Director should take a drive along Old Nacogdoches Road, FM 482 and Krueger Canyon Roads in Comal County. They need to experience what residents see, hear, feel and breathe every day. From the Cemex plant/quarry in New Braunfels all the way around to the Hansen Aggregates plant/quarry in Garden Ridge. The trees, indeed, everything is covered with limestone dust. The dust (particulate matter) does not magically drop from the air at the fence lines, it affects all life beyond. The permits TCEQ issues with the promise and the obligation that says they will “strive to protect our state’s public health and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development” is not being met. And, little if any enforcement is being done.

Air Quality Emissions is a statewide problem and our elected officials are not in step with constituents. In 2015 the EPA signed a directive ordering Texas and 35 other states to mandate penalties on any industrial facilities that illegally spew dangerous pollutants into the air, but Texas never did. Industries deployment of an “affirmative defense” after illegally emitting dangerous chemicals: claiming that the emissions were a result of a “start-up, shutdown or malfunction at a facility — basically, an unforeseen, unavoidable situation” was the basis for the directive, a way to hold industry accountable. According to the TCEQ, in fiscal year 2017, polluters in Texas invoked the loophole in 97 percent of emissions events. Unfortunately, in 2015, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against Obama’s EPA, claiming the order “make[s] it impossible for even the most carefully-regulated facilities to avoid costly penalties due to unplanned events out of their control.” The Attorney General, along with Governor Abbott kept this in the courts until President Trump was elected. Now Texas doesn’t have to worry about the order because on April 29, 2019, Andrew Wheeler, the president’s current EPA chief and a former coal industry lobbyist, filed an order to rescind the directive.

Several letters to the governor’s office, TCEQ and EPA remain unanswered. More than 50 bills were presented this year that addressed the aggregate industry, however only one made it to the governor’s desk and it was weak. The aggregate industry is one of the largest financial contributors to statewide elected offices in Texas. State officials may be sympathetic to a certain degree, but money still talks in Austin. Normal citizens cannot equal the monies behind the highway lobby, the aggregate and concrete lobby or the real-estate lobby, to name a few. We have eighteen months before the next legislative session kicks off. There is a lot to do.

Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry is an all-volunteer grassroots organization opposing plans by Vulcan Construction Materials to set up a 1500-acre open-pit limestone quarry in a residential area between Bulverde and New Braunfels, Texas.

September 11, 2019

• 6:30 – 9:00 pm
• Bracken Cave
• 26101 FM 3009, San Antonio, TX 78266
• Raise funds to Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry!

Experience one of the great wonders of the natural world: the spiraling emergence of over 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats—the largest bat colony on the planet—as they begin their evening hunt.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will support the ongoing battle against the 1,500-acre open-pit mine and quarry planned by Vulcan Materials between Bulverde and New Braunfels—just four miles north of Bracken Cave. Bat Conservation International will also receive a small portion of the proceeds.

Tickets are $55 per person (plus fees). Directions and additional event details will be forwarded following ticket purchase.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine begin at 6:30 p.m. Bats emerge at approximately 8:00 p.m.

Thank you to our sponsors who have graciously donated appetizers and locally grown and brewed flavors of the Hill Country: Oak Valley Vineyards, Dry Comal Creek Vineyards, Guadalupe Brewing Company, and Freetail Brewing Company.

Please join us for an exciting evening you won’t soon forget!

The Texas Hill Country, recognized around the world for its natural beauty, hosts a wealth of environmental, cultural, and economic resources within its 18,000 square miles. The Edwards Plateau, Llano Uplift, and Balcones Escarpment are defining geologic features that serve as the foundation for the diversity of vistas and peaks, valleys and streams, plants and animals—an ideal setting for habitation and recreation by those who enjoy nature. Unfortunately, these unique natural resources are now endangered by the aggressive expansion of aggregate mining companies proposing numerous rock quarries and cement plants throughout the region.

Encompassing a 17-county area, the Hill Country is located just to the north and west of fast-growing San Antonio, Austin, and the rapidly urbanizing Interstate Highway 35 corridor connecting these cities. The Hill Country provides water and offers an array of outdoor recreational activities to many of the 4.5 million residents living in this region. An increasing number of residents now reside in the Hill Country, enjoying the high quality of life and relaxed country living. It’s a magnificent place to raise a family or enjoy retirement surrounded by natural serenity.

While this region is admired and prized for its natural beauty, many unincorporated areas of the Hill Country are now in the crosshairs of corporations setting up rock quarries and cement plants. The aggregate industry and their shell companies now own over 25,000 acres in Comal County (seven percent of the entire county land area). Most recently, Alabama-based Vulcan Construction Materials has submitted a permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to convert the former White Ranch, a 1500-acre parcel of pristine ranch land between Bulverde and New Braunfels, into a limestone quarry and rock crushing plant. Instead of being planned for a more appropriate industrial zone, Vulcan is proposing to helicopter a quarry into a rapidly growing residential area that to date encompasses 6,000 properties and 12,000 residents within a five-mile radius. Families have built homes, established gardens, and are raising their children or enjoying retirement in the tranquility and beauty of Comal County.

Limestone is a natural asset of the Texas Hill Country. It is attractive not only for its geological formations such as bluffs, outcroppings, canyons, and caves, but also as a building material for the construction industry. At first glance, this seems like a perfect recipe for growth in the region. But when mined and processed carelessly, or near residential areas, limestone quarrying risks loss of habitat for native flora and fauna, demands high volumes of water, produces large amounts of pollution, and negatively affects human health.

Limestone is a commodity for aggregate companies and they are purchasing, at top dollar, large tracts of agricultural and ranch land to take advantage of the extremely profitable aggregate demand not only in this area but all around the state. The aggregate industries acquisition of private ranch lands and the development of these lands leads to incompatible land use (e.g., quarrying directly atop the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone). The process that TCEQ employs to issue air quality permits to these very same companies is heavily appropriated to “guarantee” awarding the permit, despite the incompatible land use. Public outcry, scientific evidence contradicting the alleged protections offered by the aggregate industry and the testament to cascading injurious events such as fugitive silica dust affecting residents’ health, over pumping of water leading to dry wells, groundwater pollution, noise and light pollution, habitat destruction, and property devaluation all are inconsequential to the permit process.

Currently, six federally listed endangered species occur in Comal County, including the golden-cheeked warbler, whooping crane, two aquatic insects, a crustacean, and a fish. In addition to habitat destruction, the potential for polluted water runoff could adversely affect area wildlife. Because of the unique karst hydrogeology characteristic of the area, pollutants can travel quickly through the aquifer and contaminate springs and rivers in a very short period of time—sometimes in a matter of hours—poisoning fauna dependent on these water sources.

The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world, serving the diverse agricultural, industrial, recreational, and domestic needs of almost two million people living in a band from southwest of Austin through New Braunfels, San Antonio, and west to Uvalde. The Edwards Aquifer is the only aquifer in the State of Texas designated as a “sole source” aquifer. In fact, the Edwards Aquifer is the only aquifer in the state of Texas to have its own statute in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), emphasizing the importance of protecting the Edwards Aquifer and hydrologically connected surface streams from pollution. Over 90 percent of this water flows (often underground) through Comal County. Since the proposed quarry site is in the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, a high potential exists for water contamination from silt, oils, chemicals, and hazardous waste from the mining process.

For aggregate mining, the primary way of suppressing dust is water. Unfortunately, when an aggregate company seeks an air quality permit from TCEQ, there is no requirement to prove that there is sufficient water nor that the amount of water pumped out will not harm the quality or availability of water for residents, many of whom are using aquifer water to support their livelihood in agriculture or ranching.

To understand the volume of water being used in an aggregate mining operation, see this comparison chart below:

4-person single house dwelling: 146,003 gallons/year
800 ton-per-hour crusher*: 280,320,000 gallons/year

*This water usage excludes water necessary to suppress dust on conveyor belts, stock piles, internal quarry roads, trucks, etc.

Water resources in this area are taxed. In Bexar County (San Antonio), the Edwards Aquifer water supply is being supplemented from a variety of alternative sources to accommodate the increasing demand on their water resources. Water providers are pulling from Medina River in the west, built a desalinization plant to the south, are leasing two wells from the Trinity to the north, purchased water rights in Carrizo Springs, and are spending millions on a 142-mile pipeline from a Burleson County aquifer. Comal County and surrounding areas are already in Stage 2 water restrictions and Canyon Lake Water Service Company turned off the taps recently to a residential subdivision due to low water storage levels.

Quarries can no longer drill into the Edwards Aquifer, but now must drill deeper into alternative aquifers like the Trinity. Neither aquifer can replenish its supply fast enough to meet current demand. It is unfathomable that TCEQ does not require the aggregate industry to ensure that there is sufficient water supply to ensure proper dust suppression as well as ensure that their water use does not lead to over-pumping thus affecting local landowners’ water availability.  To say that one land owner’s private property rights overrides the perils it causes to a multitude of other property owners is shortsighted and outright wrong.

In addition to these negative effects on wildlife and water, the aggregate industries most notable impact will be on human quality of life. On the surface, a quarry may seem to be a mere nuisance owing to the noise, heavy traffic, and powdery white dust that can be seen settling everywhere. However, in addition to the visible dust, limestone quarrying produces invisible microscopic particles of minerals, including calcium, magnesium and silica, which are easily airborne, and carried for long distances on the lightest breeze. The microscopic silica particles pose significant health risks for those exposed to them via inhalation, or contact on delicate exposed tissues of the eye, nose, and upper respiratory tract. Specific health risks of silica dust exposure include silicosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

There is unbridled permitting going on in Texas by TCEQ. TCEQ has granted over 8,000 air quality permits between 2015 and 2017. Not all are related to the aggregate industry. Regardless, in the last ten years the aggregate industry has chipped away at the TAC rules making it easier for industry to meet requirements to obtain air permits. They have been eliminating citizen’s opportunities to protest/contest aggregate operations, are eradicating the opportunity for contested case hearings for certain permits, and are drastically reducing the time frames with which to respond to public meetings or public hearings.

TAC rules related to aggregate air permits are deficient. They are not required to utilize the latest technologically advanced applications and processes available to industry and they do not address current Best Management Practices. Once granted, TCEQ only performs onsite quarry operation audits every three years. Between onsite audits, TCEQ relies solely on complaints from local citizens or the plant operators self-reporting documentation. Also, the industry is allowed to self-audit under the Texas Environmental, Health and Safety Audit Privilege Act. Aggregate industry operators monitoring their own air quality and self-auditing is comparable to the fox guarding the hen house!

Finally, there is data that shows that the aggregate industry in Texas is not as stringently regulated as other “open pit mining” industries in Texas. Aggregate mining regulation in Texas doesn’t even compare to aggregate mining regulations in other states. Due to this lack of regulation the citizens affected by the prolific, irresponsible aggregate industry are left with no other options but to protect themselves and their properties by filing expensive nuisance lawsuits against these plant operators.

Imagine this: you are on an outing to enjoy a weekend on Canyon Lake or canoe the Guadalupe River. Your journey takes you on Texas Highway 46 or FM 3009. In route to your scenic destination, you encounter numerous heavy trucks emitting pollutants and bellows of fugitive dust. Then you pass a huge, unsightly hole in the ground with massive equipment making unbearable noise and spewing carcinogenic dust into the air. The peace, serenity, tranquility and beauty you came to enjoy will be gone. Welcome to the new “picturesque” gateway to the Texas Hill Country.

Thankfully residents of the area are not going down without a fight. Neighbors have banded together to form grassroots organizations like Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry, Texas Environmental Protection Coalition, and Boerne to Bergheim Coalition for a Clean Environment. These citizen-driven groups face an uphill fight against the well-heeled aggregate industry, TCEQ, the Texas Aggregates and Cement Association (TACA), and politicians opposed to common-sense zoning and land use restrictions. In Comal County, it will likely be months or years before an outcome is known.

Over 200 neighbors have donated and together raised over $22,000—22 percent of our goal!

We are grateful for your generous support to protect our families and preserve our beautiful Hill Country!

(If you contributed and don’t see your name listed above, our apologies. Please let us know and we’ll make sure you are recognized. Thanks!)

We also appreciate the contributions of many donors who have chosen to remain anonymous.

Join the Cause!

If you haven’t yet contributed, we need all hands on deck! We are an all-volunteer group of neighbors banding together to protect our families and the beautiful Hill Country. But fighting a huge corporation like Vulcan requires legal and scientific expertise. Help fund legal representation by making a contribution. As of May 10, we have raised 22 percent of our total goal. To meet our goal, we need 400 more donations of $200 each—but smaller amounts are welcome too!

Contributions can also be made by check. Please make your check payable to and mail to: Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry, P. O. Box 310431, New Braunfels, TX 78131.

We’ve worked with 1st Source Digital to produce signs expressing your opposition to the quarry. Posting signs in highly visible locations is a great way to get the word out!

Three purchase options are available:

• Four 2 x 4 foot signs ($40)
• Two 4 x 4 foot signs ($40)
• One 4 x 8 foot sign ($40)

Location
1st Source Digital
4390 East FM 1518 (1/2 mile south-east of I-35/Gillman Honda)
Selma, TX 78154
Map & Directions

Contact Info
(210) 566-8800
kelli@1stsourcedigital.com
1stsourcedigital.com

Tell the vendor that you want the Stop Vulcan Quarry signs, then post them for maximum visibility!