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The House Interim Study Committee on Aggregate Production Operations has released its interim report to the 87th Legislature. The report covers pollution, maintenance, and reclamation issues related to production and transportation of aggregate material. For more information, please see the full report here.

Spotlight on Recommendations

Interim Charge 1. Noise Pollution

  • APOs should monitor the noise exposure at their property line, keeping the noise level at their property line below 65 dB if the property line is within 880 yards of a residential area, school, or house of worship, and 70 dB if not.

Interim Charge 2. Light Pollution

  • APOs should be held to IDA and IES standards for outdoor industrial lighting.

Interim Charge 3. Transportation of Aggregate Material

  • Change TxDOT protocols to allow for an agreed upon change to a driveway should traffic conditions change.
  • Require that new APOs have enough right of way purchased to construct acceleration or decelerations lanes.
  • Commission a study to establish a Pricing Model for Pavement.

Interim Charge 4. Air Quality

  • Require on site monitoring of PM10 and PM2.5
  • Commission a study to determine the cumulative effect of multiple PM sources each outputting what would be compliant levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were they the only source.
  • TCEQ’s Public Meeting process for Standard Permits on APO equipment should include members from other agencies whose areas of expertise are heavily impacted by APOs.

Interim Charge 5. Blasting

  • Require that APOs comply with current regulations for ore blasting and use of explosives (regulated for the surface coal mining industry in Texas under the Natural Resources Code Title 4, Mines and Mining, Chapter 134.092, Texas Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act).
  • Require use of established blasting BMPs, including computer-controlled blasting, or its current technology equivalent, to reduce blasting noise, blast overpressure and seismic energy transmitted to near-by properties.
  • Several APOs are using computer-controlled blasting technology to minimize seismic forces leaving their property and the system works well. The technology (or its equivalent) should be required in all APO mines.

Interim Charge 6. Reclamation Efforts

  • Require that APO stormwater permit applications for APO sites contain a reclamation plan to restore disturbed lands to a condition free of public hazards and safe for future use.
  • Require Operator to post a Surety Bond to cover all reclamation costs at any point during the life of the mining project in the event operator ceases operation and fails to reclaim disturbed lands.
  • Reclamation plans should address all potential future safety and environmental problems (fugitive dust from areas not revegetated, erosion control by revegetating barren areas, etc.) that will allow the permit area to serve useful post-operations land use.

Interim Charge 7. Distance of Facilities from Adjoining Property Lines

  • Revise requirements for standard permits for APO equipment to define setbacks by the distance from the property line of the APO rather than the specific piece of equipment.
  • Revise Permit by Rule and Standard Permit applications to require compliance with all requirements of the New Source Review Permit requirements.
  • Revise Texas Administrative Code Chapter 65 to remove exemption for standard concrete batch plants (CBPs) from spacing stand-off requirements by revising and approving 2019 SB 208 to specifically state that all CBPs 144 will be held to a setback of 880 yards.
  • Revise setback rules for all APOs to treat platted subdivisions as residential areas.

Interim Charge 8. Disruption of Groundwater

  • An in-depth assessment of APO water use should be completed by the Texas Water Development Board. This assessment should be done regionally to account for the varying APOs such as aggregate quarries and CBPs, include technically and operationally based assessments of water use, and be clearly delineated in the TWDB’s Water Plans.
  • Study future water supply, especially for the rapidly growing areas of our state such as the Hill Country where water supplies are limited, and the Houston area where sedimentation is threatening the Lake Houston water supply for most of the highly populated region.
  • Require that any APO operation utilizing groundwater outside the jurisdiction of a GCD use a TCEQ approved method of water recirculation to ensure an efficient use of groundwater resources.

Interim Charge 9. Water Quality

  • Require that Texas APOs comply with the Hydrologic Balance provisions currently required for coal and uranium mines by the Texas Railroad Commission at Title 16, Part 1, Chapter 12, Rule 12.146 of the Texas Administrative Code.
  • The existing regulatory framework includes rules and regulatory processes to protect surface water quality in areas potentially impacted by APOs. However, based on testimony received by the Committee, these programs need to be improved to a higher level of protection from pollution.
  • The current WPAP program is not sufficient to protect the EARZ from future ground water pollution incidents. This program needs to be updated and expanded to be more robust, with a larger number of ongoing inspections. The program needs to continually monitor for new karst features at or near active mining areas.
  • As part of the APO permitting process, dye trace studies are needed determine the ground water flow-paths prior to major quarries being approved, especially in areas close to major natural springs and water wells.

Interim Charge 10. Sedimentation and Flooding

  • Best Management Practices (BMP’s) for APO’s, similar to those in many other states (e.g. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, 2007) are needed.
  • New mining should be minimized or restricted in delineated floodplains, floodways (areas of most frequent flooding) and channel migration zones (areas most like to be eroded by lateral migration and river avulsion).
  • Mines should be “prohibited within the adopted regulatory floodway unless it has been demonstrated through hydrologic and hydraulic analyses that the proposed encroachment would not result in any increase in flood levels.
  • Stockpiles should be located outside the floodway, because of the high potential for erosion (and resultant sediment pollution) during frequent flooding.
  • Erosion control requirements should be implemented during construction, active mining, and post-mining phases to minimize damage to stream banks and riparian vegetation. Sand/gravel extraction in vegetated riparian areas should be avoided.
  • Minimum widths and slopes for protective levees should be required to avoid breaches allowing water to enter or exit the pits.
  • Mining below the depth of the adjacent channel bottom (thalweg) should be restricted or prohibited in order to minimize potential for pit capture.
  • Appropriate state agencies should regularly conduct water-quality sampling (e.g. sediment/turbidity, hydrocarbons, chlorides, sulfates, TDS (total dissolved solids), pH, DO [dissolved oxygen], cyanobacteria, and other likely contaminants) both from surface sampling and aerial surveillance during the active mining phase and at regular intervals after mine abandonment.

Interim Charge 11. Municipal Ordinances

  • Density rules: Where water resources are limited and fragile, counties must have the ability to establish density limits and averages. This would allow developers the flexibility to condense development or use a large lot plan depending on what is more feasible and appropriate.
  • Setbacks between incompatible land uses: To protect property values, counties would be able to provide some distance between existing neighborhoods or ranches and newly proposed industrial uses.
  • Grant authority to smaller counties consistent with authority given to counties with populations in excess of 1.4 million to regulate water wells in order to avoid some of the more negative possible sources of groundwater contamination.

Interim Charge 12. Economic Impact

  • Should concerns about the potential economic consequences of direct regulations on the APO industry become substantiated by reputable data, the legislature should institute a Best Practices Compliance Incentive Program, requiring that a contractor looking to do business with the State of Texas or a Political Subdivision, demonstrate that all APOs with whom they are doing business have received from TCEQ a certification of compliance with a set of industry best practices.