Quarry given OK to expand

State approves permit for property near Garden Ridge despite range of concerns

State regulators have approved a permit that allows the Servtex Quarry near Garden Ridge to expand by more than 1,000 acres — over the objections of local officials and environmental advocacy groups.

Heidelberg Materials, the Germany-based company that owns and operates the Comal County quarry, owns more than 4,000 acres in the area just north of San Antonio and is currently mining about 1,100 acres there. It recently acquired another 1,100 acres of former ranchland, and company executives want to mine on more than 800 of them, a move the company says will extend the life of its operations.

The land is on the Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones, areas where water enters the system that provides groundwater for more than 2 million people. The company was required to submit a plan outlining how it will prevent contaminants from entering the aquifer.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told Heidelberg executives this week that it has approved that plan.

Area residents and environmental advocates — some of whom allege the quarry is causing environmental damage — say they were disappointed by the ruling.

They said they still plan to challenge the company’s pending request for an air quality permit for the site.

Heidelberg’s plan requires maintaining a 50-foot natural buffer around the site’s perimeter, using earthen berms to surround the quarry site and using natural vegetative filter strips to treat runoff. The strips are flat grassy areas designed to accept runoff and remove pollutants, according to TCEQ guidance.

Heidelberg spokesman Jeff Sieg said last month that the company will not mine the new property simultaneously with its current quarry but plans to shift operations over time.

“When we look at the life of the quarry, we talk in terms of reserves and

how long we have left on the current property,” he said. Heidelberg plans to continue mining the current quarry in the immediate future, he said, with work on the new location potentially starting in a few years, depending on demand for the company’s products.

TCEQ’S approval expires in two years unless the company seeks an extension or has begun at least 10% of construction by then. At least 50% of construction must be completed within 10 years, or the permit will expire.

“The acquisition of this land ensures the company can continue operations and keep supplying much needed aggregate resources to our growing communities in the long term,” Sieg said this week.

Garden Ridge City Council Member Lisa Swint, who is among those who oppose the quarry’s expansion, said she wasn’t surprised by TCEQ’S ruling.

“This is what they do. These approvals are fairly perfunctory,” Swint said. The commission notified the company of specific issues with the application three times, and once those were addressed, “they cleared all those and there you have it,” she said.

Swint said she plans to file a motion to overturn, asking TCEQ commissioners to review the decision. Swint said the company will also need an air quality permit for the expansion site, which she said she plans to challenge through the TCEQ process.

The Servtex Quarry has operated in the Garden Ridge area since the 1930s, before the city was incorporated. However, Swint and Mayor Robb Erickson said issues with dust, traffic and lack of transparency have escalated over the past few years. In an interview in February, they said truck traffic from the quarry is damaging roads, and they raised concerns about dust from trucks and from blasting operations at the quarry and said boulders are tumbling down the quarry’s berms near homes and schools.

They said they want Heidelberg to clean up operations at its active quarry and that they object to the company’s plans to turn the ranchland into quarry pits, creating more dust and adding more traffic on another narrow road.

“The biggest concern is it doesn’t sound like a good fit for the community,” Bracken Cave Preserve Director Fran Hutchins said. The cave, which is home to the world’s largest bat colony, is about 4 miles from the quarry’s expansion site.

In addition to the impact on the neighborhood and nearby homes and schools from traffic and air pollution, he said the expansion could also destroy habitat for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler and the tri-colored bat, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list as endangered.

Unlike the 10 million migratory Mexican free-tailed bats that call the Bracken Cave home during the spring and summer months, tri-colored bats roost in trees and hibernate in caves, Hutchins said.

“The quarry is going to destroy caves on the property,” which is where the bats spend the winter, he said. Trees removed from the quarry land will eliminate roosting areas for the species during the spring and summer, he said.

Heidelberg’s plan calls for temporarily sealing, then ultimately removing four caves and cavities on the new quarry site, along with adding buffers to preserve three more sensitive karst features, which are sinkholes and caves where water enters the ground. The Edwards Aquifer recharges through karst features including caves, streams and other fractures in the surface that allow water to enter the system.

The Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for protecting the aquifer, has also objected to Heidelberg’s plans.

In comments submitted to the TCEQ this month, the alliance said the ability of the aquifer to quickly recharge “increases the concern of contaminant loads and pollutant sources entering the Edwards Aquifer at a rapid rate.”

The alliance said the sediment from the quarry and the nitrates used for blasting rock in the mining process “raise a concern for the area’s underlying aquifer and groundwater supply.” The group also said it has concerns about the “environmental integrity” of Dry Comal Creek and its watershed.

According to the water pollution abatement plan, Heidelberg plans to add crossings through Dry Comal Creek and Bear Creek on the eastern and western ends of the property. The company must receive permits from Comal County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for those crossings.

The company has disputed claims that it hasn’t worked with Garden Ridge residents to address issues at the quarry.

Sieg said in February that Heidelberg consistently works with the community and local officials, and he said it welcomes anyone with concerns to talk to the company. He said the quarry has detailed procedures for blasting operations and monitoring and that Heidelberg wants “to be a good neighbor.”

“We remain committed to working with all our stakeholders to maintain clear and transparent communications and ensure we are responsive to their concerns,” he said in a written statement Wednesday.

Under TCEQ regulations, Heidelberg must provide written notification to the state agency at least 48 hours before beginning construction on the expansion.