Concrete company eyes new site north of Burnet

BY ALEXANDRIA RANDOLPH
HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS

Plans for a new concrete plant 4.5 miles north of Burnet city limits are underway.
Lauren Concrete, Inc., a Round Rock company, has submitted and Air Quality permit to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for review, and notified Burnet County officials of the application last week. The permit application cites a property located at 6975 US 281 north as the planned site for a concrete batch plant.
On June 15, the company issued letters to notify Senator Troy Frasier, Representative Dr. Marsha Farney and Burnet County Judge James Oakley about the application.
Lauren Concrete's Air Quality permit application arrives at an uncomfortable time for many Burnet County area residents, several of whom actively voiced opposition to an air quality permit amendment applied for by APAC-Texas, the company that operates Oldcastle Materials quarry on US 281, several miles south of the Lauren Concrete site.
Paul King, a member of the Texas Hill Country Property Rights Coalition and opposer of the APAC-Texas air quality permit amendment, said in late June that TCEQ needed to look at the bigger picture of how increasing industrial presence in Burnet County was effecting air quality before approving the amendment.
“One of the biggest concerns (with the application) was that the model used to predict the impact on the environment was only for the requested incremental production from the quarry, not the entire APAC-TX operation or the combined impact of all quarry operations in the immediate vicinity,” he said. “We are not opposed to business development but we want it to be done in a way that respects the environment and preserves the quality of life that we all enjoy in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.”
APAC-Texas has since issued an air quality permit to TCEQ for a rock crusher.
Burnet County Judge James Oakley said the county has no involvement with the Lauren Concrete application besides their receipt of notice. He added that he has personally received “no comments” from residents about air quality issues in the county or increases numbers of industrial plants.
Several other asphalt plants and rock quarries exist in Burnet county, including Century Asphalt just south of Burnet on US 281, Hanson Aggregates on the same site in the 4900 block of US 281, Capitol Aggregates in Fairland, Collier Materials in Fairland, J.M. Huber Corp on US 281 south of Marble Falls, Vulcan Material in Spicewood, Asphalt Inc. in Spicewood and several others.
A batch plant such as the one planned by Lauren Concrete is a facility that combines various ingredients such as water, air, sand, aggregate, cement, fly ash, and others in order to form concrete. Lauren Concrete currently has facilities in Spicewood, Liberty Hill, Round Rock, and other Austin area locations as well as in Brenham and Hempstead. The company has aided in the development of notable Austin buildings such as the U.S. Federal Courthouse, Dell Medical School, and several hotels.
Lauren Concrete officials could not be reached as of press time.