Anti-mining dust up sparks Spicewood protest rallies
Lew Cohn/The Highlander
A Spicewood-area group, who have joined forces with the Texas Environmental Protection Coalition, will stage day-long protest rallies on Saturday and Sunday Sept. 8 and 9 at the entryway of Double Horn Creek subdivision. Supporters of the non-profit group (Pictured here in September 2017) protested a similar operation planned just off the Texas 71/U.S. 281 intersection.
By Connie Swinney •
Staff Writer •
A group of Spicewood residents has joined forces with a regional anti-mining group to fight plans for a rock-crushing plant and quarry operation on several hundred acres between two residential subdivisions, just off Texas 71.
The Spicewood Environmental Protection Alliance Texas (SEPATX) is hosting two protest rallies – one from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 9; both at the corner of Texas 71 and Vista View Trail at the entrance of Doublehorn Creek subdivision.
“There are already four rock processing plants operating in the immediate area,” according to a SEPATX statement, announcing the protest rallies. “The addition of a fifth plant in even closer proximity to local residents will increase health risks from carcinogenic dust, water contamination and dangerous heavy truck traffic as well as threaten our water supply, destroy wildlife habitats and reduce property values.”
On Aug. 2 Spicewood Crushed Stone applied for an air quality permit under consideration by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Attempts by The Highlander to locate a spokesperson or the company headquarters, which may be based in New York state, have been unsuccessful.
If approved, the company would operate on 280 acres between Doublehorn Estates and the fledgling Spicewood Trails, just east of Marble Falls. . . .
Find more on this story in the Friday, Sept. 7 issue of The Highlander.
