TCEQ

By Connie Swinney
Staff Writer
 

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has ordered the city of Marble Falls to alert all residents today (Oct. 17) to boil water for consumption, following flooding of several neighborhoods due to stormwater runoff making its way into the Highland Lakes from the Llano River in the last 24 hours.

The Marble Falls Police Department Emergency Operations Center (EOC) issued the alert, “Due to conditions which indicate that the potability of the drinking water supply has been compromised as a result of recent flooding.”

Connie Swinney •
Staff Writer •

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has ordered the city of Marble Falls to alert all residents today (Oct. 17) to boil water for consumption, following flooding of several neighborhoods due to stormwater runoff making its way into the Highland Lakes from the Llano River in the last 24 hours.

The Marble Falls Police Department Emergency Operations Center (EOC) issued the alert, “Due to conditions which indicate that the potability of the drinking water supply has been compromised as a result of recent flooding.”

Connie Swinney •
Staff Writer •

Grant Dean has a message for the state of Texas and a New York-based company looking to launch a mining operation on 280 acres between two subdivisions in Spicewood in Burnet County.

“This is not just our backyard,” Dean said. “This is everybody's backyard.”

Dean, the co-founder of the Texas Environmental Protection Coalition, has rallied support from several cities in Texas with similar battles before them – rock crusher/quarry operations setting up stakes next to residential neighborhoods.

The latest proposal involves a pending air quality permit by Spicewood Crushed Stone, a company owned by Dalrymple Companies, based in New York.

If approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the company would operate on 280 acres, in the 5500 block of Texas 71, between Double Horn Estates (100 home lots) and the fledgling Spicewood Trails.

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.

By Connie Swinney
The Highlander •

Burnet County officials are awaiting tests results of a “dried resin” found in several 55-gallon barrels illegally dumped into a waterway Aug. 5 behind an historic church outside Bertram.

In the meantime, investigators want the public's help finding possible suspects, as they start the cleanup process behind the historic Joppa Church, 8425 County Road 210, and the San Gabriel River behind the building.

The Burnet County Sheriff's Office report stated that a church official discovered at least eight 55-gallon barrels that Sunday at the bottom of an embankment, floating in the river.

“Clean up of a small river like this can easily run into the millions of dollars if the contents were to be found as hazardous,” according to a statement by church officials. “We are praying that nothing highly toxic will be found.”

By Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 50 filled the justice of the peace courtroom at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Monday, cheering as county commissioners narrowly approved a resolution opposing a rock crushing plant on Sandy Creek.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

A Llano County commissioner is holding a town hall meeting Tuesday, June 19, at the Kingsland Library to discuss a possible new portable rock crushing operation at Sunrise Beach Village off Texas 71.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

ROUND MOUNTAIN — Blanco County residents voiced concerns Wednesday evening that a rock quarrying operation may move into the heart of this idyllic, tranquil ranchland west of town.

Denver-based Summit Materials, which sells aggregates, has a subsidiary, Austin Materials, located in Central Texas. According to Davy Roberts, a developer who lives nearby, Summit Materials has made an offer on 350 acres of property owned by the family of the late Donald Edgar Smith.

The land in question is located at the corner of Ranch to Market Road 962 and Smith West Ranch Road (Blanco County Road 308) and includes about one mile of frontage along RM 962 and a half-mile frontage along Smith West Ranch Road. It is part of an overall tract of about 1,340 acres the family owns in northern Blanco County.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

Nearly five months after an informational hearing held in Marble Falls, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has given final approval to an air quality permit for a Collier Materials Inc. 300-ton enclosed rock crusher in Tobyville.

As a service to our readers, we have loaded the TCEQ Response to Comments regarding Asphalt Inc.'s air quality permit 148112 on our website in its entirety. This is available for free as an e-edition to our readers. This is the official 58-page TCEQ response to public comments made about the air quality permit for the proposed rock crushing plant to be located south of Marble Falls off US 281.

To read the document, go to http://bit.ly/2Aeg8cm and click on "TCEQ Response to Comments Asphalt Inc 148112"