By Karen Huber
Travis County Pct. 3 Commissioner
Would you buy a home where huge gravel trucks made 250- 750 trips per day on adjacent or nearby two-lane roads? Would you buy a home where open pit mining could legally be located 50 feet away? Would you buy a home where the prevailing winds blew the noise, dust and air pollution from the above activities right towards your home, playgrounds and nearby schools and businesses? I don’t think so.
Such a situation is now in the making and it could happen anywhere in the unincorporated areas of Travis County with impacts not only on those adjacent, but everyone in Travis County.
The project is the proposed TXI sand and gravel pit to be located off Dunlap Road (south of FM 969) in Eastern Travis County. This 2000-acre proposed sand and gravel mine has very little good to offer our area. In brief, TXI could legally place open pit mining operations adjacent to existing subdivisions — some so new they are not yet completed. A large parcel of the project is located along the Colorado River on land long-targeted as primary open space or park area for the County — part of a planned continuous trail system along the river where much is already in place. It leaves unsatisfied questions regarding the impacts on existing water wells, on air quality by the gravel hauling trucks and dust from mining operations, the noise levels for nearby neighborhoods, and traffic safety on limited roadways by the 250-750 trips per day by the huge gravel trucks. The truck traffic poses a real threat to children riding bicycles or walking to schools as does the air quality, for there is already one school nearby and another to be opened soon. Over 3,000 people already live in the immediate area.
TXI provides a needed product for a dynamic economy. Sand and gravel and the related products are essential for roads, homebuilding and other growth related projects. And it is important to have the source nearby because of the cost of transporting the product. Nevertheless, this project is poised to deliver more negatives than positives for our region and no single jurisdiction has the authority to say this project is just inappropriate for this location. Because the regulatory authority has been separated and delegated by the Legislature to multiple jurisdictions and the permitting process is highly complex, it is unlikely that any jurisdiction will be able to stop it based on a single permit. Travis County has already had to approve its permit — which is limited to its floodplain ordinance. Yet, it is horrific to think that this project will be allowed.
This project will not only affect those immediately adjacent, but has huge long-range impacts on growth, health, highway funding, property values, economic development and quality of life. This 2000-acre, 15-30 year project sits in the middle of the SH 130 corridor — an area targeted for growth by the City of Austin and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce has been particularly insistent on creating tax incentives to attract new businesses and industry to Central Texas, but where are they when it comes to maintaining what makes this area so desirable — and especially when a project with such potential negative impacts as TXI is in an area targeted for growth? As this project continues to threaten, WHY aren’t our leaders and activists banding together to stop it?
What do we do when our laws fail us? For a start, community leadership needs to come together to put collective pressure wherever it might be effective. TXI executives need to hear from elected leadership as well as the Chambers of Commerce, the Real Estate Council of Austin, Homebuilders, from the banks, from major employers and others. AND we must stop letting the well-funded industry lobbies prevent legislation that is not in the best interest of our collective future. We must start working better, collaboratively, to revise our antiquated laws in Texas because we are already destroying our property values, health and economic opportunity by not doing so.
Oh, and did I mention that each 18-wheeler gravel truck built before 2007 emits the equivalent exhaust of 150 cars? Do the math. Travis County air quality is approaching non-attainment, which will mean fewer federal dollars for highway construction and higher out-of-pocket costs to taxpayers — not to mention the impacts on our health and health care costs. This project in this location is just too egregious — we MUST pull together to get it relocated or stopped or we all will ultimately suffer.