Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85655
Summit Materials' quarry in central Texas has turned the surrounding community into staunch allies through open communication and environmentally friendly initiatives. Summit Materials' recently acquired crushed stone quarry in central Texas has raised the bar on working with and for the community and the environment. by Kerry Clines, Senior Editor 'Green' D Going for the eep in the heart of Texas, a crushed-stone quarry is making every effort to do the right thing for both the surrounding com- munity and the environment. The quarry, formerly KBDJ, was acquired by Summit Materials last year, and the two fit together like a hand in glove, according to Jill Shackelford, president of Industrial Asphalt, LLC and KBDJ. "KBDJ was the company we formed to permit the land in 2002," Shackelford says. "We started mining in 2004 under a permit by rule (PBR). A PBR allows limited production and limited hours of operation, if you're on a big enough piece of property. It was a small 210-tons-per-hour permit. We mined under that permit for a year until we got our air permit." The quarry, Nehemiah Pit, is located on Ruby Ranch in Hays County, just south of Austin near the small town of Buda. The Ruby family has owned the ranch for a long time and still lives there, and they possess 100 percent of the mineral 18 AGGREGATES MANAGER July 2012 rights. The quarry occupies approximately 450 acres of the ranch. "This was a working cattle ranch," Shackelford says. "We came in and built a road. We paved it as part of our air permit for dust control." Open communication It wasn't smooth sailing in the beginning, but Shackelford and Jeff Coyle, who handles public relations for the quarry, were committed to making things work with the community. "It really is, so often, a fear thing," Coyle says of early resistance from the surrounding community. "People have impressions that are not necessarily rooted in fact. They're scared, and they fight back. Our process has been to share information with the community and help them understand how the quarry works. When they do understand, they cease to worry about it. Now, the neighbors liter- ally love Jill." "We took the loudest voices of opposition in