Concern grows over booming Williamson County rock quarry industry

GEORGETOWN, Texas - About 250 people packed into a Georgetown conference room on Thursday afternoon to discuss rock quarries.

"Williamson County has the most quarries out of any other county in the state, so there’s a lot of interest we encounter every day," said Michael Spano, the co-founder of the Coalition for Responsible Aggregate Mining, or CREAM. "As we drive, we see them. Some of them blast and shake our neighborhoods."

In 2020, Spano said Williamson County became home to 34 rock quarries.

Lindsay Mader, a volunteer, knows those quarries well.

"I was really shocked that the land had changed from this area just from all the quarries," said Mader.

Recently, Mader moved back to Florence after living in Austin for more than a decade. She now drives past quarries to take her kids to school in Jarrell.

"Just concerned about the air pollution that my kids might be breathing in," said Mader.

CREAM surveyed the attendees and found many residents attended the event with hopes of addressing concerns like Maders. 

Those findings include:

• 97 percent have had a negative experience with a quarry.
• 45 percent have had property damage from quarry blasts.
• 61 percent experienced excessive dust from a quarry.
• 55 percent have experienced damage to their vehicles.
• 90 percent have felt quarry blasts.

"Neighbors have expressed concern, including significant foundation and drywall cracks," said Kyle Wright, representing the Berry Creek Highlands neighborhood.

Rock quarries aren't new to Williamson County, but residents said they are a hot topic now because the area is growing. A few years ago, they said there was enough rural space to separate quarries and communities, but that's not the case anymore.

An environmental attorney, Molly Cagle, a geoscientist, Heather Beatty, and a state representative, Terry Wilson, sat on Thursday’s panel.

"That doesn’t mean what you’re doing on your land needs to ruin my agricultural mission," said Wilson.

Even a former quarry owner from Hays County talked about ways she tried to decrease the impact of her quarry on her neighbors.

"The industry and the environment are not mutually exclusive," said Jill Shackelford. "We’ve got to find a balance."

Shackelford touched on how quarry owners can preserve vegetation and enclose conveyors and rock crushers to limit dust emissions and reduce noise pollution.

Residents know these rock quarries are here to stay.

"We’re asking to come together, and we share this community together," said Spano.

But if the quarries are going to be in their community, they want them to act as better neighbors.

"I hope that it shows our elected officials that people really care about this," said Mader. "It’s a bipartisan issue, and that we need change."

Texas deregulated quarry operations in 2005, and Wilson added it's now one of the few states in the country with little regulations.

Organizers are trying to get a council advisory board together where they can hold more conversations with rock quarry owners and elected officials with goals to work on legislative changes that might decrease some of the impacts of quarries that they say they see daily.