The State also requires the APOs to submit Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP). 1,143 were approved 5 were denied and 72 were withdrawn. Only air quality concerns can be considered in issuing this permit, which disregards all of the industryвЂ™s other significant impacts.ДЇrom 2009 to 2019, 1,220 air quality permit applications were submitted to TCEQ. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is required to issue air quality permits to the aggregates industry. What does the State of Texas do today to address the negative impacts of APOs? Additional quality of life concerns include constant noise and odor, destruction of rural character and natural habitat and ecosystem function, light pollution, and blasting.Speeding, illegal waste dumping on the roads and truck safety violations, spills, and damage to fences and other private property are apparent in most locations. Dangerous and destructive trucking: heavy truck traffic has increased dramatically near new APOs, much on overloaded municipal, county and state FM roads.Operators in Texas are allowed to simply walk away after a site is mined, without returning it to a safe or useable condition. Long-term landscape destruction with no reclamation required.Those pollutants can include diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate being used as the explosive agent in the mining process on a regular basis, or urban runoff containing fertilizers, pesticides, oil products, and septic effluent that can be washed into the pit or into downstream waterways during major flood events. Quarries are a form of a man-made feature with open pits in bare bedrock that can act as funnels for pollutants to enter aquifer systems, rivers, and streams with no natural filtration. Water and waterway contamination: quarries and mines are known to pollute ground- and surface-water and severely degrade the natural stability of streams and rivers, resulting in more damaging floods.Water use: a typical quarry uses about 50 gal of water per ton of aggregate mined and processed, which could be significantly reduced through use of best available technologies.Air quality: significant impact, including emissions of carcinogenic PM2.5 particles and significant dust, all of which lands in and around nearby communities.More specifically, the industry impacts include: The Texas aggregates industry today has significant negative impacts on the health, safety, property rights, property values, natural resources, and long-term viability of Texas communities. What are the negative impacts of APO operations? The aggregates industry provides necessary materials for the construction of roads and buildings. What benefits does the aggregates industry provide to Texas? The charge for the House Interim Committee on APOs includes study regarding all of the above-mentioned operations, collectively referred to in this document as the вЂњaggregates industry.вЂќ

However, the term is often applied more broadly to include places where aggregates are used, processed, or stored: concrete batch plants, hot-mix asphalt plants, and bulk mineral handling facilities.

Unsure if your project is subject to regulation by the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program? Use the Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer to help determine.Narrowly defined, Aggregate Production Operations (APOs) are places where aggregates-sand, gravel, and stone-are mined and quarried. (1) You disturb more than five acres or (2) you are conducting activities as part of a large plan of development that may disturb five or more acres.

Conducting other activities that may pose a potential for contaminating the Edwards Aquifer or surface streams that recharge it.

Filling, clearing, excavating, or carrying out any other activity that alters or disturbs topographic, geologic, or recharge characteristics of a site.

Constructing buildings, utility stations, utility lines, roads, highways, or railroads.

Some examples of activities covered by these rules are: (1) Construction-related or post-construction activity on the recharge or transition zones and (2) your activity has a potential for polluting the aquifer and surface streams that recharge it, then you are affected by the Edwards Aquifer rules. Who is affected? Recharge Zone or Transition Zone The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program rules were established to ensure that contaminated runoff does not harm the quality of water in the Edwards Aquifer. The Edwards Aquifer is essentially protected habitat for a number of federally protected species and the primary water source for over two million people in San Antonio and the surrounding Central Texas communities.

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