Medina County

Environmental Action Association Inc.

www.dontmesswithquihi.com

These pages are designed to keep the Quihi community and Medina County informed about the proposed Vulcan Materials quarry and rail line (under the auspices of Vulcan's "Southwest Gulf Railroad"). The proposed quarry will be one of the largest if not the largest in Texas by the time it reaches peak output, producing between 5 and 8 million tons of aggregate annually, and approximately 200-250 million tons over its roughly 50 year operation. No new quarries of its size are being proposed or have been proposed recently, particularly over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, as this proposal is. The proposed rail line is projected to transport 95% of the quarry output to Houston and southeast Texas through congested rail lines in the city of San Antonio. Dozens of farming, ranching, and resident families live adjacent to the borders of the proposed quarry site, and formed MCEAA to protect their property from the impacts of, and taking by, the Vulcan proposal.

The proposed quarry relies almost exclusively on pumping millions of gallons of water -- estimated, based on use at other Vulcan quarries, to total more than all of the cities in Medina County combined -- to control dust and wet aggregate prior to crushing so that particulate emissions thresholds can be met. No analysis of this pumping on adjacent wells has been done; nor whether blasting will affect these other wells. Nor has the quantity of water that will be necessary for this project been disclosed. That quantity is a key input to determining how much runoff from the facility will reenter the aquifer through unlined settling ponds and discharge into hydrologically connected streams. The other key input, the runoff contribution from the quarry, has expressly not been considered.

The quarry's increased contribution to the flooding that regularly occurs in Quihi is itself significant, but increases when combined with the railroad. As proposed by Vulcan, the railroad would require land condemnation and would lie wholly within or encroach upon the 100-year floodplain over much of its route. Vulcan plans to build berms and trestle bridges over much of the route to elevate the line, but has not analyzed the impact of these on flooding, particularly not in combination with the cumulative impacts from the quarry.

Adding to the harm, in addition to lying over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, the entire project area is a candidate historic district and was identified by Preservation Texas in 2006 as one of the most endangered historic areas in the state.

When Vulcan began contemplating this project back in 1999, they had a choice: they could disclose the true impacts of this project up front, in an integrated fashion, and secure the consent of the community. They chose to run to the federal government, preempt local authority, and segment and piecemeal the disclosure process as much as possible, in an effort to cut corners and save money. Their m.o. to date has been "we don't have to." Ultimately, it has probably already cost Vulcan more money to do it that way. In the meantime, the Quihi community is fighting for its life. We need the help of local residents, property rights advocates, aquifer activists, and a broad coalition from across the political spectrum. In the end, we are fighting the overextension of federal power by a private power, to take property by force, by uncompensated damage, and by attrition, and that is something every American should be opposed to.