Save Wilbarger Bend
Communities Undermined By Under-Regulation
In Texas, this lack of accountability includes:
No public notices or hearings before digging begins
No air permits or monitoring
No environmental assessments of neighborhood impacts
No requirement to clean up the mess they leave behind
Unless making concrete on-site or crushing rocks, miners can scrape out unlimited tons of soil - even if, as on Wilbarger Bend, there is:
the highest quality farmland in the state,
a designated recreational area,
a historic Freedom Colony,
multiple organic farms growing food and flowers,
home to bald eagles and a migratory bird path,
and vital water sources.
The only requirement is to register and receive rubber-stamped stormwater permits. In a blink of an eye, hundreds of trucks ferrying tons of soil and rock can erupt onto windy farm roads not designed for this wear and tear caused by third-party drivers that the industry takes no responsibility for.
That explains how residents living along scenic Farm-to-Market (FM) road 969 and the county’s Wilbarger Bend Road were rudely awakened when 18-wheelers began roaring past their homes in the summer of 2022. In less than a year, three gravel mines have bought or leased more than 1,000+ acres along and around the Colorado River at Utley Bridge, a favorite spot for anglers and water sports. Two of them — Tex Mix Concrete and Travis Materials — have begun carving out beautiful Wilbarger Bend. These mines are not required to coordinate their actions. The state’s environmental organization TCEQ (Texas Center for Environmental Quality) does not monitor cumulative impacts either. This lack of oversight means that each company can destroy the underground streams that feed the Colorado River and clog the air with silicate without recourse. No surprise then that local elected officials say they can do nothing to help leaving residents, many of whom have families that have lived in the area since before 1860, feeling they have no recourse but to sell or live with noise, dust, and truck traffic in their back yard.
To meet the region’s insatiable demand for aggregates, three new sand and gravel mines have opened up in Bastrop County along FM 969 in the past two years.
Tex Mix Concrete, in particular, is rapidly expanding its operations east of Austin. In 2018 it began leasing a 100-acre pasture, at 513 FM 969, just three miles east of Wilbarger Bend (as seen here). In 2019 it added a concrete batch plantl. A second Tex Mix concrete batch plant was approved earlier this year off Decker Lane Road just outside Austin city limits.
Until county governments push back and demand more control over the future of their constituents, Wilbarger and other bends along the river will become the next Dog’s Head — that once-beautiful bend sacrificed for mining and then abandoned for others to clean up the mess they left behind. Visit TexasTRAM.org to see what other counties are doing to push back and find common ground with this industry.
Major Concerns
To learn more about the aggregate industry’s lack of oversight in Texas, visit Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining (TRAM) — an umbrella organization of coalitions, including Save Wilbarger Bend and then Colorado River Alliance, that are pushing for reform at the state level.
“It is necessary to properly install and maintain BMPs to minimize exposure and erosion, address good housekeeping practices and sediment control, and manage runoff”
Despite what the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) states below, Texas does not follow BMP (best management practices) for sand and gravel mining. Except for the San Jacinto watershed and a small section of the Brazos River, these mines are not required to follow the minimum standards around BMPs required in 47 other states.
