People have been talking a lot about water recently, especially Williamson County folks who depend on well water in the Florence area.
Well pumps he’s installed for aggregate quarries and asphalt plants near Salado have been capable of pulling 60 gallons a minute “at least.” “The quarries use a lot of water, and there are a lot of them,” he said.
“Regular households don’t use that much water.” Water was a paramount concern earlier this year surrounding the new Asphalt, Inc. LLC aggregate quarry and asphalt plant site just east of Florence at 10957 Farm-to-Market 487 in Williamson County.
I’ll wait and see how it plays out.” Faulkner and other residents tried to prevent the asphalt plant from happening, have kept monitoring the situation and are trying to form an underground water conservation district similar to Bell County’s Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District.
“I think the drought and the asphalt plant have all played a role in the water shortage.” Causes Although people have been dropping their well pumps recently, Fisher said it’s difficult to draw a causal link between underground water levels declining and the asphalt plant’s daily usage.
The Herald was told the asphalt plant’s operations manager was not available and the state does not monitor water usage at asphalt plants and aggregate quarries.
TCEQ permits allow for four wells to be dug at the Asphalt, Inc. site near Florence.
Meanwhile, East Texas is doing all right.
“It just goes back to the sheer number of people: It’s a combination of everybody over the years.” No state monitoring The TCEQ does not monitor operations or water usage at quarry sites but responds to complaints and comments, Keese said, previously.
There are nearly 100 groundwater conservation districts across the state, according to the water board.