Richard Mayhew knows what the people of Rendon are saying. He’s read the Facebook posts and emails claiming his employer J7 Ready Mix is trying to build a concrete batch plant using “underhanded” methods.
Those claims, Mayhew said, couldn’t be further from the truth. The worst thing that J7 is guilty of, he says, is being a little uneducated about the permitting process.
“I feel very confident that we’ll be able to get it done. But what I want is to be able to get it done and everybody be comfortable,” Mayhew, who co-manages the company’s existing batch plant in Alvarado, said. “I want the consensus of people to be, ‘OK, they’re coming here to help. They’re not going to hurt. They’re not going to make our kids sick. They’re not going to make us sick.’”
Mayhew and his colleagues will have a chance to make their case at a Dec. 11 public meeting held by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the agency responsible for issuing permits to concrete batch plant operators. Hundreds of residents, including state Rep. David Cook, are expected to attend the hearing at Mansfield’s Anchora Event Center.
If you go
What: Public meeting regarding J7 Ready Mix’s application to build a concrete batch plant at 5428 E. FM 1187, Burleson
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 11
Where: Anchora Event Center, 403 E. Broad St., Mansfield
Neighbors say building a plant at 5428 E. FM 1187 would increase air pollution, cause health issues and rip up roads already struggling to keep up with growing traffic congestion. Twenty-six homes sit across from the site, along with an event venue, restaurants and an RV park.
After filing their protests with the environmental commission, residents formed nonprofit Green Air Solutions in anticipation of a long legal battle against J7. The group has raised upward of $30,000 to hire an attorney and prevent the company from obtaining the permits it needs to move forward.
“We’re getting headway, we’re getting noticed,” said Brandon McElroy, co-founder of Green Air Solutions. “We’re coming in marching and we’re trying to make change.”
Mayhew is concerned that the group’s opposition comes out of misunderstanding the safety measures the company undertakes.
During a tour of the Alvarado plant, which became operational in February, Mayhew pointed to the steps the company takes to reduce pollution.
Those methods include frequent watering of trucks, filter systems to catch dust, and laying asphalt to reduce the amount of dust kicked up by truck traffic. The company uses a cement product that doesn’t emit as many of the pollutants residents are worried about, including silica dust, Mayhew said.
McElroy, who lives across the street from the plant site, has spent the past two months educating himself and others about the permitting process and the pollutants generated at concrete plant sites, including sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide.
He is skeptical that families living near the plant will become supportive of the proposal following the public meeting.
“There’s absolutely no possibility for them to persuade us that everything’s going to be fine,” McElroy said. “The wool they’re trying to pull over people’s eyes is not happening. You might be able to persuade some people into believing that, but you’re not going to get a majority.”
Company faces violation notice, public notice issues
J7 Ready Mix’s proposal to build a plant in Rendon — an unincorporated community sandwiched between Burleson and Mansfield — has been trailed by controversy since residents first learned of the company’s application in September.
A state environmental investigator visited the site Oct. 9 in response to complaints that J7 employees were building on the site without proper authorization, according to an investigation report.
The investigation found J7 failed to obtain authorization for a small construction project or take steps that would have given the company automatic authorization, including the implementation of a stormwater pollution prevention plan and signage announcing the project. In turn, the company received a notice of violation Nov. 21.
“They’re in violation here. If they know what they’re doing, why are there so many violations?” McElroy said.
J7 believed it didn’t need authorization to begin construction due to the small size of the site, Mayhew said, and immediately stopped work when it learned of the issue.
“It wasn’t anything in bad faith,” he said. “We just didn’t know.”
In addition, residents have complained about how the community was notified about the permit application.
The company did not properly complete all public notice requirements prior to November, making its application “deficient” in the eyes of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, according to a Nov. 7 letter from the agency’s interim executive director Kelly Keel to Cook, who represents the Mansfield area.
J7 Ready Mix failed to post required signs at the proposed facility site or make its application available for public viewing in a place located within Tarrant County, Keel added.
Since then, the company has posted required signs and republished an amended permit notice in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Dec. 4, Mayhew said. The application is now available for viewing at the Crowley Public Library rather than in Burleson.
Will J7 Ready Mix get community’s ‘blessing?’
With the Dec. 11 meeting approaching, both sides are feeling the heat. Mayhew and his co-manager, Fernando Garcia, have received hundreds of emails accusing the company of trying to harm the community. McElroy and other group members have received threatening calls and texts about their activism.
Mayhew hopes the meeting will serve as an opportunity for J7 Ready Mix to earn the community’s “blessing” before it obtains the permit.
“If we can educate them and explain to them how we do things, I think they’ll be fine,” he said. “Nothing we do is going to harm anybody.”
McElroy isn’t so sure. He understands the company’s need to make money and capitalize on growing demand for concrete. But even if the company employs techniques to reduce pollution, the plant is guaranteed to generate truck traffic, diesel fumes and particulate matter pollution, he said.
“We’re not idiots. We’re educated people,” McElroy said. “There’s no way you can keep our kids safe.”