Gravel pits may be ugly to look at it, but they’re necessary

Utah has been the fasting growing state in the nation, with a hardy population increase of nearly 24% since 2010.

With that growth rate comes the need for new housing, new roads and other necessary infrastructure like utilities to provide sewer, water and other services to the rapidly expanding population.

In addition, Utah consumers are hungry for solar panels, with the state logging the No. 9 position in the country during the first quarter of 2021 for solar installation, according to Ecowatch.

All this growth comes with the need of aggregate materials — cement, gravel and sand — necessary components of construction and renewable energy.

The trouble is, no one wants a rock quarry or gravel pit near their community, even though their community is highly dependent — like it or not — on the material in order to grow and thrive. In most communities, the necessary material is not far from their homes, scattered in alluvial deposits along the Wasatch Front that are the remaining footprint of Lake Bonneville , a massive Ice Age lake.

The NIMBY syndrome, zoning and mining

Under political pressure due to the noise, truck traffic, air quality and other concerns, Tooele County enacted an aggregate mining zone.

In 2022, Salt Lake County passed an ordinance banning mines in the Wasatch foothills, a preemptive strike to stop the issuance of conditional use permits for Tree Farms LLC, which received a small mine permit from the state to mine 20 acres for a rock quarry up Parleys Canyon.

The ordinance was in direct contradiction to a law passed in 2019 by the state Legislature which prohibits counties and cities from amending ordinances to exclude gravel pit or rock quarry operations. Against that backdrop and despite serious opposition to the operation, the company filed suit.

Granite Construction has contended it has both historic and property rights involving the project, while opponents retort that such an operation in the foothills is incompatible with the protection of water and air quality and recreation.

Shelley Thayne Rich, a teacher at Hawthorne Elementary in Salt Lake City, said she has been an avid fan of Parleys Canyon for years and that such an operation would destroy a quality of life she’s come to cherish.

Rich spoke out against a bill by Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, HB502, which directs the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining to conduct a study of the aggregate mining industry, including how many operations exist in Utah, production, available supply, the ability to meet demand and to explore what constraints may be on the books to impede operations.

Snider said his measure, which inevitably passed despite some opposition by his Democratic colleagues, is not a mine specific bill but a look at the health of the industry in general and the needs moving into the future.

Deborah Gardner, in the same Senate committee hearing, said it was “not right to have a study” especially one that smacked of being one-sided given the players at the table. She said the study, due in November, is rushed and designed to help the people it will benefit most, while promoting harm to the environment.

Snider reiterated that his bill is not mine-specific.

“I kinda bristle at the the notion that this is somehow aimed at Parleys,” Snider said, adding there is a gravel pit a half mile from his farm in northern Utah and a quarry within his view shed.

Later, Snider told the Deseret News the state needs a better grasp on understanding the industry, including its challenges and what may lie ahead.

“I mean, nobody wants these in their backyard. But all of us drive roads to and from and we’re going to need even more material as we build homes and everything else. So I just want a better understanding of the situation,” he said. “There’s a lot of incomplete information on both sides of the issue. And so coming up with something — working with the agencies and then legislating from there — is a better path, I think.”

Dave Kallas, executive director of the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Coalition and a lobbyist for Lobby Utah, said it is getting tougher and tougher to work through the regulations for a new mine or gravel pit in Utah.

He said the state should not go the way of other regions, which have prohibited local mining in favor of trucking or otherwise shipping the material in from elsewhere.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the building boom there is supported by rock and sand that is barged in some 1,400 miles from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, even though the material is locally available and in abundant supply. Kallas said such an arrangement drives up costs tremendously, with transportation far eclipsing the actual cost of the material being hauled. The federal government shut down 4,300 acres from any new gravel pits, mining or oil development in New Mexico for protection of Native American cultural resources.

Plans to add an asphalt plant to an aggregate mine in Colorado were shelved after county planners were met with angry threats at local grocery stores and gas stations. The failed plans came even as the state government was preparing to tap into $4 billion in federal funds available for new roads and spend money to help abate the housing crisis, the Colorado Sun reported.

Location, location, location

A 2019 Utah Foundation report commissioned by the largest players in the aggregate industry found that most of the material is harvested within 50 miles of where it is needed — otherwise costs rise sharply.

“Unlike many other industries where borders are fluid and companies can choose where to expand and contract, the aggregates industry is dependent on the location of the natural resources which are mined. The aggregates industry is strongly tied to local communities,” the report said.

Washington, Weber and Utah counties benefit in particular from the jobs the industry provides, but Salt Lake County is the standout, benefitting the most economically despite the “dirty” nature of the business.

Geneva, which sought an expansion of its mining operation on ground it already owned, faced stiff opposition from Draper City and residents who wanted no more mining.

Kallas said the reality is that the Staker Parson operation on the north end of Salt Lake County and Geneva’s location at the Point of the Mountain have been there for decades, with surrounding communities growing up around them.

“There’s this pressure now that says, well, we’ve allowed housing and other uses right up next to these operations, and now people want them gone. And so the question is, do we want to protect those resources? And you know, you have a city who, ironically, when they do a road construction project they hire the lowest bidder, right?” Kallas said. “And the lowest bidder is usually the person who can source material closest because transportation is such a significant cost. Yet in their zoning decisions, they choose to zone out or deny any kind of expansion or continuing operation.”

The aggregate industry is among the most regulated and is subject to air quality and water quality permits from the state and dust operation and mitigation plans to be in place. Many of the operators try to be the best neighbors they can, despite what residents feel is an unwelcome intrusion and unsightly feature of their community.

There are number of methods Geneva uses to control dust, including water trucks that are used to spray down haul roads and stockpiles of material, enclosed containers and buildings and the washing of all trucks prior to leaving the site.

Its parent company, Clyde Companies, has had close to 100 inspections across its sites over the past year — most of them random and unannounced — and did not incur a penalty or violation, the company said.

But SaveParleys.org argued the dust from mining operations proposed or in existence in Parleys Canyon has tremendous impacts in a region already plagued by air quality problems.

The group says the dust carries toxins and despite any mitigation efforts, it would be impossible to stop down slope canyon winds from carrying it to neighboring communities. In addition, the group said it has little faith in the state’s fugitive dust control program and there is lack of adequate staffing to ensure enforcement of regulations. The group cited a litany of concerns that included potential water pollution, increased truck traffic and a use of land that is simply incongruent with the landscape of the foothills.

Snider stressed these escalating conflicts and the state’s growth speak to the need for the study.

“We need this material. To have the quality of life we have we just need to make good decisions about permitting and, and allowing it, but also just to have the discussion.”

The state also needs to look at it from a fairness standpoint, he added.

“I don’t believe that it is appropriate for rural Utah to bear all of the costs associated with these materials, whether it’s traffic or environmental or whatever,” he said. “If the same assets exist along the Wasatch Front and are stopped merely because of regulatory hurdles, then that is not appropriate.”