Opposition to a sand mining operation that is planned along the Llano River near Kingsland is coalescing as citizens and attorneys against the project stand poised for a legal battle.

The proposed site of the Kingsland Sand Plant, which will be owned and operated by Marble Falls-based Collier Materials, Inc., is along the Llano River Arm of Lake LBJ at the Moss/Miles ranch, west of the 2900 bridge.

Collier’s plan is to use two barges to dredge sand from the Llano River and pump the sand to land, where it will be processed. The plant and stockpiling areas will have a combined footprint of around 6 acres.

At max production, the plant would be capable of processing 4,000 tons of sand per day, which would require 120 trucks per day to transport materials away from the site on County Road 309.

If all permits are approved, the plant would start operations next spring.

Opposition forces

Not so fast, say nearby residents.

A group of concerned citizens known as Save Lake LBJ is joining forces with a lobbying group known as TRAM, or Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining.

“Aggregate mining is a growing problem across the state, so the organization is growing,” said Barbara Schmidt, who lives in the Comanche Rancheria neighborhood adjoining the proposed site.

Save Lake LBJ’s Change.org petition--Oppose the Collier Sand Plant in Kingsland--has gotten almost 2,300 signatures. (A rival petition--Save Lake LBJ and Support the Removal of Sand--has gotten just over 50 signatures and is not a Save Lake LBJ petition.)

“Our Save Lake LBJ Facebook page has close to 400 followers, and people are always asking where they can get signs and how they can help,” said Taylor Delz, a Save Lake LBJ board member who also lives in the Comanche Rancheria neighborhood. “Our following and our support is growing every day.”

It’s not just locals who have signed the petition, it’s also people who rent vacation homes on the lake.

“The petition is on fire,” Schmidt said.

Concerns

Save Lake LBJ members delineated four overarching concerns: property values, environmental, recreational and traffic safety.

Virgil Yanta, chairman of the Save Lake LBJ board of directors, is one of at least five attorneys who is involved in the opposition to Collier’s sand plant proposal.

Yanta lives just over a mile upriver, on the opposite side of the Llano River as the proposed plant location, but he sees several potential negative impacts.

He questions if lung damage from silicates in sand dust could be a problem, along with sand and dust pollution of the air. He said that it would be difficult to navigate a recreational boat around barges and pipes in the water, resulting in a negative economic impact when vacationers choose the Colorado River or other parts of the lake.

“No one will want to be within view or earshot of all the ugliness and noise of that sand plant,” Yanta said.

The group expects property values to decrease.

“Everyone on this stretch of the lake will have dredgers in front of their lake house that they paid up to $2 million for,” Delz said. “No one who has lived near a sand plant has anything good to say about it. I’d like to see evidence of (Collier’s) claims.”

Yanta said there could be a domino effect of property values decreasing.

“The county will have to pick up the slack, and taxes would have to increase for the rest of Llano County,” he said. “It’s just a nightmare. In legal terms, it’s a nuisance.”

Schmidt owns some acreage that adjoins the proposed site, and her residence is a block away.

“It will directly impact the hunting, ranching and wildlife,” she said, adding the operation would also affect the community park nearby where many folks load their boats into the water.

“The county should be careful before engaging into any financial arrangement with a profit-making company,” Schmidt said.

Until permit applications are filed, those in opposition are preparing for battle.

There are at least five attorneys working on the issue, Yanta said.

“I’m a country boy from down in South-Central Texas, and the phrase, ‘all that glitters is not gold’ comes to mind,” he said. “(Collier) should be willing to put it in writing as a contract and guarantee it. Talk is cheap.”

The Llano News is continuing to work on this story.