Groundwater District assessing studies for proposed quarry
This map shows the general layout of a proposed 715-acre quarry off of Hoover Valley Road in Burnet County. Aggregate mining company Asphalt Inc. is probing the possibility of getting a groundwater permit to fuel its operation from the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District. Image courtesy of Randy Printz
A proposed 715-acre rock quarry situated on Hoover Valley Road in Burnet is still pushing to clear one of the final roadblocks for its approval, despite steady pushback from the local community.
The Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District has received multiple hydrogeologic investigation reports from Asphalt Inc., the quarry’s potential developer, that could be used to support a future groundwater permit application.
A local activist group, Save Burnet, formed in 2024 in opposition to the Asphalt Inc. quarry project. That group began holding public meetings in 2026 to spread the word on the potential impacts of the quarry to surrounding landowners and communities.
According to CTGCD General Manager Mitchell Sodek, the district has not received an official permit application from Asphalt Inc. yet.
“We received a resubmittal of the hydrogeologic investigation with the requested additional information,” Sodek told DailyTrib. “We are now reviewing that and will prepare a response. We have not received an operating permit application yet.”
Sodek told the CTGCD Board of Directors at their January meeting that Asphalt Inc.’s original hydrogeologic investigation was sent back to request further information and ask for certain portions of the investigation to be redone.
The revised investigation has since been sent back to the CTGCD for review. This still does not constitute an application.
The CTGCD has had to clarify on several occasions that the quarry has not submitted a permit application to date, as community concerns have loomed and messages from residents directed at CTGCD staff and board members continue to pour in.
The well permitting process is one of the last checkpoints before the quarry would begin operation, since the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Lower Colorado River Authority granted their respective project permits to Asphalt Inc. last year.