Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah is addressing the rising demand for aggregate materials amid growth challenges.
- HB502 aims to assess needs and costs for strategic aggregate management.
- Controversies surround gravel pits, with debates on local regulations and transportation costs.
SALT LAKE CITY — As Utah continues to grapple with explosive growth, housing shortages and significant transportation projects, the need for aggregate material is going to escalate, and the state wants to be prepared.
HB502, passed during this last legislation session, is a way for the state to assess the needs, the costs and implications for developing strategic ways to stay on top of the challenge posed by increasingly expensive material.
The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining delivered a briefing Wednesday to its board on the study parameters.
"There was and is differences between counties, different jurisdictions as to how this is regulated," said Division of Oil, Gas and Mining Director Mick Thomas. "Also, where is the industry going? Where is the aggregate? Where will it be needed? What are the costs of meeting the demands over the next 10 years, 20 years?"
But the way to mine aggregate is not without its opponents and controversy. Aggregate is derived from gravel pits, which may not be the best things to look at, but some say they are necessary. Salt Lake County, for example, is flanked on its northern and southern boundaries by extraction pits.
A gravel pit in Morgan County posed some controversy, and a mining operation up Parleys Canyon has stoked stiff opposition.
"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," said Rep. Casey Snyder, R-Paradise, on the issue of gravel pits. "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.
Some areas in the country have moved to ban them altogether, which means shouldering the cost to ship the material where it is needed — and those distances drive up costs.
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 the cost of shipping the material often eclipses the cost of the material itself.
He added 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 study report that includes municipal participants, representatives from homebuilding, and the Utah Department of Transportation is expected to foster reform on the aggregate industry.
