Michael Sullivan has lived in his Missouri City home for about three years. He moved there for the small, tight-knit community.
But now a business wants to build a small concrete batch plant on the property behind his backyard. Sullivan said he is concerned about how the noise and dust could impact not only his home but also nearby community centers.
"We are within less than a mile from a high school, from a middle school, from a church," Sullivan said.
His neighbor, Raquel Garcia, said she's worried about potential health impacts from the plant.
"I have three children, and one is very allergic to dust and particles, and I'm also allergic to dust," she said. "So we are kind of concerned about all the problems that that plant could originate."
These kinds of businesses are looking to build concrete plants and crushers in Fort Bend County to meet the demands of the rapidly growing suburb.
As of mid-August, there were two pending permits for new concrete plants and one pending permit for a new concrete crusher in the county, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Three concrete companies are also seeking to renew their permits with the state agency.
These facilities often face backlash from residents whose concerns range from noise complaints to health issues.
But more recently, public officials in Fort Bend County have also begun to push back.
Donna Thomas, the chair and founder of the Fort Bend County Environmental Organization, said the group encourages residents to contact everyone from state agencies and representatives to local leaders.
She believes this action may have prompted local leaders to pay closer attention to proposed concrete manufacturing facilities across the county.
"Your mayor, your city council member, everybody that's in your area – you write them and you let them know that you're not happy about these polluters coming over in your neighborhood," she said.
Local leaders push back
Sullivan and his neighbors have turned to their local government to lead the fight against Verti-Crete Houston's attempts to build a concrete plant in their neighborhood.
His daughter, Allison Sullivan, began researching past fights over concrete batch plants.
"Some were successful in getting accommodations and environmental precautions written into the approval for the air permits," she said.
After a public hearing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Michael Sullivan was disappointed. Sullivan said he felt like the state agency was just there to "rubber-stamp" the batch plant.
So, he began reaching out to local leaders.
"The meeting showed me that we really needed to look with city government," he said.
Sullivan's neighbor, Howard King, also contacted people in the TCEQ and the city government.
"I've always thought from the very beginning (that) yes, the TCEQ must go through their due diligence to meet their qualifications under the law," King said. "But it still fell back to the city because this was a violation of city zoning."
In a statement, the agency said it "reviews applications in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws."
Missouri City's mayor has urged the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to reject the permit. The batch plant's air quality permit – which is handled by the TCEQ – is still pending.
But city leaders have said even if it’s approved, they believe the plant would not meet the city's zoning requirements.
"The property is currently zoned as Planned Development District No. 83 (PD No. 83), which allows limited uses such as retail, warehouse, and storage yard operations," the city wrote in a statement this summer. "Based on current information, the operation of a concrete batch plant is not permitted under PD No. 83. A final determination will be made once the City receives and reviews a complete building permit application."
Fort Bend County officials have also intervened, appealing to state regulators to stop the concrete plant, as well as a concrete crusher in Rosharon.
Those efforts paid off in January, after the commission temporarily rejected a permit for the concrete crusher in Rosharon.
Grady Prestage has served as a county commissioner since the 1990s. His precinct includes all three of the proposed new concrete facilities.
Prestage said the county has more resources to fight concrete plants today than it did in the past.
"I think it's a function of the new realities that we're an urban county," he said. "When we were a rural county, we didn't have the resources to even think about opposing these kinds of things."
At a recent public hearing for a concrete crusher in Rosharon, Prestage was among several elected officials who voiced their opposition to the project.
The county attorney, two school board members, and a nearby small town mayor all spoke out against the new facility.
Fort Bend ISD School Board President Kristin Tassin lives in a nearby master-planned community. She told state regulators she's worried about how the concrete crushing plant could harm students' health.
"We have over 9,000 children who go to school within a mile of where this facility is going to be built," she said during the hearing.
Tassin told Houston Public Media there seems to be growing awareness about concrete plants in the county.
When she ran for school board last year, she said she often heard these concerns on the campaign trail. That wasn't the case when she first served on the board about 10 years ago.
Tassin thinks that may be because of the increasing demand for concrete in the rapidly growing suburb.
"We're not trying to shut down business or industry or anything like that, but we're just asking for them to take into consideration where they are locating these facilities," she said.
Growth drives demand
Still, there's high demand for concrete in Texas: industry leaders say the state uses concrete at twice the rate of the national average.
"I think it's very important to first establish from a trends standpoint that concrete goes where population goes," said Rich Szecsy, chairman of the Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association.
He said concrete is perishable – meaning it has to be produced near where it's going to be used. But there are still restrictions on where concrete plants and crushing facilities can be built.
"Most people think that a ready mix (concrete) company or a ready mix plant is unregulated," he said. "That is not true at all. We are regulated by no less than half a dozen different agencies. The TCEQ is one of them."
Szecsy said it's important for these companies to listen to concerns from the community when building a new plant and find a compromise.
"What solution works for one community may not be appropriate or work in another community," he said.
In nearby Harris County, concrete batch plants have long been a part of many residents' daily lives. In 2022, there were roughly 150 of these facilities scattered throughout the county.
Erick Garcia has lived across the street from a concrete plant in Houston since he was a teenager in the mid-2000s.
For the first several years, the plant operated during normal business hours. But after new owners took over the facility, production ramped up.
Garcia said at times, the plant has operated overnight and his family has even awoken to explosions from a tower at the concrete plant.
When that happens, his family's home and the vehicles in their front yard are coated in dust.
"It goes everywhere," he said. "Literally everywhere – inside your house, outside, around the porch."
Garcia said his family regrets not fighting the concrete plant when it was first built.
"We said, ‘OK, it shouldn't be that bad. It's worked for the local people.’ But come to find out that we regret that decision so much," he said. "We didn't fight back, back in the day."