For the 12th year, Pit & Quarry has selected a Producer of the Year — an operation that displays exemplary performance in operations, training, safety, technology, environment and community relations. This year’s winner is KBDJ, LP -- a family-owned limestone quarry in Hays County, Texas, south of Austin. The company provides crushed stone for the construction of homes, roads, schools and churches in the area, and recently provided road base material for the construction of State Highway 130, a new toll road that runs east of Austin.
KBDJ is owned and operated by President Jill Shackelford, Joe Jackson and Sam Shackelford. The initials K-B-D-J stand for the first names of their children.
As a company, KBDJ is invested in the communities it serves, both socially and financially. For KBDJ, being a good neighbor means providing safe and dependable jobs for local residents. It means preserving large swaths of land for wildlife habitat preservation and improving air quality by switching to equipment that emits fewer pollutants.
It also means offering its site as an educational resource for teachers, scientists and environmentalists seeking to learn more about the natural world. And, ultimately, it means reusing the land in ways that will enhance and benefit the community once all mining activities have ceased.
The company believes that industry, education and the environment are not mutually excusive endeavors.
KBDJ employs seven equipment operators and one scale-house operator on a single shift, and it processes about 750,000 tons of material annually. It accomplishes this by running a highly efficient operation that is dependent on quality employees and significant investments in equipment.
The company recently upgraded to a larger crusher -- an Eagle 1600-69 horizontal impactor -- which has allowed it to triple production from 200 tons per hour to 600 tons per hour, with potential production of 1,000 tons per hour.
It puts a great deal of focus on employee retention. Among its current team, the average length of employment is about three years. KBDJ’s plant manager and engineer, Lenny Bobrowski, said, “Nobody has left KBDJ for a better job.”
Technology is critical to many aspects of the operation, including production, environmental protection and community outreach.
KBDJ utilizes a belt scale to monitor production rates. Data is sent from the belt scale in the quarry to a computer in the scale house one-mile away via point-to-point directional antennas and ethernet bridges. This allows the operation to observe tons per hour and total production at any point in time.
The company monitors groundwater quality using a multiparameter probe. The probe records pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity and water level every 10 minutes. This information is then uploaded to a laptop computer for analysis.
KBDJ installed discriminating backup alarms that only sound when an object is detected within 15 ft. of the machine. This reduces noise for the adjacent neighborhood while providing the necessary safety measure.
Training and safety
Employee training is an essential ingredient to the company’s success. All employees are MSHA-certified and trained. They’re also certified in CPR and first aid. Although MSHA only requires one operator per shift to have this training, KBDJ feels it’s important all employees be prepared in case of an emergency.
Employees receive annual training by a licensed professional geologist, who teaches them how to identify recharge features they may come across during blasting and mining. Employees in leadership roles attend industry conferences and workshops to learn about new technologies and best practices.
The safety of employees, contractors and neighbors is of utmost importance to KBDJ. The company has had only one work-related injury recorded at its facility since beginning operations in December 2004. The company’s two most-recent MSHA inspections resulted in zero violations or citations.
KBDJ prohibits trucks from leaving its site for 30 minutes before and after the opening and closing bells at a nearby middle school. Therefore, no trucks from the site pass through the school zone during that time.
Truck drivers who have been identified as operating recklessly are banned from the site, and the company encourages neighbors to report unsafe trucking practices witnessed on the roads.
Environment
On the open space surrounding the quarry, Blackbuck antelope and white-tailed deer roam freely among the towering oaks. A pond is home to bass, catfish and turtles. Natural water crossings lie undisturbed and are protected from runoff by silt fences. As lifelong Texans and outdoorsmen (and women), the KBDJ team is committed to protecting the natural beauty of its Hill Country site.
KBDJ has voluntarily implemented several measures that are not required by the state and not historically utilized by quarries operating in this region:
• In order to assure neighbors that it will not be competing for the same aquifer water, KBDJ draws water from the deeper Trinity Aquifer instead of the Edwards Aquifer (where neighbors pump their drinking water). The deeper well was a significant cost to KBDJ, but the company felt it was a fair and worthwhile investment.
• Even though the quarry does not utilize Edwards Aquifer water, KBDJ installed a well strictly for monitoring the water quality of the Edwards (in addition to its observation well in the Trinity). Its water-quality reports are submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
• KBDJ’s new rock crusher is powered by an 800-hp electric motor and is covered on three sides to reduce dust emissions and reduce noise.
• KBDJ recently purchased two new low-emission loaders with a Tier III engine to replace older equipment as part of the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan.
• KBDJ is partnering with the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) to create a wildlife habitat on its property. As part of a year-long effort to be WHC certified, KBDJ has installed bat houses on the site to provide food and cover for some of the 100 million bats that migrate from Mexico to Texas each year. KBDJ is also studying invasive plant species on site and developing a plan to control them.
• KBDJ collected used Christmas trees from neighbors and submerged them in a pond on its property to provide additional habitat for fish.
Community relations
KBDJ is located close to a residential subdivision so it is important that it has an effective community outreach program. Over the past year, the company made tremendous strides educating, communicating and working with its neighbors.
It recently created a Quarry Advisory Committee to serve as an open forum to discuss issues related to its operation. Facilitated by a local county commissioner, the company had several neighbors agree to serve on the committee. KBDJ representatives gave presentations on its operations and blasting practices.
KBDJ created a detailed web site that includes links to permits and inspection reports, answers to frequently asked questions, opportunities for comment and a blog to keep the community informed of its day-to-day operations.
The company periodically sends letters to the neighboring community, updating them on its operations. It has used these mailings to notify neighbors of its web site, Christmas tree drive, Quarry Advisory Committee, etc.
Over the past year, KBDJ hosted tours with a number of elected officials. It has offered its site to teachers and scientists for use as an “outdoor classroom” to study geology, habitat and sustainability. Organizations that have conducted field trips at the site include the Texas Environmental Educators Association, Emerging Professionals in Conservation, Hill Country Conservancy and Pflugerville Independent School District.
Also, the company has hosted local media tours of its site on several occasions. Reporters from the Austin American-Statesman, Hays Free Press, KEYE-TV, and Fox 7 Austin have produced positive feature stories on KBDJ.
Information for this story provided by KBDJ, LP. To learn how you can nominate your operation for Producer of Year in 2009, e-mail us at info@pitandquarry.com.
