P&Q Profile: Anderson Columbia’s Daniel Barrs

By |  January 3, 2023
Daniel Barrs

Barrs

Daniel Barrs is originally from north Florida, but he’s spent the last 13 years in Texas with Anderson Columbia. After P&Q’s original visit with Barrs was postponed due to the birth of his daughter, the magazine caught up with him in the days that followed to discuss developments at the Tejas Quarry he oversees in New Braunfels – and more.

Congrats on the baby girl. Tell us about that experience.

We went in and everything turned out great. We were excited to see her happy and healthy. We have twins who are 8 years old, and they’ve been a huge help around the house for us.

Is your 8-year-old son gravitating toward your line of work at this point?

He enjoys the equipment – my daughter and him both. My son has a little bit of a gravitational pull to it. Boys are always going to be into dump trucks because they want to play with the big equipment.

The good thing here in San Antonio is we have what they call The DoSeum. It’s a kids museum, but more of a DIY-type of area. They’ve got interactive things where kids can operate an excavator or a dozer.

Getting kids to take to our industry is huge, as aggregate producers everywhere continue to struggle to find people.

The more I can do to get the younger kids involved, the better. It can be showing blasting videos or having an open house. We’re not always projected as the nicest people around, but the more knowledge people have about us the better we can relate to everybody.

In terms of people, there are some many areas within operations – safety included – that are impacted when producers can’t find people. Is that what you find?

It’s hard to find good people – anybody who has a drive to them or wants to better themselves through problem-solving or mechanical skills. It’s a problem.

I’ve talked to other managers in this area, and they’re all having the same issues. It’s just sad. It’s why we must influence the younger kids that college isn’t for everybody. Get a trade. Get a skill. There’s a lot of predominantly happy people who work with their hands. I think [the trades] have been demonized for so long.

What are the workarounds to a lack of people right now?

Automation. That’s what we try to focus on. Every aspect where we don’t have to put somebody in harm’s way – or where we can negate that job – we try to implement it.

What always impresses us about the industry is that, at the end of the day, producers always seem to find a way to get the job done.

That’s the ultimate goal for anybody who takes a little bit of pride in their job. You feel better because you have a finished product, and that’s something you can hang your hat on. It’s a grind sometimes. It’s a lot of late nights. It’s coming back in after you get the kids to sleep, fixing two or three things and playing welder or electrician.

Says Anderson Columbia plant manager Daniel Barrs of the Tejas Quarry: “We’re steady at around 7,000 to 8,000 [tons] a day. We’re shooting for that 2 million-ton mark, but 1.7 million is probably what we’re realistically going to progress to [in 2022]. Every year, we’re getting bigger to implement the next phase of our plant, which would drastically increase our tonnage.” Photo: Daniel Barrs

Says Anderson Columbia plant manager Daniel Barrs of the Tejas Quarry: “We’re steady at around 7,000 to 8,000 [tons] a day. We’re shooting for that 2 million-ton mark, but 1.7 million is probably what we’re realistically going to progress to [in 2022]. Every year, we’re getting bigger to implement the next phase of our plant, which would drastically increase our tonnage.” Photo: Daniel Barrs

Let’s talk about the Tejas Quarry a bit. Where is your production at these days?

We’re steady at around 7,000 to 8,000 [tons] a day. We’re shooting for that 2 million-ton mark, but 1.7 million is probably what we’re realistically going to progress to [in 2022]. Every year, we’re getting bigger to implement the next phase of our plant, which would drastically increase our tonnage.

The Tejas Quarry is situated in New Braunfels, which is home to several very large aggregate operations. How would you describe your area to P&Q readers who haven’t ventured through there?

I’ve never seen anything like it as far as such a densely populated Quarry Road. That’s how everybody explains it: as the Quarry Road.  There are about six in a six-mile radius.

When we first got here, I thought it was going to be a cutthroat environment. But the growth of this area is tremendous, and we’re all running 24/7 just to keep up with demand. The development of this area is unreal, from federal to state to commercial. It’s all right here, and that’s a good thing.

One of the big things on the design of our plant was being able to get niches of the market. There might be a product that a lot of the bigger guys don’t want to proceed with as much as another guy who could make a certain rock that would be just within a commercial spec.

There are so many opportunities to find little niches to get materials to certain markets. If it’s not a state job, it could be at the county level. If it’s not a county [job], it could be something on an engineering-spec 30,000-home subdivision. There are opportunities for quarries and our construction industry to make a good living.

How do you feel about 2023 and the coming years?

I don’t see too much of a slowdown in this area, but I don’t know how much longer it can continue on this upward trend we’re on without having some kind of plateau at some point. I hope that’s not the case, but there’s always that little feeling you get.

Are you guys getting into recycling there at this stage, or do you see any momentum in that?

The biggest thing we see here is the aquifer. Water has been a crucial thing. That was huge on the design of our plant. The Balcones Fault has a heavy clay deposit, so you have to deal with washing. Everything is going to be a wet process. The more we can mitigate fresh water being recycled through the plant, the better.

Right now, we’re sitting around 60 to 70 percent of every drop of water we use being reclaimed and reused in the plant. That helps us be a good neighbor.

This is the driest year we’ve had in a long time, and this is the first place I’ve ever been to where they have the aquifer on the news every night. They know how much water is being drawn down. So, we try to really ramp up whatever processes we can.


Comments are closed