CEMEX Balcones Cement Plant (New Braunfels, Texas)

Large load · 2682 WALD RD, Houston, TX

The CEMEX Balcones Cement Plant sits in New Braunfels, Texas, in Comal County, and produces bulk cement. CEMEX's May 2023 environmental product declaration for the plant says it has been producing high quality products since 1980, employs nearly 140 people, and has an annual cement production capacity of over 2 million metric tonnes. The plant's kiln line No. 2 is covered by a draft greenhouse gas PSD permit, PSD-TX-74-GHG, which authorizes clinker production of up to 3,960 tons per day.

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Overview

The EPA draft greenhouse gas PSD permit for the Balcones plant names CEMEX Construction Materials South, LLC as permittee and states that CEMEX is authorized to increase clinker production from kiln line No. 2 to 3,960 tons per day. The permit also covers upgrading the existing kiln burners to multichannel adjustable burners in both kilns. The permit describes the basic steps of cement production, including milling of raw materials, preheating and calcining in the kiln, and rapid cooling of molten clinker in a clinker cooler. The kiln line expansion is the core of the plant's capacity increase.

Profile

Plan to double the plant: Local reporting described a CEMEX plan to double the size of the New Braunfels plant. The expansion was described as adding 21 jobs and as the largest business investment in Comal County history, according to local officials. The plant is outside the New Braunfels city limits, and CEMEX has an annual payment arrangement with the city tied to a non-annexation agreement. CEMEX officials canceled a planned news conference on the expansion and declined to comment, although they had briefed some local officials. Company officials did not release the exact investment amount.

Community concerns and emissions controls: Nearby residents raised complaints about blasting and dust from the Cemex plant. A county commissioner also said the plant's kilns could add to ground-level ozone pollution. CEMEX officials responded that additional scrubbers would be added to the plant's smokestacks so that emissions would not increase even when the plant doubled. The Comal Appraisal District valued the plant's current holdings at more than $50 million. A neighbor who has lived beside the plant since it opened said plant officials had become more cooperative in recent months, notifying him by telephone before blasting near his property.