Page 54 - 2021 Sustainability Report
P. 54

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP




          Water and the Needs of Our Communities



          Not only do we focus on ensuring that our discharges  Institute’s Water Risk Atlas tool, known as Aqueduct. A
          do not diminish the quality of local water resources, we  profile of our building materials operations (which includes all
          also are committed to being responsible users of the  businesses other than Magnesia Specialties) is shown below:
          available water in the communities in which we operate.
          Martin Marietta’s production processes rely on water.
          Importantly, we implement water management practices   “Importantly, we implement
          recognizing that clean and reliable water is also critical to  water management practices
          our local communities.
                                                                 recognizing that clean and reliable
          To this end, in 2020 we examined the water stress levels of
          these communities, measured as a ratio of annual water  water is also critical to our local
          withdrawals to total available annual renewable supply. A  communities.”
          higher percentage indicates that there are more water
          users competing for the water resource.
          Areas with high water stress are those with a range of 40
          percent to 80 percent and areas with extremely high water
          stress are those greater than 80 percent. We analyzed our
          operating locations by zip code, using the World Resources








           43        aggregates locations in areas   20     ready mixed concrete         1    cement plant located
                                                                                              in area classified as
                                                            as high water stress
                                                                                              high water stress
           48        aggregates locations in areas   58     ready mixed concrete         1    cement plant in area
                                                                                              classified as extremely
                                                            as extremely high water stress
                     water stress
                                                                                              high water stress
          Geographically, the majority of our locations classified as  over time, these improvements still led to an estimated 20
          high or extremely high water stress areas are primarily in  percent drop in water usage per ton of stone produced or
          Texas, Colorado and California. In those areas, responsible  an annual savings of approximately 390 acre feet of water.
          water use and recycling are critical, and we have made
          significant efforts to reduce water waste, as described in the  The water recovery system at Beckmann Quarry, installed
          following examples.                                   in 2010, continues to provide significant benefits and
                                                                reduced the facility’s water withdrawal by an average of
          Over the past several years, Martin Marietta has invested in  50 percent compared to 2009. This equates to a pumping
          water recovery equipment at Medina Rock & Rail Quarry,  reduction of more than 20,000 acre-feet, resulting in
          Beckmann Quarry, Chico Quarry, Black Spur’s Bird Hill  billions of gallons of additional Edwards Aquifer water that
          Plant and Hunter Stone Quarry, each located in Texas. For  is available to South Central Texas communities for other
          example, at our Medina Rock & Rail plant between 2018  beneficial uses.
          and 2020 we completed a number of operational
          improvements, including an on-site water recycling pond  In 2020 and 2021, our Texas ready mix operations
          as well as paving 4 miles of roadway. While the plant’s  undertook initiatives designed to reduce water waste. In
          production of washed products has increased dramatically  particular, all but one of our North Texas plants have


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