Page 77 - 2022 Sustainability Report

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Continuous Cycle of Production and Reclamation
Offers Ongoing Benefits to Colorado Communities

As the population boom in Colorado continues, two natural resources above most others are in incredibly high demand: sand
and water storage. What makes Martin Marietta’s Taft Hill Sand & Gravel such a valuable community partner is it provides one
as a direct result of producing the other.

Increasing its population by nearly 15% between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Colorado is the sixth
fastest growing state in the country. Supplying the housing and infrastructure needed to accommodate that growth requires
ample amounts of ready mixed concrete, which requires high-quality sand and gravel. Taft Hill has plenty of it.

While many think of beautiful mountains and mountain lakes when they picture Colorado, much of the state – including
Denver and its surrounding areas – rests in what is technically a semi-arid high desert. To put that in perspective, Denver
receives about 14 inches of precipitation annually compared to other cities like New York City (46 inches), Seattle (37 inches),
Chicago (36 inches) and Phoenix (9 inches). For Denver to make the most of its precipitation requires water storage options. As
a result of its production processes, Taft Hill has plenty of those, too.

It’s all part of the mining cycle, says Area Production Manager Britney Guggisberg. “Mining is important because it provides the
materials we need for our homes, roads and public buildings. Locally, Taft Hill has produced the sand and gravel needed for this
construction since the early 1970s,” she says. “But there’s more to this operation than just mining. Reclamation efforts are
ongoing here. We mine, we reclaim. We mine, we reclaim. Because water is so important in Colorado, much of our reclamation
efforts focus on water storage.”

Whereas most large crushed stone operations elsewhere in the country mine in a concentrated area over the course of decades,
Taft Hill, like other Martin Marietta sand and gravel operations in the West Division, is able to mine its deposit in a series of
smaller cells. This allows the team to reclaim significant sections of its property while active mining continues along a different
section of the materials seam.

West Division Director of Natural Resources James Sharn says that once a cell is depleted of sand and gravel, it can be converted
into a reservoir. At Taft Hill, the team is currently taking a phased approach to convert a pair of adjacent cells. Phase I of the
project, which was awarded the Jack Starner Memorial Reclamation Award by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining
and Safety, was completed in 2020 and resulted in the creation of a 420-acre reservoir.

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