March 9, 2006

Eugene Sand has new president

by Joe Mosley

The Register-Guard

Eugene Sand & Gravel, a 100-year old gravel mining and road construction firm, has someone not named Alltucker at its helm for the first time in nearly a half-century.

KC Klosterman took over last week as company president, the former president and new chief executive officer, Mike Alltucker, announced Wednesday.

"I fired myself and gave myself a new title, all in the same day," Alltucker said.

Klosterman has extensive experience in the construction industry, including several years in executive positions with Morse Bros. Inc., the Tangent-based company with road construction, bridge building and gravel mining operations throughout the southern Willamette Valley.

For the past five years, Klosterman served as president of Albany's HCS Group, a business management consulting firm, and as managing partner of Pacific Northwest Trust Properties.

Klosterman was not available to comment on his new position Wenesday but started work at Eugene Sand on March 1, Alltucker said.

"KC bring tremendous management skills," he said.

"I've known KC for years, and have worked with him as a competitor ... and as a consultant. It's always worked out real well.

"This is exciting for us, and will be exciting for the community."

Alltucker said he doesn't expect that his own role with the company to be diminished - he is not retiring, but he will be serving in a somewhat different capacity. His father, John Alltucker, will continue to serve as chairman of the Eugene Sand board of directors.

"We've got a need for help, and KC's going to fill the hole," Mike Alltucker said.

Eugene Sand, which began operations in the late 1800s, has been owned by the Alltucker family since 1959.

It will continue to be family-owned, but Klosterman's hiring is part of a "long-term management-continuation plan" that is necessary because there are no third-generation members of the family who are in position to take over, Alltucker said.

March 5, 2004

Focus 2004: The Economy

Aggregate resources a big business
Mining of sand and gravel, crushed stone is essential to construction projects
By BECKY WALDROP
Albany Democrat-Herald, Corvallis Gazette-Times

Photo: Green & White Rock Company.

CORVALLIS — When the sun is shining, business is hopping at Green & White Rock Company in south Corvallis. Concrete trucks roll, delivering building materials to homeowners, general contractors and construction sites.

No project is too big or too small, said Bob Hogensen, general manager of Green & White. Clients from Sweet Home to Alsea can order as little or as much concrete as they need. “Basically, we’ll sell to anybody that can use our product,” he said.

Since 1976, Green & White has taken rock and gravel from an open pit and crushed it to sand and rock for making concrete.

The operation has grown from 10 people to 32 employees, including truck drivers, a small office staff and production workers.

“It’s a good little operation,” Hogensen said. “Everything is done here at our place of business.”

Green & White is a part of Oregon’s $250 million aggregate industry, supplying the materials needed for building and construction.

It takes almost 40,000 pounds of minerals a year for every person in the United States to maintain the standard of living, according to the Minerals Information Institute. That’s about 20 tons per person of building materials, the bulk of them aggregates such as stone, sand and gravel and cement.

In Oregon, the growing population has fueled demand for aggregates, at the same time environmental regulation has increased to assist the recovery of salmon and other endangered species. State mining industry officials say there’s a very small balancing point for meeting the need for minerals and maintaining the quality of life.

Extracting mineral resources, or mining, is a growing industry. Materials are needed to build roads, commercial development and homes.

“Aggregates are the base building block for the state of Oregon,” said Gary Lynch, assistant director of the state Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

Mining can also be contentious.

“On the other hand, we don’t want the whole state to turn into a mine,” Lynch said.
The actual amount of land permitted for commercial mining in Oregon is .03 percent, Lynch said. That doesn’t include mines that have been closed. Regulation of the industry as it exists today only dates back to the implementation of the state land-use laws in the early 1970s.

That’s why one knows the exact amount of land that has been affected by mining.
The Department of Geology and Mineral Industries has permits issued for 850 mining sites in the state and is charged with inspection and regulation enforcement. “The industry is generally responsive and responsible,” Lynch said. The agency has a $1.3 million annual budget, which comes entirely from permit fees and fines.

RECLAMATION EFFORTS
A big part of industry regulation is ensuring compliance with reclamation projects to restore the mined land. Many reclamation projects are done on a voluntary basis, especially old mine sites that were exempted from regulation or were closed before land-use restrictions came to be.

Photo: Bob Hogensen, general manager of Green & White Rock Products, points out an area that once was scarred by the mining. When the company finished mining the area, it returned the original topsoil so the acreage could be farmed again. (Ryan Gardner / Corvallis Gazette-Times)

In the last decade, efforts to restore native-run salmon and riparian habitat has impacted mining operations. The location of the high-quality alluvial, or river rock, means that many mine operators must make efforts to protect salmon habitat. One of biggest environmental concerns with mining is that it can increase water turbidity, the stirring up of sediments that isn’t fish-friendly, Lynch said.

Turbidity was such a huge issue with protecting salmon that the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries took over water quality permitting for mine operations from the Department of Environmental Quality.

During site inspections, the state ensures that mining practices comply with requirements of the permit, such as addressing stormwater runoff and land reclamation. It can cost millions of dollars to maintain mine permits, but the state cannot consider the operator’s expense in issuing permits, Lynch said.

Before the state gets involved, a landowner must go through a county land-use process to determine whether the land is eligible for mining. The local level is where the public can be involved.

In Linn and Benton counties, sand and gravel mining is a big issue, Lynch said, not only because of the salmon issue, but because many of the aggregate deposits are in the floodplain, beneath prime farmland.

Currently the state has issued permits for mining on 20,000 acres of this farmland.
“Aggregate production follows people. Production also follows need. And there’s a high demand for aggregate in the Willamette Valley,” Lynch said.

The Albany office where Lynch works has three active mine reclamation projects on the Willamette River, including the Morse Bros. Builders’ Supply mining operation near Stahlbush Island. Channeling of the river in the last 150 years has narrowed its path, which isn’t healthy for fish, Lynch said. Builders’ Supply and other reclamation projects are an effort to broaden river channels to give fish a place to spawn.

DIFFERENT ROCKS, DIFFERENT USES
Most of the local mining is for crushed stone, also known as quarry rock, and sand and gravel, primarily river rock.

According to the 2002 U.S. Geological Survey, about 23 million metric tons of crushed stone was produced in Oregon. Another 18 million metric tons of construction sand and gravel was produced. In Benton County, there was 1.5 million tons of aggregate produced between July 2002 and June 2003 and about another 1.3 million tons produced in Linn County. Crushed stone is most often used as the base rock for road projects. Quarry rock is also used for rip-rap and landscaping.

Photo: Once the rock is out of the ground, it is separated by size, crushed and sold in the form of gravel or mixed with sand and cement to make concrete. (Ryan Gardner / Corvallis Gazette-Times)

The location of the aggregate to the market is important because of the high cost to transport it. A state Department of Transportation study estimated it costs about 25 cents per ton per mile to move rock.

There has been some use of barges and rail to transport aggregate material, but the majority is hauled by truck.

Alluvial material, such as sand and gravel, is preferred because of its strength and look.
It’s less expensive than crushed stone and is typically better than quarry rock for road construction.

It’s also used to make concrete, by mixing it with cement and water.

Industry improvements enable aggregate companies to make harder and more durable concretes and they are now able to recycle about 20 percent of old concrete into a new concrete mix.

AGGREGATE TRENDS
Rich Angstrom, president of Oregon Concrete and Aggregate Producers Association said contractors are even building concrete houses.

“It’s a pretty big move in the industry,” Angstrom said. “They’re absolutely gorgeous, fire-proof, quake-proof, sound-proof and efficient to heat.

“Our members are good at finding specialty products.”

The trade association does see a growing gap in adequate aggregate resources and the demand for them in the future.

Already, some areas of the state, especially the coast, the Portland area, and parts of eastern Oregon do not have access to an adequate supply of quality aggregates.
Regulation and land-use issues will continue to have an impact on the industry, Angstrom said.

“Folks have the perspective that it comes from the back end of a truck,” he said.
For people to have low-cost, good quality material, the rock must come from close by, which often results in a public outcry over mining operations.

Mined minerals are a natural resource, Angstrom said, so aggregate companies want to be good stewards of the land and good neighbors, too.

Many companies do more than what’s required by the regulatory agencies.

Several old quarries have been donated for fish and wildlife projects or for park land. And the issue of who gets to have access to the different natural resources on land near rivers can even be addressed through compromise, is was the case with Green & White and the farmer who leases the land to them.

The company’s reclamation efforts are to improve the unused or low-use farmland on the property.

“We’re trying to get it back to a workable productive commodity for the farmer, whether he wants to use it for residential use, or recreational uses in the future,” Hogensen said.

“The farming community and the mining community need to work together closely.”