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Sample Letters to Your Legislators Five Ready-to-Use Templates for Handwritten or Printed Letters Address to: Governor Abbott, LT. Governor Patrick and Speaker Burrows Handwritten letters carry more weight in a legislative office than any email or petition. They represent a real constituent who took real time. Below are five sample letters — one for each key issue in our fight. Use any of them as a starting point, personalize with your own story and experience, and mail or deliver to your legislators. Addresses: Governor Greg Abbott: P.O. Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711 Lt. Governor Dan Patrick: P.O. Box 12068, Austin, TX 78711 Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows: P.O. Box 12910, Austin, TX 78711
Sample letters in support of update 103 (Please note that you can use any of the information below to save you time (highlight, copy & paste )
7/10/26 SAMPLE LETTER 1 — PROTECTING LONGHORN CAVERN STATE PARK (Personalize with your own story before sending — address to Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and/or Speaker Burrows) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
[Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows] [Office Address — see the Texas Legislative Advocacy Directory at SaveBurnet.com] Austin, Texas 78711
Dear [Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows], I am writing to ask for your leadership in protecting Longhorn Cavern State Park, a National Natural Landmark formed over 500 million years inside the Ellenburger Limestone. The proposed Asphalt Inc. rock-crushing quarry on FM 3509 would conduct daily industrial blasting less than three miles from the cavern. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has taken a positive first step by engaging Raba Kistner, Inc. to monitor the cavern for vibration and structural damage. But the current monitoring plan relies on a vibration threshold designed to protect drywall and wood-frame houses — not a 500-million-year-old cave with documented collapse zones and areas where the ceiling is at its thinnest. The proposed baseline period is as short as 20 working days, when a full year is needed to distinguish blasting damage from natural seasonal movement. I am asking you to support legislation requiring cave- and karst-specific vibration standards, a minimum 12-month pre-blasting baseline, and independent, agency-funded geological monitoring before any blasting permit is approved within a defined distance of a Texas state park. Under Texas Parks and Wildlife Code §13.101, TPWD already has authority to protect park resources — state law should make that protection automatic, not something a park has to fight for county by county.
SAMPLE LETTER 2 — YOUTH CAMP SAFETY — BLASTING AND AIR QUALITY (Personalize with your own story before sending — address to Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and/or Speaker Burrows) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
[Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows] [Office Address — see the Texas Legislative Advocacy Directory at SaveBurnet.com] Austin, Texas 78711
Dear [Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows], I am writing as a Texan who cares about the safety of our children. The proposed Asphalt Inc. rock-crushing quarry on FM 3509 would sit directly adjacent to Camp Longhorn, a youth camp that has operated on Inks Lake since the 1950s. Camp Longhorn campers live, sleep, and spend all of their time outdoors, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during the camp season — with no HVAC filtration and no walls between them and the plant. Daily industrial blasting produces not only ground vibration but an audible concussive shock and toxic combustion gases, including nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, that can travel through karst fractures and settle in low-lying outdoor areas. At the same time, rock crushing and heavy diesel truck traffic generate fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), including crystalline silica dust, that these children would breathe with no relief. I am asking you to champion legislation establishing an enforceable no-blasting buffer around state-licensed youth camps, requiring continuous air quality monitoring at any APO located near a camp, school, or residential area, and requiring pre-blasting safety and evacuation protocols wherever a licensed youth camp sits within the buffer zone. Our children's safety should not depend on which county they happen to camp in.
SAMPLE LETTER 3 — HOLD QUARRIES TO THE SAME STANDARD AS DATA CENTERS (Personalize with your own story before sending — address to Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and/or Speaker Burrows) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
[Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows] [Office Address — see the Texas Legislative Advocacy Directory at SaveBurnet.com] Austin, Texas 78711
Dear [Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows], I am writing to ask that the Legislature apply the same scrutiny to rock quarries and Aggregate Production Operations (APOs) that it is currently applying to data centers — and with greater urgency, given the permanence of the damage involved. Texas lawmakers have rightly raised alarms about data centers' water and grid demands. But newer data center campuses are actively adopting closed-loop and air-cooled systems that cut water use dramatically — one Texas facility used just 10,000 gallons in all of 2024. A rock quarry has no comparable path to redemption: every gallon pumped for dust suppression is pulled directly from a local aquifer and does not come back, and when a quarry closes, it leaves behind a permanent crater and fractured geology that can never be restored. A data center site can be repurposed. A quarry site cannot. The proposed FM 3509 quarry has requested a permit to pump groundwater from the Hickory Sandstone Aquifer — the same aquifer that supplies neighboring private wells — with no drought contingency plan required of an industrial user, even while residential customers face mandatory conservation stages. I am asking you to ensure that any legislative package addressing industrial water users treats APOs and quarries with at least the same urgency as data centers, given the irreversible nature of aquifer depletion and land destruction involved.
SAMPLE LETTER 4 — REQUIRE DRY PLANT / BEST-PRACTICES TECHNOLOGY STATEWIDE (Personalize with your own story before sending — address to Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and/or Speaker Burrows) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
[Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows] [Office Address — see the Texas Legislative Advocacy Directory at SaveBurnet.com] Austin, Texas 78711
Dear [Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows], I am writing to ask for your support of legislation requiring dry plant (baghouse and vacuum filtration) technology as the standard for new Aggregate Production Operations across Texas. The proposed Asphalt Inc. quarry on FM 3509 has requested a permit to pump up to 216,000 gallons per day from the Hickory Sandstone Aquifer, primarily to spray water into the air for dust suppression. Proven dry plant technology — already in use in Europe and adopted at a quarry in Hays County in our same Hill Country geology — captures over 99.5% of fine dust, including crystalline silica, without spraying a single gallon of groundwater. Independent economic analysis shows a dry plant system pays for itself in roughly two years through operating savings and the sale of recovered rock flour, and continues saving money every year after that. There is no engineering reason a modern quarry needs to draw hundreds of thousands of gallons a day from a shared aquifer. There is only a business decision — and current law does not require operators to make the responsible one. I am asking you to support statewide legislation requiring dry plant baghouse technology as a condition of any new industrial-scale groundwater permit for an APO, before that permit is ever granted.
SAMPLE LETTER 5 — A FOUR-MILE NO-BLASTING BUFFER FOR STATE PARKS and YOUTH CAMPS (Personalize with your own story before sending — address to Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and/or Speaker Burrows) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
[Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows] [Office Address — see the Texas Legislative Advocacy Directory at SaveBurnet.com] Austin, Texas 78711
Dear [Governor Abbott / Lt. Governor Patrick / Speaker Burrows], I am writing to ask for your support of a statewide, enforceable buffer prohibiting quarry blasting operations within four miles of any Texas state park or any state-licensed youth camp. Camp Longhorn, Camp Buckner, and Inks Lake and Longhorn Cavern State Parks near the proposed FM 3509 quarry make the stakes plain: children sleeping outdoors and 500-million-year-old cave formations deserve the same, uniform level of protection no matter which Texas county they happen to sit in. I am asking you to champion a bill establishing a clear, four-mile no-blasting buffer around both state parks and state-licensed youth camps statewide — not a patchwork of county-by-county fights, but one consistent standard that protects Texas families and Texas heritage sites alike.
I am writing to you as a constituent of Burnet County to ask for your support in protecting our local groundwater from industrial-scale depletion. Asphalt Inc., LLC — a subsidiary of Alabama-based Construction Partners Inc. — has officially filed a permit application with the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District to pump up to 150 gallons per minute, or approximately 216,000 gallons per day, from the Hickory Sandstone Aquifer at 3221 FM 3509. That is nearly 79 million gallons of Burnet County water per year — pumped primarily to spray into the air for dust suppression over a rock quarry.
This is the same aquifer that feeds the private residential wells of our neighbors. The applicant’s own hydrogeologic report acknowledges that wells within 1,000 feet of the pumping site could experience up to 143 feet of drawdown over 30 years. When a neighbor’s well goes dry, no amount of regulation can restore it.
I respectfully ask you to support legislation requiring all new Aggregate Production Operations to adopt best-practice dry plant baghouse filtration technology that can reduce water demand by over 95%, before any new groundwater permits are granted for industrial quarry use. Texas’s water belongs to Texans — not to out-of-state corporations that will take it and leave.
SAMPLE LETTER 2 — BLASTING NEAR LONGHORN CAVERN STATE PARK (Personalize with your own story before sending) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
I am writing to ask for your help in protecting one of Texas’s most treasured geological landmarks: Longhorn Cavern State Park. The proposed rock crushing quarry on FM 3509, operated by Asphalt Inc. (owned by Alabama’s Construction Partners Inc.), would conduct daily industrial blasting operations less than three miles from this National Natural Landmark. Longhorn Cavern took 500 million years to form inside the Ellenburger Limestone — irreplaceable formations that cannot be rebuilt or restored once damaged.
The current regulatory framework applies residential housing vibration standards to cave protection. Those standards were designed for drywall and wood-frame homes — not for 500-million-year-old limestone formations with documented collapse zones and areas where the cave ceiling is at its thinnest. I am asking you to support legislation requiring independent geological studies and cave-specific vibration safety standards before any quarry blasting permit is approved within a defined buffer distance of a Texas state park.
Texas Parks and Wildlife has done the right thing by commissioning professional monitoring. But no monitoring plan can undo damage after it occurs. The only protection that matters is requiring the right studies before a single charge is detonated.
SAMPLE LETTER 3 — CONTAMINATED RUNOFF INTO THE HIGHLAND LAKES (Personalize with your own story before sending) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
I am writing to you about a threat to our water that flows far beyond Burnet County. The proposed Asphalt Inc. rock quarry on FM 3509 sits within the LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed. Stormwater runoff from quarry operations — carrying rock flour, chemical dust suppressants, diesel residue, and industrial pollutants — drains into local creek systems that feed the Colorado River and the Highland Lakes chain, including Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, and ultimately Lake Travis, which provides drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Central Texans.
Texas law currently allows quarry operators to self-certify their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans with no state review of the actual document. The operator writes the plan, checks a box online, and keeps the document on-site. If something goes wrong, the damage is already done.
I am asking you to support legislation requiring all APOs within LCRA watershed boundaries to obtain explicit LCRA approval of their stormwater and drainage plans before any ground disturbance is permitted — and to fund regular TCEQ inspections to ensure compliance. The Highland Lakes are a shared treasure. They deserve shared protection.
SAMPLE LETTER 4 — DUST, AIR QUALITY & CHILDREN’S HEALTH AT CAMP LONGHORN (Personalize with your own story before sending) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
As a Texan who cares deeply about the health of our children, I am writing to ask for your help. The proposed Asphalt Inc. rock crushing facility on FM 3509 is proposed to be built directly adjacent to Camp Longhorn — one of Texas’s most beloved youth summer camps, which has served children and families on the shores of Inks Lake since the 1950s.
Unlike children in air-conditioned schools, Camp Longhorn campers live and sleep entirely outdoors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the camp season. Daily rock crushing and heavy diesel truck traffic generate clouds of PM2.5 and PM10 fine particulate matter, including hazardous crystalline silica dust, which has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization. There are no HVAC filters outdoors. These children would breathe whatever the quarry produces.
I am asking you to support legislation requiring continuous air quality monitoring at all APOs located within a defined radius of a youth camp, school, or residential area — and requiring those facilities to meet enforceable PM2.5 and PM10 standards before operations are permitted to continue. Our children’s lungs are not a sacrifice for someone else’s profit.
SAMPLE LETTER 5 — COMPREHENSIVE APO REFORM LEGISLATION (Personalize with your own story before sending) [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, TX Zip] [Date]
I am a resident of Burnet County writing to ask for your leadership on a matter of urgent importance to our community and to communities across Texas. The proposed Asphalt Inc. rock quarry on FM 3509 — owned by Alabama-based Construction Partners Inc. — has exposed serious gaps in how our state regulates Aggregate Production Operations (APOs) near residential areas, water resources, youth camps, and state parks.
I am asking you to champion legislation that addresses all of the following before the next quarry permit is issued anywhere in Texas:
Mandatory dry plant / baghouse technology for all new APOs to dramatically reduce industrial groundwater pumping.
Enforceable blasting buffer zones around all Texas state parks, with cave-specific vibration standards where applicable.
Mandatory independent pre-blasting geological studies before any quarry permit is approved near a state park or heritage site.
Continuous air quality monitoring requirements at all APOs near youth camps, schools, or residential communities.
LCRA-level watershed protection applied to all APO stormwater plans, with explicit agency approval required before ground disturbance.
Texas has always prided itself on being open for business — but that should never mean open for exploitation. Out-of-state corporations should not be permitted to pump our water, blast near our heritage, poison our children’s air, and contaminate our lakes, and then leave. I am asking you to draw that line. The people of Burnet County are counting on you.