Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

The opening of a new site for the production of aggregates has both direct and indirectimpacts on the environment. The indirect impacts include changes in the environmental costs of hauling aggregates and possible changes in the level of construction activity. In this note, we show that the most likely effect of a new aggregate site is to reduce the truck miles used for aggregate hauling, which is an environmental benefit. We also show that the change in construction activity induced by a new site is likely to be extremely small.