State schedules June 10 hearing on proposed Lafayette County asphalt plant

A proposed asphalt plant that has split Lafayette County for months will go before state regulators in Oxford, giving neighbors a formal chance to press their objections before the permit process moves ahead.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has scheduled a public hearing for June 10 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Oxford Conference Center on Magnolia Materials, LLC’s applications for Large Construction Storm Water General Permit coverage, MSR109782, and Hot Mix Asphalt General Permit coverage, MSR700115. The notice puts the proposed site at 87 County Road 166 in Oxford, describes it as about 22.92 acres in the Berry Branch watershed, and says about 13.71 acres would be disturbed for construction.

The proposal is far larger than a simple equipment yard. MDEQ says the project would include grading, utility installation, road construction, a small office building and a stormwater management area at the basin outfall. The plant itself would be a greenfield stationary hot mix asphalt facility with a maximum production rate of 300 tons per hour and no more than 500,000 tons per year. It would use a natural-gas-fired drum dryer controlled by a baghouse. The notice says the site would not crush rock or recycled asphalt pavement, would not use stationary emergency engines and would not operate gasoline dispensing on site.

For nearby residents, the hearing is the last concrete chance to put runoff, air emissions, truck traffic and land-use concerns directly into the state record. MDEQ staff are seeking comment on whether the permits comply with state and federal rules, and the hearing will put the drainage questions front and center in a watershed where opponents have warned that added impervious surface could worsen flooding.

Magnolia Materials originally planned the plant near Taylor, then moved the proposal to the Max D. Hipp Lafayette County Industrial Park off County Road 101 after heated debate. In October 2025, owner J.W. McCurdy said the revised plan would preserve the original Highway 328 site for other commercial growth. McCurdy also said the plant could produce 2,000 tons of asphalt per day and claimed the latest controls would capture more than 98.94% of emissions.

The county fight has already reached the courthouse and the boardroom. On May 4, 2026, the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 not to rezone the industrial park parcels from I-2 heavy industrial to I-1 light industrial. Residents who sought the rezoning in January had until May 14 to appeal to Lafayette County Circuit Court. The county approved a lease with Magnolia Materials in December 2025 for a 22-acre parcel in the industrial park, and the planning commission later granted preliminary site-plan approval.

Opposition has been broad, with hundreds of residents speaking against the plant and about 150 people turning out for a planning commission meeting in September 2025. Farmers including Reed Falkner have warned that the project could hurt nearby chicken and cattle operations and, as he put it, “put people out of business.” Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson also wrote to supervisors opposing the rezoning. The June 10 hearing now becomes the state-level moment where those concerns about emissions, traffic, drainage and property values will be formally weighed.