Panel Approves First Step in Pit-to-Pier Plan

Aug 1, 2004 12:00 PM
by Charlotte Garvey washington correspondent for
Rock Products
 

A proposal by Fred Hill Materials Inc. to designate a 690-acre plot as a mineral resource land overlay was approved by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners in Port Townsend, Wash., approximately 40 miles north of Seattle, says Greg Ballard. Ballard is a staff member with the county board and worked on the proposal's environmental assessment. The approval is the first in a series of steps that are expected to lead to an expansion of Hill's gravel mining operations in the area and development of a new plan to ship gravel from the Hood Canal area. The material could potentially be delivered to the booming Puget Sound area, as well as parts of California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver, Canada. The plan is opposed by area environmental groups and by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who represents the area impacted by the proposed operation. In a letter, Dicks urged the board of commissioners to deny Hill's request. The company is pursuing what has been termed a “pit-to-pier” project, which would involve barging gravel to a pier in the Hood Canal. “I fear that the project would unalterably change the character of Hood Canal, potentially leading to its industrialization,” Dicks writes in a letter to the county commissioners. The commissioners' decision will be reviewed by a state hearings board, Ballard says. But he expressed confidence that the review panel would validate the county commissioners' decision due to the extensive nature of the environmental impact statement prepared by the county. “We went way beyond the call of duty,” Ballard says.