HOOD CANAL COALITION UPDATE

July 11, 2006

Yesterday, the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners decided not to amend the county code to allow 24-hour mining operations.  At least for now, the original language will remain in effect.  This is a big victory for the Hood Canal Coalition, because the proposed amendment would have allowed Fred Hill Materials to excavate, process, stockpile, and ship gravel at any hour of the day as long as they met state noise standards.  Since Jefferson County has no means of monitoring, measuring, nor enforcing such standards, they would have had to depend upon Fred Hill Materials to report their own violations.  The County Commissioners have decided not to allow that particular fox to guard the hen house.  In addition, 24-hour mining is about more than noise pollution.  It is also about air and water pollution and the impact upon our transportation system.  Obviously, the pit to pier operation would require 24-hour operations and this has been one of the things that we have tried to make clear to the commissioners.

At the commissioners meeting yesterday, it was also mentioned that Dan Baskins has invited the commissioners to visit Shine Pit and see how Fred Hill Materials monitors noise.  He also offered to bring their noise engineer to another meeting.  Apparently, the company has paid for a new noise study that, guess what, shows that there is less noise than previously thought.  The commissioners appeared to accept the offer, but did not believe it was a priority at this time.  "Maybe next year."