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Washington Public Interest
Research Group
3240 Eastlake Avenue East
·
Suite 100
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Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 568-2850 (ph) · (206)
568-2858 (fax)
June
3, 2004
Dear Jefferson County Commissioners,
As an environmental organization that has been
in Washington since 1976 and currently
represents over 20,000 Washington citizens, the
Washington Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG)
strongly urges you to deny the Mineral Resource
Lands Overlay (MRLO) proposed by Fred Hill
Materials. This amendment to the Jefferson
County Comprehensive Plan will open the door for
Fred Hill Materials to open a massive gravel
mine that will be one of the largest strip mine
complexes in the state, and it will present a
huge environmental threat to the fragile Hood
Canal Ecosystem.
As you know, Fred Hill Materials operates a
gravel mine in Jefferson County, approximately
one mile south of the Hood Canal Bridge and four
miles inland. The company has proposed to build
a four-mile conveyer belt to transport sand and
gravel processed at the mine to a
1100-foot-long, 15-foot-wide pier on Hood Canal,
which would be used to load gravel onto barges
north of Thorndyke Bay. The "pit-to-pier"
process would use barges to transport the gravel
through the Hood Canal. Approximately 75 barges
per month would dock at the pier, load up with
gravel, and deliver it along the West Coast and
abroad.
We share the following concerns about the
project outlined by the Port S’Kallam Tribe in
their letter to Governor Locke, which include:
-
impacts to regional aquifers that sustain
important salmon streams (such as Thorndyke
Creek)
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marine water quality risks from spills of oil
or other pollutants
-
the
potential for invasive species introductions
through ballast water discharge
-
direct disruption and dislocation of salmon
and shellfish fisheries from barge traffic and
enormous pier
-
further fragmentation of upland wildlife
habitat
-
loss/disruption of shoreline erosion processes
that sustain important nearshore ecosystem
food webs on which threatened salmon and
shellfish depend
-
the
potential for barge collisions with
Hood Canal Bridge – an important regional
transportation link
-
significant bridge travel delays due to more
frequent openings to accommodate barge traffic
In
addition, the current piecemeal, incremental
project permitting process lacks such a
comprehensive evaluation and does not allow for
the identification and implementation of
meaningful mitigation measures.
A new Environmental
Impact Study has been prepared, but it does
nothing to address the issues of massive
pollution of the endangered canal, potential
impacts on the Hood Canal Bridge, or
industrialization of Hood Canal. These issues
must be assessed before a huge mining district
is designated.
Again, I urge you to deny approval for
this project. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Robert Pregulman
Executive Director, WashPIRG
3240
Eastlake Avenue East, #100
Seattle,
WA 98102
206-568-2850,
x101
206-568-2858
fax
www.washpirg.org
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