4/4/2007 11:23:00 AM 

FHM pushed bills to make point on pit-to-pier process

By Allison Arthur, Leader Staff Writer

Fred Hill Materials Inc.'s proposed pit-to-pier project on Hood Canal is more than Jefferson County's understaffed Department of Community Development can handle.

That's what Fred Hill Materials officials think. And it's why they and unions that represent their employees had a hand in requesting that two bills - Senate Bill 6109 and House Bill 2349 - be introduced in this session of the Legislature. The bills never made it to a committee.

Had they been approved, they would have required counties with populations of less than 35,000 - Jefferson, San Juan and Pacific counties, for example - to treat gravel pits as "essential public facilities" such as airports, jails and solid waste treatment plants.

And that could have required the state Department of Ecology (DOE) to become involved in Jefferson County's land-use policy-making.

The DOE opposed the bills.

"I'd call it a bow shot to get people's attention," said Dan Baskins, project manager for Fred Hill Materials, of wanting to bring attention to what Baskins says is an overdue look in the state of the regional importance of sand and gravel. And that connects to the current pit-to-pier project, a project Baskins says is an environment friendly idea. Large quantities of sand and gravel would be transported by barge under the Hood Canal Bridge instead of trucking it over congested highways and on top of Hood Canal.

FHM is permitted to mine sand and gravel on timberland leased from Pope Resources in the Shine area of Jefferson County, just this side of the Hood Canal Bridge. Nearly four years ago the company proposed a pit-to-pier project. It includes a conveyor belt to transport sand and gravel to a nearly 990-foot pier in Hood Canal, which in turn would be used to load barges and, eventually, ocean-going ships.

"Labor has long supported the pit-to-pier project, for commerce, jobs and for the environment. It [SB 6109] was one of some 2,000 bills that didn't make it to a committee hearing for whatever reason," Baskins said.

Baskins acknowledged that unions, with input from Fred Hill Materials, had a hand in crafting the bills that were sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Kenneth Jacobsen, and Sen. Adam Kline, both Democrats from King County.

Jacobsen did not return several calls from The Leader. Records on file with the state Public Disclosure Commission show Jacobsen has received financial contributions from a number of unions, Lakeside Industries, a paving contractor and manufacturer, Washington Aggregates and Concrete Association of Bellevue and Glacier Northwest, a company that owns the idle Mats Mats Quarry in Jefferson County, and a mine on Vashon Island in King County.

A spokesman from Kline's office said Sen. Kline signed it after it was drafted.

Six representatives - Brian Sullivan, Brian Blake, Mike Sells, Steve Conway, Alex Wood and Timm Ormsby - sponsored the House version.

Shot at Jefferson County

While Baskins said the dead bills were a "shot across the bow" to get people's attention on the industry and its plight to secure permits, John Fabian, president of the Hood Canal Coalition, a private nonprofit organization opposing the pit-to-pier project, dubbed the bill attempts "a shot at citizens of Jefferson County."

Fabian also disagreed with Baskins about the county's ability to deal with what both sides agree is a large project. Jefferson County's Department of Community Development is "certainly capable of performing an environmental evaluation and has already demonstrated a willingness to do so," Fabian said.

"What FHM is doing is firing a shot at the citizens of Jefferson County and our elected and appointed officials," Fabian said. "FHM continues to seek ways to avoid full disclosure and an honest environmental review. This is just the last of a series of behind-the-scene maneuvers," Fabian wrote.

"FHM knows that the pit-to-pier project cannot survive an open, complete and unbiased environmental review. Its proposal has been sitting in (DCD Director) Al Scalf's office for nearly three years because they will not agree to have an independent consultant perform the Environmental Impact Statement and pay for it," Fabian wrote.

Fabian said the two dead bills were not the only ones that targeted one of the biggest land-use proposals in Jefferson County.

"A maritime union lobbyist proposed an amendment that would stop local control over mining Environmental Impact Statements from the least populated counties and give the responsibility to DNR," Fabian wrote of an amendment introduced at what he called the 11th hour in 2006. "Since there were only a few maritime counties, it was obvious what the true objective was, and besides, DNR didn't want the job of doing these EISs. The amendment died and the good bill was saved," Fabian said.

Baskins acknowledged that FHM had a hand in bills last year as well. Those failed bills would have given lead-agency control of the pit-to-pier project to the DNR.

Baskins said the company had the same concerns last year as it has this year related to the size of the Shine Pit project being too much for Jefferson County and the importance of the project being of state significance.

"To simply oppose, oppose and oppose is irresponsible, as is ignoring the need to supply basic commodities in an environmentally friendly manner. Let alone the need for commerce and jobs. Some of our local citizens need to look around. Jefferson County is the second-least affordable county in the state. Thinking globally means thinking of everyone's backyard, not just your own," Baskins said.

"Ironically, some of the shoreline backyards owned by opponents of the pit-to-pier have more environmental marine impacts than anything we've proposed," Baskins concluded.

Using the Legislature

Both proponents and opponents of large projects - such as FHM is proposing - have tried to use the Legislature to secure their positions.

"It's not uncommon to utilize the legislative process," said FHM spokesman Doug Weese.

There is a current battle in the Legislature over Glacier Northwest's mine proposal on Maury Island in King County to expand its gravel mine and allow it barge material.

Sen. Erik Poulsen, a Seattle Democrat, is promoting SB 6011, which would create, by state law, a 235-acre Maury Island Aquatic Reserve that would prohibit the expansion of industrial activities such as mining and barging materials across Puget Sound.

If approved, the bill could have an impact on Glacier's ability to secure a lease from the state to repair and expand a dock.

That fight has been going on for more than a decade.

Proponents and opponents of the pit-to-pier project admit they have been watching how Glacier Northwest Inc. and the Hood Canal Coalition's sister organization, Preserve Our Islands, do battle.

Fabian said his organization has not proposed any state legislation.

DOE recommends denial

Tom Clingman of the state Department of Ecology analyzed the two bills promoted by Fred Hill Materials that would have impacted Jefferson County.

"This appears to be aimed at a specific gravel mining and transport proposed in Jefferson County," Clingman wrote of the impact the bills would have on the DOE.

Clingman recommended the DOE oppose the bills.

"These privately owned, discretionary facilities do not seem to legitimately fall into the same category as "essential public facilities' like correctional facilities and airports," Clingman wrote.

"The proposal would not assist in harmonizing the objectives of GMA (Growth Management Act) and SMA (Shoreline Management Act) related to such activities," he concluded.

The bills came in late in the process and there was little action taken on them, Clingman said. He said he did not know the genesis of the bills.

Legislators opted not to move the bills.

Rep. Lynn Kessler's office said she had not had a chance to look at the House bill.

Rep. Kevin Van De Wege said he had heard little about the bill and nothing from colleagues who sponsored it.

Acknowledging that the population cap in the bill made it relate to only a few counties - one of them Jefferson - Van De Wege said if the bill did relate to the Fred Hill pit-to-pier project, "I was concerned that no one had approached me about it since it was a very big issue in our district."

Van De Wege said the only person he heard from was Rep. Christine Rolfes (D-Bainbridge). Rolfes said she discovered the bill during a routine morning review of bills being proposed one morning and she in turn contacted Van De Wege.

Asked if she knew where the bill came from, Rolfes said she did not know how it surfaced.