December 10, 2009

Dear Friends of Hood Canal
Holiday greetings to all. We have bad news and good news about the Fred Hill Materials pit-to-pier project.

Bad News

The Court of Appeals has ruled against our appeal on the 690-acre mining district (MRL) awarded to FHM by previous Jefferson County commissioners. We have no plans for further appeals. It is, indeed, unfortunate that this matter ever arose. The county commissioners who twice voted to award the mining district were themselves voted out of office, largely because of their ill advised votes. Our current commissioners have publicly stated that they would have voted otherwise and that they think the decision was wrong. But here we are.....

Good News

The Jefferson County commissioners have approved a Shoreline Master Program (SMP) that will protect our shoreline from future mining operations, including conveyors, piers, and barge loading facilities. Many of you wrote letters on this subject and your voices were heard. Thanks to all. The SMP will now go to the Washington Department of Ecology which has the final approval authority. Unfortunately, this legislation will not, by itself, stop the FHM pit-to-pier project. The project is grandfathered under the old, less restrictive, statute. Nonetheless, it is important to have the new language; because when we kill pit-to-pier, it will never be able to reappear.

FHM recently attempted to have the pit-to-pier project designated as a "Project of Statewide Significance" in order to short circuit the environmental impact study process. This designation required the approval of the Jefferson County commissioners. Our commissioners, wisely refused to endorse the project. Dead duck.

The Nature Conservancy has joined our efforts to protect Hood Canal. There are now 60 independent organizations - community, business, political, tribal, and environmental groups - that want to protect the future of Hood Canal and the Hood Canal bridge. Pit-to-Pier? No Way!

This year, our recruiting program has resulted in hundreds of new individual members of the Hood Canal Coalition. We have approximately 3000 members. If your friends and neighbors would like to join, send us their names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. People power is real power. Believe!

Other News

The pit-to-pier Environmental Impact Study continues at a snails pace. Progress is limited because FHM is not providing data and analyses required to move forward. While FHM's spokesmen often cry that the process is taking too long, it is a problem of their own making. At this point, it is not possible to forecast when a preliminary report might be available for public comment. Stay tuned.

FHM has tried unsuccessfully to obtain special interest legislative support in Olympia. There have been 3 different attempts to have Jefferson County removed from its primary role of evaluating the environmental impacts of the proposed pit-to-pier project. We expect them to try again this year. If you would like to help us in Olympia, you might consider participating in the Environmental Lobby Day on January 26th. Dozens of environmental groups and hundreds of environmentalist will visit with our legislators of the House and Senate. Think about it.

FHM continues to show signs of severe financial distress. Approximately 20 federal law suits have been filed by labor unions claiming that FHM has not payed for employee benefits that are mandated by labor contracts and federal statutes. The unions have won every decision. Even then, FHM has often failed to pay; so the court has issued orders to FHM's bank to garnish the funds and prevent FHM from withdrawing them. In the most recent decision, Kitsap Bank was told to garnish $146,000 of FHM funds.

FHM also has sold 25% of their proposed pit-to-pier project to Athabasca, a Canadian mining company, for a reported $3M. This follows upon the sale, last spring, of their bread and butter business - the sand and gravel operations at Shine Pit - to Miles Sand and Gravel.

Solicitation

In addition to your welcomed involvement in other ways, we hope that you will make a financial contribution to facilitate our work to protect Hood Canal, the Hood Canal Bridge, and the special nature of our lives in this region. Please mail us your check, payable to the Olympic Environmental Council (OEC) and print "For HCC" in the lower left corner. Our address is HCC, Box 65279, Port Ludlow, WA 98365. Your contribution is tax deductible.

Thanks to all for your continued support.


John Fabian
Steering Committee
Hood Canal Coalition