Bumpy Road for Quarry Expansion

Meredith Moench is president of the Lummi Island Conservancy.

Following more than a year of negotiations with Lummi Rock LLC (dba Aggregates West)regarding an unpermitted quarry access road, Whatcom County Planning and Development Services has decided to get tough.

On January 19, a notice of intent to issue a stop work order for this road was delivered to the quarry owner. Following a pre-deprivation hearing between the quarry owner, his manager and lawyer, and County planning staff (including Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney), a hearing decision was issued on January 31. A Stop Work order followed. This order requires that Lummi Rock “Discontinue any and all use of the unpermitted road and service/storage areas.” They must create an actual physical barrier blocking off vehicle use of the road, and once the road has been blocked off, they must make arrangements with the state Department of Natural Resources regarding permanently reclaiming the site. Quarry operations will continue but use of this road accessing the upper benches of the quarry site will cease.

Although this may not seem tough enough to some, it represents county staff holding the line and standing behind their original determination and compliance requirements despite persistent pressure from quarry representatives to relent.

Unfortunately, extensive tree removal, stripped understory vegetation, intense compaction of forest soils by heavy equipment and vehicle traffic are not easily reclaimed and certainly not to their pre-impact condition. Stiff fines for such abuses are needed.

Neighbors living next to and near this road did not realize it was unpermitted and illegal until December 2010 when it was cited in a list of boundary violations brought against the quarry by the County Surface Mining Administrator following months of investigation.

The road was constructed on rural forest property owned by Lummi Rock adjacent to the active mining pit and bordering the Lummi Island Scenic Estates community. Mining permits establish boundaries within which mining may take place and this includes all mining activity. Soon after Lummi Rock LLC(dba Aggregates West) received their administrative operating permit from Whatcom County in December 2007, quarry personnel began bulldozing trees and constructing a new road in the forested buffer between the mining pit and neighboring residences. Rock was blasted out in places to create storage and servicing areas. Impacts of noise, dust and visual disturbance intensified accordingly.

Also on January 19, as a result of this and outstanding shoreline violations at the quarry (see January Whatcom Watch), Whatcom County Planning and Development Services made the decision to suspend further processing of Lummi Rock’s application requesting a zoning change in preparation for expanded mining into another 27.5 acres of their rural forestry land. (See Oct/Nov Whatcom Watch for details). Further progress in processing this request to expand will not resume until the quarry is in full compliance with all county, state and federal regulations. Along with suspension of their application, the County withdrew the Revised Phased SEPA Determination of Non-Significance that had been issued December 13 for environmental review of the proposed expansion. (See Whatcom Watch February and December issues for details and critique of phased SEPA process.)

Correcting the shoreline violations will require getting an after-the-fact permit approval for the commercial barge pier Lummi Rock constructed between Sept. 2006 and August 2007 (see January 2012 Whatcom Watch for details and Oct/Nov issue for history of previous after-the-fact permit violations.)

By the time this March issue will have gone to press the comment period for the Shoreline Substantial Development and Shoreline Conditional Use permits being sought will have ended. The Lummi Island Conservancy and others are strongly opposed to approval of these permits and believe they should be denied and the illegal pier structure removed.

The construction of this commercial pier has significantly extended the area of destruction of sensitive conservancy shoreline on which the quarry barge loading operations are located. In a retroactive permit like this it is difficult if not impossible to assess the eel grass beds and forage fish habitat that existed previous. These and other significant marine biological impacts cannot be properly assessed after years of disturbance. Neither the Army Corps of Engineers, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, The State Department of Ecology nor Whatcom County Planning Staff were consulted before construction of this commercial pier servicing an expanding, industrial site.

If you are incredulous, you are not alone. One might ask, where is the incentive for complying with regulations up front? Is it better to act and ask forgiveness later? Should this pier prove to be out of compliance with strict county, state and federal shoreline regulations, will county staff have the nerve to resist pressure and order removal of the pier?

How many violations does it take; at what point does a pattern of repeated lack of compliance with regulations created to protect the public interest become unacceptable? Perhaps it is time to ask again, what does it take to have an operator’s permit revoked? For updates on this and other quarry news go to the Lummi Island Conservancy’s website www.lummiislandquarry.com.