By Warren Cornwall
Herald Writer
MONROE — Grace Wilkins’ windshield carries the scars from encounters with gravel trucks. It has been dinged from rocks kicked up from the road, rocks she traces back to the trucks that run up and down U.S. 2 near her Sultan home.
Which is one reason why she came to Snohomish County officials with a straightforward message about their plan to manage mining: Don’t allow any more around Sultan.
"With the amount of traffic, we don’t need trucks on the road," said Wilkins, who has lobbied against a proposed Sultan Basin gravel mine within two miles of her home.
Wilkins and more than 50 others came to a Monroe meeting room Tuesday night to deliver their opinions, scrutinize maps and quiz officials on a proposal that would set the course for future mining in the county.
The county is trying to create a map of 160,000 acres where mining would be allowed. The plan also lays out what kind of regulatory hurdles miners will have to clear before they can start digging.
Now, mining applications are considered one at a time, and virtually all land outside cities is fair game, according to county officials.
The draft proposal, two years in the making, is being aired for public comment before the county and its consultants write the final plan. That plan must eventually be approved by the county council.
Judging from the comments of some, the county may need to do some more work to satisfy their concerns. The response from cities near prime mining areas has been swift and critical. And the mantra of traffic problems echoes Wilkins.
City councils in Index, Sultan and Granite Falls have passed resolutions urging the county to rewrite its study, citing an absence of detailed analysis of mining’s impact on roads and traffic. Monroe and Gold Bar are considering joining the protest this week, said Mark Raney, a Sultan physician and city councilman.
The failure to gauge the cumulative traffic problems from multiple mines in one area leaves communities along U.S. 2 vulnerable to more pressure on a highway that’s already overloaded, Raney said in an interview before the meeting.
"We’re talking about additional traffic to a roadway that’s already failing," he said.
But Robin Hansen, a mining industry representative with the mining company Cadman Inc., said it’s asking too much of this study to want a comprehensive look at traffic impacts.
Richard Weinman, the lead consultant writing the study, acknowledged that transportation concerns weren’t adequately addressed. Early efforts were stymied by difficulty in finding an easy gauge of traffic conditions and impacts.
But officials will try to craft a more complete look.
"It certainly seems to be premature to be rising up in arms and saying the county has not recognized transportation as an issue," he said.
Others came to the meeting with questions, but found few simple answers in the multicolored maps and bureaucratic language.
Tim Bailey first got interested in mining when someone sought to open a gravel pit near his Monroe neighborhood, the Fryelands. That plan was eventually dropped. Now, Bailey worried the new proposal would create a "streamlined" process making it easier for mines to open without public input.
"I’m mostly just kind of confused at this point," he said.
Tom Niemann, a principal planner with the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services, said it’s not realistic for people to expect a total prohibition on mining, given the demand for gravel and rock to feed construction projects in the region.
You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.
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