Mine owners win round in court

Owners of a Maury Island mine have the right to ship sand and gravel off the island by barge, the state Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

The court, unanimously upholding a 2004 ruling by the state Shorelines Hearings Board, said King County must issue shoreline permits that would allow Glacier Northwest to rebuild a dilapidated pier in Puget Sound.

But the decision doesn't end a seven-year battle over the mine.

Preserve Our Islands, an anti-mine group that appealed the Shorelines board decision, said it will ask the state Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision. The other appellants, King County and People for Puget Sound, said they haven't decided whether to go to the Supreme Court, too.

Reconstruction of the gravel-shipping pier is also clouded by the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) inclusion of the site in its proposed designation of 2,500 square miles of critical habitat for the endangered orca.

The pier can't be built without an Army Corps of Engineers permit. That agency is consulting with NMFS about the project's possible impact on orcas.

The Court of Appeals found that King County erred when it denied the shoreline permits for the pier on grounds that it wasn't a "water-dependent use." The county's Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) said denial of the pier permit wouldn't stop Glacier Northwest from mining its 235-acre property.

Appeals Court Judge Susan Agid, writing for a three-member court panel, disagreed.

"Glacier's mine is located on a small island without viable large-scale ground transportation options," Agid wrote, "and cannot operate consistent with its designated principal use without barging."

Bill Parfitt, vice president and Washington general manager of Glacier Northwest, said in a statement that the ruling "is another in a long line of legal and regulatory decisions that have concluded that the Maury Island mine is an environmentally sensitive project that benefits the region.

Glacier, formerly known as Lone Star, wants to expand the small gravel mine to haul up to 7.5 million tons of rock a year from the island's east side.

Opponents say the mine and pier would level a madrone forest, damage eelgrass beds used as habitat by herring and salmon, and threaten the island's underground drinking-water supply.

J.W. Turner, president of Preserve Our Islands, said the group will appeal.

"We've known from day one it was going to be a hard fight," he said. "While it's a disappointing decision, it just strengthens our resolve to keep fighting."

DDES Director Stephanie Warden said Monday she hadn't discussed the ruling with county attorneys and didn't know if the county would appeal.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com