DNR calls for halt to Maury Island gravel mine

The company hoping to build a 305-foot dock on Maury Island as part of a controversial gravel-mining operation has been told to halt construction until it shows the state how it intends to protect Puget Sound.

Democratic state Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, in a letter to Northwest Aggregates, told the company Tuesday that current plans to protect sensitive eelgrass beds and the spawning of herring are "vague, ill-defined, and in some cases nonexistent."

The state wants more precise details on how the company will comply with a lease issued in December by Goldmark's predecessor, Republican Doug Sutherland, in his waning days in office. The lease costs the company $1,500 a year.

"We want to put Northwest Aggregates on notice that we will be very closely monitoring," Goldmark said in an interview. "Since I took office I have endeavored to examine the lease and the company's management plan, and I've determined that there's some very tight restrictions that need to be enforced over the life of the lease."

But Goldmark said he was not sure the company would be able to comply in a manner the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) considered appropriate, given that there are plans to clean up Puget Sound and that the operation is in a state aquatic reserve.

Company spokesman Peter Stoltz said the mining company was taken aback by the letter, which he received late in the day.

"We're stunned," Stoltz said Tuesday. "We've not heard anything from DNR about any of these issues prior to 4:36 p.m. today."

Stoltz said that project permitting has been in and out of court and under review for a decade and that around the time the lease was issued the state Attorney General's Office issued a brief saying it was consistent with an aquatic reserve.

"All we can do is read the letter, see what it says and respond in good faith," Stoltz said. "At this point, we haven't had it for long enough to know what that response would be."

The company had temporarily ceased operations until Aug. 15 to protect chinook salmon. But Goldmark wants the company to respond to an 11-page list of questions — some highly technical — by July 30. If Goldmark finds the answers unsatisfactory, he intends to keep construction on hold until DNR is satisfied.

"If they can find a way to operate and not impact the Sound, then I guess it's fair for them to operate," Goldmark said. "But it's not going to be a slam dunk."

The mining project has been a source of conflict for years, as residents of Maury Island complained that it would be loud and risky for threatened salmon, orcas and Puget Sound's nearshore environment. The company insisted it had cleared every environmental hurdle put in front of it.

The company came under fire last fall after it gave $50,000 to a political committee that supported Sutherland's failed re-election bid. Sutherland supporters have said Goldmark is merely doing the bidding of island residents who supported his campaign.

The group that has fought the project longest considered the announcement "a nice surprise."

"The environmental and science issues around this project are not new," said Amy Carey, spokeswoman for Preserve Our Islands, a community group challenging Northwest Aggregates' lease in court. "But it's refreshing to see that we have an agency finally asking the hard questions."

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com