Maury Island mine may become park if sale goes through

After more than a decade of fighting, environmental groups and King County have reached agreement with the owners of a controversial sand and gravel mine on Maury Island to buy the property and turn it into a park.

But the would-be purchasers still haven't raised all the money needed to seal the deal.

King County Executive Dow Constantine, a longtime foe of a proposal to load gravel onto barges, is expected Wednesday afternoon to announce that CalPortland, the Oregon company that owns the 235-acre site on Maury Island's eastern shore, has agreed to sell the property for $36 million.

The Cascade Land Conservancy and others have been negotiating with the company for more than a year and also have talked to executives with Taiheiyo Cement, CalPortland's Japanese parent company.

Earlier this year, the Legislature set aside $15 million it had received as part of a nationwide bankruptcy settlement with mining giant Asarco, which was liable for the lead and arsenic pollution spread by an old smelter in Ruston, outside Tacoma.

The money can be used only to help rehabilitate contaminated sites, including those on Vashon and Maury islands.

If the Metropolitan King County Council approves the deal, the county is expected to use money from its conservation-futures tax, and environmental groups have agreed to raise more.

CalPortland officials have said they need a more significant down payment than the state's $15 million before they're willing to forestall ongoing efforts to expand their mine on Maury.

The company has been trying for a dozen years to get permits to build a 305-foot dock and restart a 155-acre gravel-mining operation that CalPortland subsidiary Glacier Northwest or its predecessors have owned since the 1930s.

It's not clear how much the state, county and Cascade Land Conservancy need to show they've raised before CalPortland will halt efforts to try to obtain those permits. But knowledgeable sources say the company has given the buyers until the end of the year to make clear they can ultimately raise $36 million.

The battle over this property has raged so long that many of the players have changed.

In recent years, state and county officials brought executives from Taiheiyo by boat to the site to show them why environmentalists and many political leaders consider the property so ecologically sensitive.

Opponents of the gravel dock said it threatened the orcas, salmon and herring that frequent the area.

A federal judge last year ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do a more thorough study of how the dock would affect orcas and salmon.

Owners of the property said expanded mining would provide a much-needed supply of sand and gravel for a growing metropolitan area.

Constantine's office declined to provide details or confirm the purchase before Wednesday's news conference but said in a news advisory the acquisition of an unspecified site "would permanently protect one of King County's longest stretches of undeveloped Puget Sound shoreline and provide trails and open space for future generations."

"It's the best possible outcome," said County Councilmember Jan Drago, whose district includes Vashon and Maury islands. "I was always very clear that the best outcome was a purchase. ... In my opinion everybody's a winner."

Councilmember Larry Phillips said the new park is "almost immediately adjacent" to Maury Island Marine Park, which has protected more than one mile of shoreline since 1995. Phillips said the new park "would be, in effect, an unfettered and unspoiled extension of this shoreline and ecosystem."

A third council member, Kathy Lambert, said she has misgivings about turning a large sand and gravel mine into a park.

"I have some concerns about where we're going to get the gravel that we all need for our roads and our construction," she said.

Lambert said it could be more disruptive and politically challenging to mine gravel from locations that require material to be transported by truck rather than by barge.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com. Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com