Gravel-mine plan threatens Sound

In Washington, we talk about promoting environmental stewardship and responsibility. We form committees to plan environmental protections and award businesses that make an effort to reduce pollution and conserve resources. But right on the shores of Puget Sound in a marine reserve area, we're looking at the potential construction of the biggest gravel mine in the United States, based on annual extraction.

Seem ugly? It is. And the push to expand this gravel mine on the south side of Maury Island would have repercussions not just for chinook salmon and nearly 25 bird species when their habitat is destroyed, but for all undeveloped shoreline in our area.

Glacier Northwest is proposing the mining expansion and industrial barging operation. The company is trying to secure permits to extract up to 40,000 tons of gravel per day and reconstruct its barging facility to ship gravel off the island, within the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve.

We want to know how a project of this sheer size and scale can have a chance of moving forward, when Gov. Christine Gregoire and the federal government have earmarked millions of dollars toward Puget Sound recovery over the coming years.

A University of Washington scientist, David Bain, has noted the barge traffic from the mine could wipe out the endangered orca population in south Puget Sound, while a 2004 King County study has found it will devastate critical chinook salmon runs and eelgrass beds.

The mining operation will deposit tons of arsenic and lead-laden topsoil in a berm right above Puget Sound, destroy one of the largest stands of madrona in the West that is home to 25 species of birds, and excavate within 15 feet of Maury and Vashon islands' sole drinking-water source.

Glacier Northwest has put its enormous political and financial weight behind a project that will be extremely profitable, yet offers no benefit to the affected community. So far, there are no legal assurances that we would be protected from health hazards or from damage to water sources.

We also don't have much confidence that Glacier Northwest will act responsibly, since Glacier Northwest's top corporate executives twice have been convicted of pollution violations.

The Washington Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to take up our case against Glacier Northwest, which would pit the Growth Management Act (GMA) against the Shoreline Management Act (SMA).

To date, our state appeals courts can't agree on which policy should overrule the other. In our case, the Division 1 Court of Appeals determined this year that the GMA was more significant and consequently would award Glacier Northwest the permits to construct a dock.

Its ruling disagreed with a 2004 decision by the Division 2 Court of Appeals regarding shoreline development on Bainbridge Island. That court found in the case of Biggers v. The City of Bainbridge Island that the SMA trumped the GMA in situations where cities want to establish a moratorium on shoreline development. In both instances, the courts found in favor of developers, using opposite reasoning.

The irony is that the GMA and the SMA were enacted to set out a coordinated approach to planning while protecting our health and natural environment.

Without question, Glacier Northwest's industrial mining and barging operation would impact the whole of Puget Sound. We need to stop talking about saving the Sound and demand real protections that value our environment and communities. To beat the mine, we need community members beyond Maury and Vashon islands to stay informed and respond. For once, let's take action.

J.W. Turner is president of Preserve Our Islands (www.preserveourislands.org), the community-based group whose suit against Glacier Northwest's mining proposal has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.