Maury Island Gravel mine -- Victory for salmon smolts and herring

The mine site on Maury Island has been bought for $35 million, ending the bitter 11 year fight to prevent Glacier from creating a huge open pit gravel mine on Vashon.


Thank you for contacting me regarding the proposed purchase of the Maury Island sand and gravel property. This property represents the longest stretch of undeveloped Puget Sound waterfront remaining in King County.
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[/size]I am writing with an exciting update. This afternoon, the King County Council voted to approve an ordinance[/url]  authorizing the King County executive to execute a purchase and sale agreement for this unique property. [/font]
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[/size]I was honored to co-sponsor this legislation. Thanks to all the citizens who worked so hard to help make this transaction possible and to Executive Dow Constantine for his leadership on this issue.
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[/size]Sincerely,
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[/size]Bob
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[/size][/color]Bob Ferguson[/size][/color][/font][/size][/color]King County Councilmember[/font]
[/color]Wednesday's announcement reflects a remarkable turn-around in the fate of the Maury mine site. More than a decade ago, Glacier Northwest announced plans to build a 305-foot, state-of-the-art pier — key to the corporation's plans to dramatically increase its excavation of gravel and ship it off the Island by way of barges that would ply Puget Sound seven days a week.
During the course of the bitter fight that followed, Glacier Northwest won one legal skirmish after another, despite ongoing efforts to block the project by the Vashon-based Preserve Our Islands, a grassroots organization Nelson founded and now led by Islander Amy Carey. By December 2008, Glacier had secured all the permits it needed and quickly began construction, stopping only when a state-mandated fish window for in-water construction closed.
The construction also triggered greater activism on Vashon. Several Islanders took to the water, using kayaks to surround the barge that held the construction crane in an attempt to block the project. Others protested in mass gatherings on the beach, efforts that drew increasing media attention.
Then, last August, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers erred when it issued one of the final permits to Glacier and ordered the federal agency to require a full Environmental Impact Statement.
After that, according to Nelson, two other significant events transpired: Constantine, a long-time foe of Glacier's expansion plans, got elected, and she was able to secure an earmark from the Asarco settlement funds.
Peter Goldmark, the state's Public Lands commissioner, said the governor's decision to focus on the health and restoration of Puget Sound also marked a turning point. Maury's fate, he said, was no longer a local issue, of importance only to a sparsely populated island.

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So was the gravel pit harmful, or the dock, or both?  And how harmful was it supposed to be?

Both----the tonnage to be barged was huge, and the hazards to eelgrass beds were construction activity, spillage, u/w noise and heavy marine traffic from early AM until nighttime.  The nearshore on Maury is an established marine sanctuary, and one of the few herring spawning beds remaining in the Sound.  Of greater concern is the sole source aquifer on Maury---all our drinking water comes from wells.


While the first bill aims to prevent future conflicts of interest, House Bill 1708 has the potential to stop the mining.  Intended to protect the Island’s drinking water, mining would be halted if the supply lowered to a predetermined benchmark.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the aquifer supplies seventy-one percent of drinking water to residents and any contamination would create a significant hazard to public health.  Rainwater reaches the underground aquifer after being absorbed at the surface and filtered through the soil.  Glacier’s proposed mining would reduce the soil buffer to fifteen feet in some places.
As a Maury resident and prime sponsor of the bill, State Representative Sharon Nelson fears that soil loss wouldn’t provide an adequate filter and could have disastrous consequences during storms.  She insists that the current geography acts as a “timing mechanism” to appropriately regulate water levels.