About a dozen residents from the Elwha River area west of Port Angeles will hold a protest against a quarry for which blasting is due to start Friday.
The residents will gather at dawn, about 7 a.m., at the quarry site on Olympic Hot Springs Road located about a mile north of the Elwha entrance to Olympic National Park.
“We’ll try and block his entrance to the quarry,” said Josephine Pedersen, who owns the land across from the quarry.
“And this is going to go on and on for 100 years.”
The quarry is owned by Puget Sound Surfacers out of Forks, owned by Mike Shaw and George Lane.
The quarry is planned to produce gravel for the Elwha River dam removal project.
Shaw could not be reached for comment.
Scheduled for start in 2009, the dam removal project will set free all but the lowest section of the 45-mile-long Elwha River and its 100 miles of tributary streams.
“I think it is ridiculous that the government is going to spend all this money to help the environment, and they are going to let him stay,” Pedersen said of Shaw.
Her main concern, she said is the Elwha River, which could receive some sediment runoff from the quarry, she said.
“During the summer every few minutes, there are people driving down this road or walking or biking to go to the national park,” Pedersen said.
“And now there are going to be big trucks going and rock grinding and blasting.”
Many of the ill effects – including blasting and increased traffic by commercial vehicles – could also come with the Elwha Dam removal project, but that is something they can live with, the group said.
“The dam removal project is all about preserving the environment,” Denise Fry who is helping organize the protest said, adding that she believes mining is the opposite of preserving the environment.
“It is also only for the short term,” she said.
The protesters are hoping to call the attention of officials who might be able to stop the blasting.
Pedersen said she hopes a buyer could purchase the property from Shaw and place it in a land trust to preserve it.
