SHINE — A Washington State Court of Appeals ruling upholds Fred Hill Materials’ right to expand gravel mining at its site south of state Highway 104.
The decision released Monday upheld a visiting Kitsap County Superior Court judge’s ruling.
Judge Anna Laurie a year ago affirmed a 2004 Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board finding that a Jefferson County-approved 690-acre mineral resource land overlay for Fred Hill Materials complies with the state Growth Management Act.
The overlay is tangential to Fred Hill’s proposed pit-to-pier project — a controversial plan to build a four-mile-long conveyor belt from the company’s Shine gravel pit to a 1,000-foot dock to move gravel to barges in Hood Canal — which Jefferson County is environmentally assessing separately from the land overlay.
“We’re very confident we’re correct,” Dan Baskins, Fred Hill Materials project manager, said Monday.
“However, that won’t stop the lies, the loudness and the litigation, which is the tactics they have chosen to try to stop the project. It establishes what we knew — that we had the right to mine in that area.”
Baskins was referring to members of Hood Canal Coalition, which has led legal efforts to thwart the company’s gravel extraction expansion at the Shine Pit.
John Fabian, a Shine-area retired astronaut and spokesman for Hood Canal Coalition, declined to comment Monday on whether an appeal would be filed with the state Supreme Court.
Environmental groups
Hood Canal Coalition was joined in the state Court of Appeals petition by Olympic Environmental Council, Jefferson County Green Party, People for a Livable Community, Kitsap Audubon Society, Hood Canal Environmental Counsel and People for Puget Sound.
They challenged the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board’s decision, originally filing a Jefferson County Superior Court lawsuit against Fred Hill Materials and Jefferson County.
Baskins said the company “is well aware of the law and best environmental practices, and we will strive to have the best environmental practices in the country.”
Laurie said the environmental groups opposing Fred Hill’s proposal tried to tie the comprehensive plan overlay to Fred Hill Materials’ pit-to-pier project — a controversial plan to build a four-mile-long conveyor belt from the company’s Shine gravel pit to a 1,000-foot dock to move gravel to barges in Hood Canal.
The comprehensive plan amendment requires far less environmental review than the pit-to-pier project itself, Laurie ruled.
Approved 2002
Jefferson County commissioners had approved on Dec. 9, 2002, the 690-acre Mineral Resource Land Overlay for Fred Hill Materials.
Fred Hill submitted applications to Jefferson County planners in 2003 for zoning, substantial development and shoreline permits allowing it to construct the conveyor that would take gravel to barges in the Hood Canal.
The Poulsbo-based company employs about 150 people, including 40 percent who live on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Hood Canal Coalition appealed the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board decision in February 2003.
The pit-to-pier project has long been opposed by the Hood Canal Coalition and Olympic Environmental Council, environmental groups that fear the company is industrializing Hood Canal.
In the past, Fabian also has voiced concerns about additional Hood Canal Bridge openings and closings with the additional shipping traffic.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
