Palmer Coking Coal Company wants to expand its mining operation outside Black Diamond, a proposal that has earned pushback from locals concerned about its environmental impacts.

According to the King County Department of Local Services, PCCC has applied to rezone a 240 acre parcel located off Enumclaw-Franklin Road SE, just to the northwest of Fish Lake and Nolte State Park. The proposal is asking to rezone from a RA-5 zone (meaning a rural residential area) to a mining zone.

The zone is already a sand and gravel mine called the Hyde Mine, owned by PCCC. However, because of its current zone designation, the company has not been able to actually use it.

Tim O’Brien, a point-person for locals that are opposing the rezone, outlined numerous issues that can come with expanding the PCCC mine.

“There are already 17 operating gravel mines in the Enumclaw/Ravensdale/Black Diamond area… The rural Enumclaw/Ravensdale community is already overburdened by the impacts of gravel mines and there is no shortage of rock all along the Cascade foothills,” he said in a recent email interview. “It’s my opinion that this project poses significant impacts to the surface and groundwater in the vicinity, including both the Icy Creek springs, and Black Diamond Springs. Both of these are major sources of cold water to critical salmon and bull trout habitat, as well as drinking water to thousands.”

O’Brien also said the mine could cause more severe flooding from Fish Lake, divert flooding to more homes, and make local roads more dangerous due to increased heavy truck traffic.

PCCC Manager Nolan Kombol said that the company has been mining unincorporated King County since 1933 and they have an “interest in maintaining and improving the land that we work on.”

“All of this stuff is examined during the [SEPA] application process… we had independent firms go and review things like water or sound or traffic impact to address to assess the risk,” he said, referring to the State Environmental Policy Act. “Everything came back pretty clear.”

Kombol added that they do not expect the mine — which, if opened, will produce an estimated 250,000 tons of material annually — to affect local springs, and while he said there will be additional traffic brought to Enumclaw-Franklin Road, it’ll still be “far below” the limit of traffic the road can take.

Finally, Kombol said the gravel they will be mining is an absolute necessity for development, and with county growth expected to continue, it’s likely far more environmentally-friendly to produce it locally than ship gravel from Eastern Washington or out of state.

“The location of this site has already been identified as resource land. It’s adjacent to an existing sand and gravel pit. The quality of the product there is sufficient to deliver what is needed for building roads and homes,” he said, noting that the mine has been flagged for a rezone in King County’s Comprehensive Plan since 1990. “It’s a pretty ideal situation, actually, for this sort of plan… if it doesn’t happen here, it’ll happen elsewhere.”

PCCC also expects to add jobs if the mine opens, but the company doesn’t have hard numbers on that at this time.

It’s unclear when the rezone might be picked up by the King County Council.

PCCC officially submitted its rezoning application to King County in December 2021. The application was determined to be complete last January, and the public comment deadline was May 22.

However, there are numerous reviews of the project that have to happen before the rezone can take place; the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, the Department of Transportation, Public Health, and numerous other agencies will examine the project before a hearing examiner makes a recommendation to the county council.

And that’s not all — even if the rezone goes through, PCCC will still need to apply for a mining permit, so it could be years before mining begins.

A public meeting about the rezone was hosted in Black Diamond in November 2021 at the Black Diamond Bakery; the room was packed with people concerned that mining in the area.

Palmer Coking Coal, which operated the last underground coal mine in Washington, stopped mining coal 35 years ago and now sells landscape products like sand, gravel and topsoil.