Segale Properties, locals clash at public meeting over proposed gravel mine

CORRECTION: The Courier-Herald misreported the email of where to send public comments about the proposed gravel mines. Comments should be emailed to Fereshteh Dehkordi at fdehkordi@kingcounty.gov. The article has been updated.

The public meeting between Segale Properties and Plateau residents last week was standing room only.

Temperatures were already high at the Feb. 27 meeting, with some people wary – and others convinced – that Segale’s proposed 990-acre gravel mine north of Cumberland, and butting up against the Green River, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, King County open spaces, and a Department of Natural Resources recreational property, will contaminate the river, ruin the forest, drive away wildlife, or bring too much traffic to rural roads.

Or all the above.

And the fact that Segale’s slideshow presentation, shown on ESD equipment, was blurry certainly didn’t help improve the mood of the room.

As the minutes ticked by and the Black Diamond Elementary School gym grew hotter, people became more unwilling to wait for the Q&A period of what was going to be an hour-plus long seminar, and eventually, the interruptions and shouted questions forced Segale to cede the floor and start passing around the mic.

This last meeting was not the only chance for locals to chime in on the project, which may yet take months, if not years, for King County decide whether or not to approve the project.

However, it appears many people who commented at the meeting were unaware that those comments would not be recorded – instead, their comments must be emailed specifically to King County.

In order to make a public comment by the March 12 deadline for this portion of the project review, email Fereshteh Dehkordi at fdehkordi@kingcounty.gov.

WATER AND ROADS

There are many moving parts and technical aspects to this project — State Environmental Policy Act checklists, Environmental Impact Statement reports, noise mitigation plans, reforesting plans, and so much more — but it seemed most of the technical questions directed at Segale (pronounced Sea-gall-ee) could be boiled down to water and roads.

For the former, it’s how the mine could affect stormwater and runoff, the water table, the Cumberland Water Co-Op, and, ultimately, the Green River; for the latter, it’s how many trucks will be using Cumberland-Kanaskat Road, at what times, and how it will impact the roads and residents.

According to Plateau local Zach Pratt, the Cumberland Water Co-Op is particularly peeved at Segale’s ask to join and use up to 250,000 gallons of water a day.

“They want about 10 times the volume that Cumberland currently uses,” he said in an email interview.

Venise Cunningham, a Co-Op member, said the 50-plus Board members will vote down any motion to let the company hook up to their system.

However, Segale Asset Manager Mike Pruett said becoming a part of the Co-Op would have “significant” improvements and benefits for not just the mine, but the Co-Op.

Pruett said that Segale would be invested in improving the Co-Op’s current system, which includes increasing pressure so that fire hydrants can be installed. According to Pruett, a pumper truck needs to be filled to fight fires, as the system cannot handle a hydrant at this time “without collapsing, as we have been told by members of the Co-Op Board.”

“We want to be good neighbors,” he said. “We want to do something for the community.”

Speaking of trucks, water access is not an issue for Segale — just where they get it from. Pruett said if they can’t join the Co-Op, they will still get water from Tacoma Water, though this means filling up a truck to bring it to their mine site, adding yet another truck to local roads.

Water usage isn’t the only problem, though, and perhaps more concerning to some is how water runoff could affect nearby county-owned open space, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park and, ultimately, the Green River and the fish that use it.

According to Pratt, numerous hydrology reports show that water runoff in the area flows, in general, from east to west, which deposits any stormwater or mine runoff into the Black Diamond and Green River Gorge springs, which then feeds into the Green River.

But Pruett says there won’t be any water coming off the mine to flow into local bodies of water — as Segale mines, the company would create impervious pads so that any water being used would be collected and recycled. He added that additional stormwater ponds would be created so that any stormwater runoff will be filtered before it flows to the Green River.

Pruett also stressed that Segale won’t be clear-cutting the area and mining everything at once, which he thinks many opponents of the proposed mine believes. Instead, it’s going to be more “checkerboard,” he said, and this gives Segale more control over how water is collected, recycled, or filtered in mining areas.

AND THEN THERE’S TRAFFIC

According to Pruett, peak season – a.k.a. the summer, when construction is more active – upward of 680 vehicle trips will come and go from the mine every day. He specified that’s both vehicles going in and out, and that not all of those are large trucks, but employees in their commuter vehicles.

During the off-season, that could slow to around 200 vehicles a day; “A big fall-off,” he continued.

Neither of those numbers seemed to alleviate some locals’ fears.

“These heavy trucks would be driving through Cumberland and surrounding communities during all hours of the day and night…,” Pratt said. “An additional 300 [to] 700 heavy trucks on local roads and bridges will cause damage to our local infrastructure that will ultimately come back to the taxpayer for repairs.”

Pruett said that there’s a misunderstanding about how many trucks will be driving down local roads.

First, he said, trucks will either go north or south on Cumberland-Kanaskat Road when it leaves the mine. It won’t be exactly half, given that construction needs will shift based on what projects are being carried out, but the expected 600 peak-season trucks won’t take the same route day-in and day-out and passing the same homes.

And the further people live from the mine, the fewer will pass their way, at least in general, he continued.

“Is that a huge impact? If you’re not used to that, and you live out there, I can see where you would say, ‘That’s kind of disturbing to me’,” he said. “But that carrying capacity of that roadway… it’s not even closed to being fully utilized. It has the capacity to carry those truck trips, easily.”

As for the potential impact on roads, Pruett said both at the meeting and in an interview that the roads trucks will be using are designated as “the highest classification” for large trucks to transport good and products.

The Courier-Herald could not independently confirm this with the Washington State Department of Transportation by print deadline, but Pruett noted that logging trucks used to use these roads all the time. And though the total transport weight differs based local laws and the size of the truck, various sources appear to show that trucks transporting gravel are several times lighter than those transporting logs.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

There’s so much more information to wade through as this proposal works its way through King County, but Pratt appeared concerned that the research Segale has given to King County with its proposal is not enough.

“[Segale] mentioned that they already did impact studies, but these studies are inadequate to help the public and King County Permitting assess the full impact of this project. For example, the traffic study referenced only focused on traffic congestion, and not other impacts such as noise, dust and damage to roads, and only done 2020-2021, during a time period where our roads had less traffic on them due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “When someone asked about how this truck traffic will affect Enumclaw, the response was, ‘that was outside of the parameters we studied’. This process didn’t look at full cumulative impacts of the greater region.”

Pruett said that despite the research already provided to King County, he expects officials will still request more environmental information in order to better address local concerns.

“I think we’ll probably end up going to an [Environmental Impact Study], but I think the quality of information that we submitted could potentially support a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance,” he continued, referring to the official designation a county gives projects that have adequate environment mitigation plans. “But that’s… the county’s decision.”