The HomeTown Clipper, Story By Kim Roedl on Mar 1, 2010
The fate of Sequalitchew Creek and the possibility of the expansion of the CalPortland/Glacier Mine expansion has sparked a war of words between an advocacy group bent on preserving the historic creek and the City attorney.
Beth Elliott, a board member of the Sequalitchew Creek Watershed Council, stood before the City Council on Feb. 9 and made public the watershed council’s stance that the City would be violating its own ordinances and codes by allowing CalPortland to expand its existing mine. Elliott urged the Council to “stand up for the citizens of DuPont” during the Feb. 17 Memorandum of Understanding talks, which will involve all parties involved in the 1994 Settlement Agreement.
“The proposal put forth by CalPortland/Glacier clearly violates DuPont, Washington, Municipal Code Chapter 25.105 Sensitive Areas. It will cut into the Vashon Aquifer which will lower the water level of Edmonds Marsh, a protected Class 1 Wetland, and it will alter the flow of Sequalitchew Creek, a violation of the 1994 Settlement Agreement,” Elliott wrote in the letter she read to the Council.
“We believe that City Staff has not applied the critical area ordinances and municipal codes that prevent any development, including mining, that adversely impacts the natural function and value of Edmond Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek….We, the Sequalitchew Creek Watershed Council, are requesting that City Staff present at the MOU stand up for DuPont Municipal Code Chapter 25.105 and the 1994 Settlement Agreement,” she wrote.
City Attorney Steve Victor responded to the group’s concerns with a memo addressed Feb. 12 to Mayor Tamara Jenkins and City Administrator Bill McDonald, calling the Watershed Council’s concerns “premature.”
A portion of the memo reads:
“The concerns expressed by the Sequalitchew Watershed Council are premature because…. the application is not being reviewed or otherwise processed at this time. At CalPortland’s request, all permit activity has ceased pending the outcome of the process defined in the December 2009 Memorandum of Understanding among CalPortand and all of the original parties to the 1994 Settlement Agreement, including the City of DuPont, Washington Department of Ecology, the Nisqually Delta Association, the Tacoma Audubon Society and the Washington Environmental Council. When CalPortand’ predecessor, Glacier, submitted the application for expanded gravel mining on the South Parcel, the City was obliged under State Law and the DMC to accept the filing and to properly review and process the application…. Because of the subject matter of the application both the City’s Sensitive Areas Ordinance and the 1994 Agreement are relevant to CalPortland’s proposed use. The Settle Agreement contains a provision that prohibits Lone Star and its successors from submitting any future application o mine gravel where the activity would affect Sequalitchew Creek. Some signatories believe that provision bars the application but CalPortland asserts that because its project will provide additional flows to Sequalitchew Creek using groundwater obtained during dewatering of mineral gravel, there will be no adverse affect in the Creek…”
Opponents to the mine expansion argue that it will involve the removal of more than 180 acres of forest and top soil that surround Sequalitchew Creek. Also alleged is that the mining will create a 550-acre hole in the underlying gravel as it is extracted over the next 14 years and the Vashon Aquifer will be exposed. The dewatering of the aquifer then will lower the groundwater and subsequently drain Edmonds Marsh. Other nearby marshes are also expected to be affected.
Elliott urges citizens must do all they can to protect the area’s natural resources.
“Ours is a voice for restoration of the creek and protecting our natural resources. It’s about being good stewards of our natural resources,” she said.
