Mine plan renews debate over land use

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published September 13, 2008

Comments (0)

DuPONT – A bid by Glacier Northwest to expand its sand and gravel mine in this historic village has reopened a decades-long land-use battle involving the Sequalitchew Creek Canyon, a conflict supposedly settled 15 years ago.

On the Web

• Glacier Northwest

• Nisqually Delta Association

• Washington State Department of Ecology

• Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Guided walks

A series of guided walks through the scenic and historic Sequalitchew Creek Canyon in DuPont are set for 5 p.m., Wednesdays through October.

The 2.5-mile round trip following a gentle gravel path takes about one hour and covers several historic sites in Western Washington, including:

• A Nisqually seasonal fish camp and village site near the mouth of the creek on Puget Sound, predating white settlers.

• Three Fort Nisqually sites, including the 1832 Hudson's Bay Co. beach encampment — the first nonnative settlement in Western Washington.

• The 1839 Methodist Mission site representing the first U.S. settlement in the Puget Sound region.

• The 1841 Wilkes Observatory, where members of a U.S. Naval scientific expedition under Capt. Charles Wilkes charted lower Puget Sound and issued landmark names still in use.

People interested in walking the trail should meet at the gravel parking lot at the intersection of Center Drive and Powerline Road near the 1843 Fort Nisqually Site. For more information, contact Judy Krill at jakrill@earthlink.net.

Time line

Land use battles around Sequalitchew Creek have a long history, including:

•1974: Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge created just south of DuPont.

•1976: Weyerhaeuser purchases 3,200 acres from the DuPont explosives company and announces plans for a super port and timber products export complex. Project opposed by the Nisqually Delta Association because of light and noise effects on nearby wildlife refuge and shoreline of statewide significance.

•1985: State Supreme Court ruled in favor of a log-export dock, but a weakening market for wood products overseas causes Weyerhaeuser to abandon the delta dock.

•1990: Lonestar Northwest, which later becomes Glacier Northwest, and Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co. propose gravel export dock at same site.

•1993: City approves shoreline permits, Ecology, NDA and Black Hills Audubon Society appeal permit to the state Shorelines Hearings Board.

•1994: Parties reach settlement agreement that moves the dock north about 1.5 miles to Tasolo Point and preserves and protects the historic Sequalitchew Creek Canyon from development and disturbance.

•1997: Glacier begins mining on 335 acres.

•2002: Glacier starts working on plan to expand the mine by 177 acres.

•2008: Environmental study of mine expansion submitted to city draws claims from NDA and some ex-city officials that it violates the 1994 agreement, which the company denies.

•October 2008: DuPont hearings examiner scheduled to hear the Glacier request.

The Olympian

Glacier, one of the largest sand and gravel mining operations in the nation, wants to add 177 acres to its 335-acre mine to buy the company another 14 years of business, selling more than 250 sand and gravel products to customers across Puget Sound.

The project features construction of a new tributary to Sequalitchew Creek, feeding the lower reaches of the water-starved stream so it can once again support salmon in a 4,000-foot stretch.

"It's an exciting project that would allow salmon to come back to the stream," Glacier general manager Scott Nicholson said of the DuPont mine.

But the mine expansion also would take water from upper reaches of the creek and require a cut in the creek canyon to connect the man-made tributary to the stream.

Therein lies the problem.

The settlement

In 1994, the mining company, environmental groups, DuPont, the state Department of Ecology and the Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co. signed a landmark settlement agreement that allowed the mining company to build a gravel export dock at Tatsolo Point about 1.5 miles north of Sequalitchew Creek.

In return for a dock to load gravel barges, Lonestar Northwest, which later became Glacier Northwest, agreed to honor a buffer zone around the creek and canyon and forgo any activities that would "significantly impact" the flow of the creek.

The agreement laid to rest major land-use conflicts in the creek canyon and at the mouth of the creek where it empties into Puget Sound, a place Weyerhaeuser wanted to build a super port in the 1970s, much to the chagrin of environmentalists and supporters of the neighboring Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, which was created in 1974.

The Glacier project has breathed new life into a dormant, but once influential, environmental group called the Nisqually Delta Association, which helped broker the 1994 settlement.

Next page >>