News From Your Friends

CALL-TO-ACTION ON THE CHELATCHIE BLUFF SURFACE MINING OVERLAY ON 330 ACRES OF FOREST LAND ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22ND

October 18, 2024 in Climate Change, Comprehensive Plan & Growth Management Act, Farmland & Forests, Mining

Date: On or before October 22nd at 10am

Context: Clark County will hold a hearing to consider a proposal to repeal the Surface Mining Overlay (SMO) ordinance that could allow mining on 330 acres of prime Tier I forestlands at Chelatchie Bluff. This proposed action to repeal the ordinance is in response to the Growth Management Hearings Board Final Order that concluded the county’s action to add the SMO did not comply with the Growth Management Act (GMA), and is invalid because the ordinance substantially interferes with the GMA goal requiring the protection and enhancement of the environment and to enhance the state’s high quality of life.

Background: Clark County staff recently confirmed that retaining the SMO has resulted in the County being ineligible for over 6 million dollars in state funding, and continuing to remain non-compliant puts the County at risk for losing millions of dollars more in grants and loans. The state has made clear that these grants and low-interest loans will not be given unless Clark County decides to come into compliance with state law. This hearing on October 22nd will be the Council’s chance to be fiscally responsible with the people of Clark County’s tax dollars and repeal the SMO.

You can read a lot more about the issue here.

Action: Provide written or spoken public comment demanding that Clark County come into compliance with the GMA by repealing the Chelatchie Bluff Surface Mining Overlay (SMO) to protect our grant and loan funding from Washington State. Spoken public testimony can be provided in person, virtually, or via phone. Clark County Council meeting agenda and instructions here. 

Let’s plan on PACKING THE ROOM in defense of our natural resources and financial well-being in Clark County and let our Council hear from the people they serve! Email us at info@friendsofclarkcounty.org or DM us if you’d like to get involved—or just show up!

There are MANY good reasons to oppose the Chelatchie SMO including that it will result in  potential significant adverse environmental impacts on over 330 acres of forest land, including adverse impacts to climate, water, anadromous fish, and all of us who depend upon our environment. The hearing boils down to a simple principle: the Council can choose whether to comply with the law or they can choose to ignore the law, not repeal the ordinance, and continue to be denied state grants and loans. If you are speaking, be sure your comments will fit into 3 minutes and speak from your heart. Here are some aspects to consider for crafting your comments:

  • This Council should not choose to be in violation of the law solely to protect the interests of national mineral and mining corporations, causing the state to deny Clark County millions of dollars of grants and low-interest loans that would benefit the people of this county. The Council should choose to protect the multibillion-dollar corporations’ interests or the interests of the people of this county.
  • Each Councilor who refuses to remove the SMO today will be supporting Clark County willfully and intentionally continuing to violate state law. Choosing not to come into compliance with state law would also be a willful violation of their oath to uphold the laws of this state and be detrimental to all the county residents they were elected to serve and protect. This would be an unforgivable betrayal of the public trust.
  • This heavy industrial railroad and mining expansion plan is the antithesis of a climate solution, and would send our county spiraling in the opposite direction of meeting our responsibilities to reduce climate emissions and prepare for climate impacts already in the pipeline, a duty we owe to our children and grandchildren who will live with the consequences of our county’s choices. We cannot on the one hand be working to implement a Clark County Climate Project and on the other hand be wiping out hundreds of acres of carbon sequestering forest for a mining wasteland, when we do not need a new mine and have plenty of access to aggregate.
  • According to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website, there are 875 active gravel mines in the state of Washington, with more than a dozen more on the Oregon side of the Columbia. Additionally, there have been aggregate suppliers barging aggregate into the Portland Metro area for years on the Columbia River, a method that is competitively priced and has less environmental impacts to fish, water quality, and others. Aggregate can be offloaded at the Port of Camas, Fishers Landing, and the Port of Vancouver, reducing congestion on Clark County roadways. There is no rock depletion crisis as claimed by the mining company.
  • This mine would have devastating impacts to water, as mining would disrupt a mapped and identified special gravel layer in the upper half of the Chelatchie and Cedar Creek watersheds on which over 250 wells in the area depend. The risks from rock blasting, shock waves, and extensive fracturing activating pollution plumes in at least 2 of the 3 EPA designated Superfund polluted sites nearby indicate clearly that a full EIS must be done.
  • Documented endangered steelhead and coho salmon reside in the tributaries of Chelatchie Creek. These fish and their habitat require protection under the Endangered Species Act, and clearly would be impacted by a mining operation, indicating that a full EIS should be done.
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