By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch A proposed rock and gravel-mining operation near Eatonville is meeting some opposition as it winds its way through the public review process. Randles Sand and Gravel wants to remove quarry rock, gravel, sand and topsoil from 500 acres located off 129th Avenue East, just north of the town. If it's approved by Pierce County, the site would be the largest of its kind in the county and could be operating for 40 years. The company has proposed hauling material from the mining site to customers via trucks on State Route 161. Railroad tracks in the area are being considered for rail shipments. The county's Planning and Land Services Department is reviewing Randles' plans and is preparing a final environmental impact statement that will note impacts the project could have on water, air quality, wildlife habitat, noise levels and traffic. The study (EIS) and Randles' request for a conditional-use permit for the project will be the subject of a public hearing that will be scheduled after the EIS is finished and released. In public comments that the department accepted through Dec. 12, letters were received from 12 citizens. None were in support of the proposal, according to Adonais Clark, a senior planner for the county. He said letters also came from the Eatonville School District, the town of Eatonville, two state agencies (the Department of Transportation and the Department of Ecology), and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. All expressed concerns about the Randles proposal, Clark said. He said the "primary concernsGÇ¥ included: " Noise that would reach people living adjacent to the project site, and noise from trucks using Lynch Creek Road East that the school district said would impact nearby schools. " Pedestrian safety for students, coaches of school sports teams, and residents along on Lynch Creek Road East, which borders athletic fields. " Traffic at the intersection of Lynch Creek Road East and State Route 161, plus trucks using the Lynch Creek bridge along with cars and pedestrians. " Potential impacts to groundwater supplies for homes on Ski Park Road. Eatonville town officials, in communications with Randles and county representatives, complained about the amount of truck traffic (as many as 300 trips per day) and said the company should pay for road improvements to accommodate the large trucks and address safety for other motorists and pedestrians. Among other concerns, town officials also said Randles should be required to publish notices of their blasting schedules at least 48 hours before the start of rock blasting at the mining site. The town "is not satisfiedGÇ¥ with proposals that were made in a preliminary EIS to offset any negative impacts of the project, Mayor Mike Schaub wrote in a letter to the Planning and Land Service Department. Readers of The Dispatch who posted comments at dispatchnews.com included Steve Anderson, who advocated moving the mined rocks by train instead of trucks. "Maintaining a small train would be a whole lot better, costwise, than all of the wear and tear on the trucks roads and residents of (the) town," he wrote. Another commenter at dispatchnews.com, Tony Sirgedas, predicted trucks loaded with rocks will slow down traffic on hilly portions of SR-161 outside of Eatonville. He urged more study of traffic flow. And Eric Watson wrote that any negative impacts on the public should be put ahead of Randles' business interests. Randles already owns the Lynch Creek Quarry near Eatonville on 419th Street Court East. The quarry is the source of basalt rock for rockeries that the company trucks as far away as Oregon and Idaho. Randles, based in Frederickson, has been in business since 1969 as a suppier of sand, gravel and topsoil.
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