A trio of trucks travel to and from the Zimmerly gravel pit near Washougal. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian files)
A local conservation group has signaled that it, along with a group of property owners, will sue a government commission that oversees land-use regulations in the Columbia River Gorge unless action is taken against a controversial mining pit in east Clark County.
In late November, Nathan Baker, senior staff attorney for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and Gary Kahn, an attorney for about a dozen property owners living near the pit, sent a letter to Krystyna Wolniakowski, executive director of the Columbia River Gorge Commission.
The letter concerns the Zimmerly pit located just outside of Washougal in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and subject to its land-use regulations. Since the pit was revived last year by the Nutter Corporation, it’s been the subject of legal scrutiny and complaints from residents who’ve been rankled by noise and truck traffic. Opponents of the mine have argued that its operator lacked the proper permits. But in August, the county hearings examiner found that it did.
Since then, Friends of the Columbia Gorge has appealed the decision to the commission. It’s now taken its strategy further, pressuring the commission to take enforcement action.
The letter states that Wolniakowski has allowed “unpermitted mining and related activities” at the Zimmerly mining pit since October 2017 and runoff to flow into an adjacent property “and ultimately into Gibbons Creek and Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.”
“The Executive Director of the Columbia River Gorge Commission has a mandatory duty under the Gorge Commission Rules to investigate alleged violations of the Scenic Area Act Management Plan, land use ordinances, and orders issued by the Commission or the Director, and to issue notices of violations,” the letter reads.
Wolniakowski pointed out that counties in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area are primarily responsible for enforcing its regulations.
“You know, the counties are the first line of enforcement,” Wolniakowski said. “If they can’t resolve an issue with a landowner and there is an enforcement action that has to be taken, they are really the ones to do that enforcement.”
The appeal will be heard next year by the commission, she said, which first and foremost is supposed to provide a neutral forum. She said she has been consulting the commission’s legal counsel about the situation, adding that she can’t think of a time during her more than three years with the commission where it’s initiated an enforcement action.
She’s received more than a thousand form letters concerning the quarry. She said she answered 200 of them and got form letters in response.
“I’m trying to be very respectful of our process, but it’s difficult,” she said. “It’s not a process people are familiar with. There’s no commission like this in the country.
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