A state board tasked with challenges to land use struck down a proposed expansion of a county overlay, which would have allowed for surface mining, in a decision published late last month.
On March 22, the Washington State Growth Management Hearings Board released a final decision and order ruling Clark County did not provide adequate environmental review for a surface mining overlay on about 330 acres of property in the northeast part of the county.
The property is located southeast of the intersection of Northeast Healy Road and Northeast 424th Street.
In October 2020, Granite Construction Company and BRP Minerals LLC applied to expand the overlay on the property. The property is adjacent to a roughly 43-acre parcel that already has the surface mining designation.
In July 2022, the Clark County Council approved the addition of the overlay to the properties, the order stated. Two months later, Friends of Clark County appealed the decision to the Growth Management Hearings Board. The group previously appealed a county-level review under the State Environmental Policy Act.
The board found the county “improperly chose to defer a more in-depth review of impacts of the surface mining overlay (SMO) until the project stage, despite the high level of detail provided by the applicant.” Not completing that review “substantially interferes” with one of the goals of the state’s Growth Management Act, the ruling stated.
The addition of the overlay “places at risk 330 acres of environmentally sensitive lands by authorizing mineral extraction without an adequate analysis and consideration of the potential adverse environmental impacts of this action,” the ruling stated.
The board stated there was “no dispute” of the critical areas on the property, which included significant waterways and geologically hazardous areas.
Following the final decision and order, Friends of Clark County celebrated the ruling as a win.
“Friends of Clark County has worked diligently over the years to ensure that our county officials have the most thorough, complete and accurate information prior to making decisions. … Thus, today is an important day for Clark County,” a release from the organization stated.
The board did not rule in favor of everything Friends of Clark County argued. The ruling stated the group wasn’t able to demonstrate the county “committed clear error” because it didn’t use a countywide or regional process to designate mineral resource lands. It also found Friends of Clark County couldn’t prove the county erred in how it addressed overlapping designations or failed to consider and protect critical areas.
In order for the overlay to move forward, the county will need to make a “determination of significance” and require an in-depth environmental review of the impacts the overlay would have, Friends of Clark County stated.
“This process is critical in that it provides opportunities for the public, local, state and federal agencies, and tribal governments to participate in developing and analyzing the information in a transparent manner which, in turn, helps the decision makers identify a proposal’s significant adverse environmental impacts,” the statement read.
The public participation would also allow the public to have a “greater and keener understanding of the full impacts” the overlay expansion would have, Friends of Clark County stated.
“We see (the) ruling as a great opportunity for the county councilors, and our planning commission and staff, to embrace the environmental review process for the benefit of all the citizens of Clark County,” the organization’s statement read.
