Group says mine noise report erred

Published 1:14 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – Cadman Inc.’s proposed Grouse Ridge gravel mine will be noisier than previously thought, according to the Cascade Gateway Foundation, a local group fighting plans to locate the mine near North Bend.

Cascade Gateway believes a noise study included in a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the North Bend Gravel Operation erred when it did not include a rock crusher that would be located on the proposed mine’s lower site.

The gravel mine would be located on a 33-acre lower site and 260-acre upper site on Grouse Ridge. Cadman would develop the mine in phases, starting at the lower site. When the gravel there is removed, work – and the rock crusher – would shift to the upper site.

Environalysis of Seattle prepared the FEIS noise study. In modeling the expected noise impact, it used Phase 8 of the project, when gravel extraction would be limited to the upper site.

That’s convenient, Cascade Gateway officials believe, because most of the residents living near the proposed mine are located near the lower site, as are the businesses at Interstate 90’s Exit 34 and a future Snoqualmie Valley School District school site.

They say Phase 2 should have been used for the noise impact modeling, when work is concentrated at the lower site.

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