Just a mile north of Duvall on State Route 203, at a site with a celebrated waterfall and a critical salmon run, the proposed Duvall Quarry continues to threaten wildlife, create dust and noise and add as many as 500 trucks a day through our community. It’s time for information and response.

Friends of Cherry Valley board members have continued to monitor the long application process at King County this past year. As reported at the last public meeting, the next step was for the Duvall Quarry applicant to proceed with the EIS (environmental impact study). We thought perhaps that the applicant would choose not to continue with the quarry plans due to the cost involved and the many severe obstacles in his path.

However, Mr. Jackels is going to proceed with the EIS no matter how ridiculous this proposal is, and reportedly has paid 50 percent of the estimated $300,000 cost.

While state law mandates that the EIS be impartial, usually an EIS is used as a tool to figure out how a permit can be issued with mitigation. We must make certain that the EIS brings to light all of the many adverse effects of this proposal.

In this case, the magnitude of adverse impacts is so extraordinary that they cannot be mitigated.

We must not allow King County to permit the destruction of our waterfall, our watershed, our aquifer, the roads we travel, our air quality, the salmon run in Cherry Creek and our peaceful and quiet way of life. Now, more than ever, we need your support. We are obligated to prove that this quarry will ruin our homeland and must not be permitted.

Friends of Cherry Valley is holding a public meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Cherry Gardens Community Club on Cherry Valley Road. Everyone is invited. Mark your calendar to attend this important meeting. Extend this invitation to concerned and politically active friends who support a community we can be proud of.

We can fight this and win.

Clarise Mahler and Helen Lashway

Co-founders Friends of Cherry Valley