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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Extra Fizz: State Budget Includes $15 Million to Buy Mine on Maury Island

Politics, This Washington   April 13, 2010 at 10:11 am Josh Feit

In a major victory for environmental activists on Maury Island—and State Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34)—the final budget deal in Olympia includes $15 million for King County and the Cascade Land Conservancy to buy the controversial Glacier (now called CalPortland) Maury Island mine site.

The company had been pushing to expand its mining there and neighbors (and local Rep. Nelson) have been fighting against it for years.

“The end goal is to acquire the land for permanent recreation and conservation,” Nelson says.

It’s far from a done deal, but the company has been in talks to sell the land to King County, with CLC orchestrating the deal, and now, with Rep. Nelson’s $15 million on the table, it’s more likely that the site will be preserved for the public.


  • ivan

    I appreciate that you reported this, Josh, but this is hardly just a “major victory for environmentalists on Maury Island.” That is understating the case considerably, and making it look like a politician's boondoggle for a small subset of her constituents.

    In reality, IF this purchase comes to pass, it will be a major victory for the entire Puget Sound ecosystem, and will go a long way toward ensuring the survival of threatened and endangered marine mammals and the entire food chain that they depend on.

    The benefits to Western Washington go far, far beyond the benefits to Vashon and Maury Islands. Add to this the impending retirement of Majority Leader Lynn Kessler (D?-24), the friend of polluters (Glacier NW) and the enemy of my community, and it's quite a day.

  • MudBaby

    This is really good news. Gravel mines are tricky. They can screw up underlying groundwater resources in ways that are unfixable once the damage is done. Given that the adjacent nearshore area is Central Puget Sound's only DNR-designated Aquatic Reserve, purchasing the gravel mine will prove cheaper in the long run than trying to mitigate damage to the reserve caused by not only by Glacier's enormous proposed dock, but by decades of mining that will have unpredictable impacts beneath and downslope from the mine.

    Props to everyone who worked long and hard to make this happen.

  • http://www.MajorityRules.org/blog Steve Zemke MajorityRulesBlog

    Overlooked in the environmental review process was the fact that the site contains many Pacific madrone trees which are in serious decline in the Northwest. The environmental impact statement paid for by Glacier of course dismissed their value to the Puget Sound ecosystem, contrary to other published literature. If the site is preserved this will be a valuable addition to preserving native vegetation and habitat for wildlife which are associated with the Pacific madrone trees.