‘Our property would become unlivable’: Rural Whatcom residents battle proposed rock quarry

Frost Road in eastern Whatcom County is a quiet lane where cars rarely drive by.

It’s in a rural, residential area between Peaceful Valley and Sumas, just off South Pass Road. Some neighbors in the area have lived there for more than 30 years. Others moved in just four or five years ago.

But all of them moved there for the lifestyle. It’s peaceful, neighborly and safe — a good place to raise children surrounded by nature.

But neighbors say that lifestyle is being threatened by a proposal to open a 70-acre open pit rock quarry, dubbed the Ranch Quarry, that would border one of the neighbors’ property lines and would be certain to impact the properties of every other neighbor nearby.

“All of us in the community out here were pretty blind-sided by the scope of this,” said Andrew Clarke, whose property borders the proposed quarry. Clarke is also co-chair of HOMEWhatcom, a group of homeowners opposed to the quarry’s development.

The development application proposes about 25 trucks coming in and out of the quarry every day — 50 trips — and the removal of about 13.7 million cubic yards of material from the quarry. The mining activity is proposed to operate as far as 350 feet below the surface. There would also be rock sorting and crushing on site.

Brent Cowden, of Cowden Inc., Cowden Brothers Trucking, and Cowden Gravel and Ready Mix, is proposing the development. The Northwest Washington gravel company has been based in Bellingham since 1945. Cowden Inc. already operates several rock pits and quarries in Whatcom County.

Activity at the proposed mine site is anticipated to occur over 30 years, according to application documents. However, an email thread between Whatcom County engineers and Brent Cowden from June of this year that was obtained through a public records request by HOMEWhatcom, indicates that the lifespan of the rock quarry could be up to 100 years. That estimation is based on additional calculations involving expected truck trips and the proposed amount of extracted materials.

Application documents indicate that steps will be taken to mitigate impacts on public health, safety and natural resources during the rock quarry’s time of operation.

The neighbors aren’t convinced.

“The vast majority of the community is totally opposed to this,” Clarke said.

There is no definitive start date as to when mining could begin on the site as a timeline is determined by the permit process.

Where does the county stand on this?

Whatcom County must give final approval, but it’s too soon to tell what would happen.

“We’re still taking comments,” said Steve Roberge of the Whatcom County Planning and Development Department. “We review all of those and consider all of the comments we get.”

Roberge said it’s good that people have concerns and that they communicate them.

“That’s why these public processes are set up so that we can hear from the public. They know that land — and this is with any development — they know that area better than we do. They live there every day. They see things and know things that we don’t know. So we get a lot of good information from comments,” Roberge said.

Roberge told The Bellingham Herald the job of the Planning Department is to make sure the proposal meets all of the criteria listed in the county’s code and to ensure it thoroughly moves through the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review process.

The SEPA process identifies and analyzes environmental impacts associated with governmental decisions often related to issuing permits for private projects, constructing public facilities, or adopting regulations, policies and plans, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

“Assuming all of those things can be met, then we’ll move toward making a recommendation to the hearing examiner,” Roberge said.

Cowden told The Herald the goal is to begin mining within the next three years.

“This is a long-term project and we are committed to seeing it come to fruition,” he said.

Environmental and health hazards

Some of HOMEWhatcom’s biggest concerns with this operation have to do with a potential threat to the area’s water and air quality. The Washington State legislature recognizes that “it is not possible to extract minerals without producing some environmental impacts.”

Residents are worried about the quarry impacting their groundwater supplies, impacting wetlands and streams, and harming the area’s wildlife. They also are concerned about the possible presence of asbestos in the rock that is proposed to be mined.

Asbestos mineral fibers occur naturally in certain types of rocks and soil. They can be released into the air by activities including construction, grading, quarrying and surface mining.

“This is obviously a huge concern for those of us that live here because if they start freeing asbestos in the air then, all of a sudden, we are all at really terrible risk of lung disease and a host of other things,” Clarke said.

If naturally occurring asbestos is not disturbed and fibers are not released into the air, they do not pose a health risk.

Asbestos is most commonly found in ultrabasic and ultramafic rocks. Ultramafic rock has been noted by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to be naturally occurring and potentially contain asbestos in areas of Whatcom County near the proposed rock quarry site, including widely across Sumas Mountain and the Saar Creek Valley.

Saar Creek runs downslope from the proposed rock quarry just east of the site and flows north to Canada. The creek is known to support salmon and trout populations.

The Whatcom County Health Department and the Washington State Department of Health have issued health advisories to residents along Swift Creek and the Sumas River as a result of asbestos found from a landslide deposit on Sumas Mountain that continues to be carried through those water bodies. The health advisories outline measures people can take to limit exposure.

Ultramafic rock has been identified in one area of the proposed rock quarry site, according to a Geologic Hazard Review submitted to Whatcom County as part of the development proposal application. However, it does not appear to be widely occurring throughout the site and it is not noted whether the ultramafic rock is known to have asbestos in it.

The review states that “the existing and proposed slopes within and adjacent to the site do not pose an unacceptable level of risk to the site or surrounding areas.”

However, in May of this year, the Whatcom County Planning Department issued an eight-page notice requiring the applicant to provide additional materials and information, including requiring the applicant to further explore the presence of asbestos in the rock on-site.

Noise, traffic and property values

The residents who live nearby are also worried about the noise that would come from extracting rock and gravel, as well as the increase in traffic.

“There are dozens of homes within a couple thousand feet of this site. We’re also in a very narrow valley so any sort of loud activity impacts people within a mile,” Clarke said.

They worry the project would ruin neighborhood property values, even if they sold prior to the development. They would have to disclose information about the proposed quarry and they say the impact would be unavoidable.

“For me, the quiet was a really big selling point,” said Erica Simons, a resident living near the proposed quarry. “So when it comes to even thinking about that getting destroyed, it’s like a huge sucker punch.”

“The access road that they want to use for this quarry is 150 feet from our front door with a direct line of sight,” Clarke said. “Our property would become unlivable. We would have to move because we have a 5-year-old daughter. We couldn’t raise our kid here.”

Mark Porter lives next door to Clarke. He said he feels disgusted about the proposal.

“That we have to go to these lengths just to save our home, save our way of life,” Porter said. “After living here for 36 years, and working at home for 22 years, it was quiet. It was a pleasant place to be able to do that. If this application is accepted, we won’t be able to live here.”

“We all feel betrayed,” said Richard Greenbaum, another resident living on Frost Road.

He and his wife, Kathleen, operate a Hipcamp on their property on Frost Road. That’s a service that private landowners use to list campsites for visitors to book. Greenbaum said this rock quarry and the truck traffic that would come with it would ruin this usable land for campers.

“That’s part of what people come here for is the peace and quiet,” Greenbaum said.

In a statement to The Bellingham Herald, Cowden said he understands the neighbors have concerns and that mitigation is “absolutely” planned for possible impacts.

“We have spent a significant amount of time and money with consultants in preparing our mining plan and proposal to limit and mitigate for those concerns as they were our concerns as well,” Cowden said. “We want to be and will be a good neighbor, while also still serving our greater community with this much-needed resource.”

International use

Residents are also worried that the rock extracted from the quarry would not serve the Whatcom County community for use in local infrastructure projects and instead be trucked across the Canadian border for use internationally.

Part of the residents’ concerns come from the sale of Cowden Gravel & Ready Mix to LafargeHolcim Company, a multinational company that manufactures building materials. It was sold by Cowden Inc. in December 2021, according to the gravel company’s website.

“In the application, it’s very unclear about who is actually going to be operating this mine and where they’re going to be taking their material,” Clarke said.

But Cowden told The Herald the rock is meant to meet local demand.

“Hard rock (quarry rock) is a vital component to our local construction market and the permitted supply of quality quarry rock in Whatcom County is extremely limited currently,” Cowden said. “Quarry rock serves a lot of needs but it’s used extensively in river dike and levee repair/enhancement projects, salmon enhancement projects, railroad infrastructure and port projects such as airport runway improvements and Bellingham Bay waterfront capital projects.”

Cowden told The Herald that “LafargeHolcim has nothing to do with this proposed rock quarry” in either ownership or operation. He said there have been no discussions to ship rock north (into Canada) or out of Whatcom County.

“The proposed Ranch Quarry is a locally owned private venture by the Cowden family and Jerry and Lurline Hammer, all of whom have been lifetime Whatcom County residents,” Cowden said.

The Hammers, who own the land of the proposed rock quarry, were not able to be reached for comment.

Building a case of opposition

Hundreds of public comments opposing the Ranch Quarry have been submitted to Whatcom County Planning and Development Services since March.

One of those comments was a 20-page document submitted by an environmental law firm based in Seattle, Bricklin and Newman, which was retained by HOMEWhatcom to help the group battle against the proposed quarry.

“It’s a terrible proposal in a beautiful area,” Dave Bricklin said in an interview with The Herald. “The environmental hazards associated with this, the impact it has on surrounding property values, the health hazards for the neighborhood — all of these things are serious. It’s why we got involved in this. It’s why the people in that neighborhood care about this.”

Bricklin and Newman advertises a combined 80 years of experience advocating for the environment with a focus on protecting communities and the environment — from adverse impacts and economic pressures of development, pollution, logging and other land uses, according to the firm’s website.

Clarke said the firm has been helpful in identifying issues with the rock quarry application and further delaying the development process. The county did issue a Notice of Additional Requirements for the quarry proposal after receiving public comments.

“We think this project is going to, ultimately, die. We don’t think it can be approved and we were encouraged by the county taking our comments seriously and asking the applicant for more information,” Bricklin said.

Bricklin told the Herald that improper zoning is one of the biggest issues he sees with the proposal. He said some of the parcels on the property that are needed to access the county road are not designated for mineral resource land use, potentially putting a stop to the whole project.

“We think that’s a showstopper right there and the county ought to be enforcing that,” Bricklin said. “That ought to be a basis by itself for denying the application.”

Clarke said HOMEWhatcom has spent more than $16,000 on litigation services so far and they expect to spend more. The money has come from donations and fundraisers. He said the group is prepared to battle the project for years.

“It’s a lot. It’s a terrible amount,” Clarke said. “And we’re never going to get it back.”