Proposed Project

J.L. Storedahl and Sons, Inc. has requested a conditional use permit to operate a surface mine in unincorporated Skamania County, approximately 10.5 miles northeast of Washougal, WA. The site is accessed off McCloskey Creek Road via Mabee Mines Road and State Highway 14 . Proposed site activities will include drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, crushing, screening, stockpiling, and commercial sales of crushed aggregate. The project will include a small operations and storage area. The proposed permit boundary for the site includes approximately 273.6 acres, of which approximately 180 acres will be disturbed by mineral extraction and other mining disturbance. Mining is anticipated to occur over the next 30 to 40 years and will involve the removal of approximately 24 million cubic yards of resource material, overburden and topsoil.

The proposal is located in the West End – Commercial Resource Lands 40 zone. The purpose of this zone is to designate and protect forest, agricultural, and mineral resource lands of long-term significance.

What’s happening now?

The proposal requires a conditional use permit (CUP). Conditional uses may only be approved if the county’s hearing examiner determines that the proposed use is compatible with permitted and existing uses in the specific area of the proposed use. But first, the project must be reviewed under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). SEPA is a state policy established in Chapter 43.21C of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that requires state and local agencies to consider the likely environmental consequences of governmental decisions, including decisions on land use permits. The conditional use permit review is on holding pending SEPA review.

Based on review of the application materials, Skamania County determined that this project is likely to have significant adverse impacts on the environment, and that an environmental impact statement (EIS) should be prepared, consistent with RCW 43.21C.030 (2)(c). The EIS will address the probable significant adverse environmental impacts of the proposed project. The County provided an extended scoping period in December and January 2022 and has considered the comments received during this period to determine a scope for the EIS. Click here to view a report and summary of the scoping process.

Skamania County has determined the following:

The EIS will evaluate three alternatives:

  • Alternative 1 – Proposed Mining,
  • Alternative 2 – Mining Operations Alternative, and
  • Alternative 3 – No Action Alternative.

The EIS will analyze the following elements of the environment:

  • Transportation (including Public Services – Emergency Response),
  • Noise,
  • Land Use (including Aesthetics, Parks and Recreation, and Relationship to Plans and Policies),
  • Critical Areas (including Earth, Water Resources, and Plants and Animals),
  • Cultural Resources, and
  • Air Quality/Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Scoping

The first step in the development of an EIS is called scoping. Scoping is the process of identifying the elements of the environment to be evaluated in an EIS. Scoping is intended to help identify and narrow the issues to those that are significant. Scoping includes a public comment period so that agencies, tribes, local communities, organizations, and the public can comment on key issues and concerns.

During the EIS scoping period, a total of 298 comment letters/forms were received from 312 unique commenters. Click here to view a report and summary of the scoping process.

What other opportunities will there be to provide comments?

Comments are accepted at two key points in the SEPA process. Comments were accepted during scoping in December 2021 and January 2022. The next and final opportunity to provide comments during the SEPA process is after the Draft EIS is made available for public review. The public comment period for the Draft EIS will likely occur sometime in 2022.

Once the SEPA process is concluded, the proposal will proceed to the conditional use permitting process. Public comments will be accepted by the hearing examiner in writing or orally at a public hearing. This process will begin only after the Final EIS is issued.

Contact Us

For more information about the project, or the EIS process, please contact the Community Development Department at permitcenter@co.skamania.wa.us.