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A local grassroots organization is encourage Enumclaw and South King County locals to meet with officials next month to voice their opposition to a proposed gravel mine.
Defend Cumberland was formed to oppose a gravel mine being created in Cumberland, just outside Enumclaw, by Segale Properties LLC.
The group will be meeting with King County and, specifically, the Director or the Department of Local Service Leon Richardson, who will be the guest speaker during an Oct. 13 meeting.
The meeting is planned to be held at the Green River College Enumclaw Campus at 6 p.m.
“Why does this matter? We need to show up and tell Leon that our concerns and opposition need to be addressed by King County,” the group wrote in a meeting announcement. “This is your opportunity to ask King County all those questions you have been pondering since this project came to light.”
For those who have not followed the gravel mine saga, here’s a little bit of history.
Back in early 2024, Segale applied to open a 990-acre mine in the Cumberland area east of the city of Black Diamond. The proposed mine is separated into pieces surrounding a parcel of land owned by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
The proposal was met with fierce resistance from those who would live near the mine and local conservationists; a Feb. 27, 2024 meeting at the Black Diamond Elementary School was standing-room only with angry attendees, and presenters from Segale and King County were forced to end the presentation early to start the Q&A portion of the night after continued interruptions and shouted questions.
The county spent the next two years reviewing Segale’s research into how its mine will affect the environment, and officially determined that the project would significantly effect the local environment on July 8; concerns include runoff into local waterways, additional noise and traffic on an otherwise quiet and rural road, and lack of access to public open space.
This Determination of Significance means Segale must now go through the the state’s more stringent Environmental Policy Act Review and determine how it may mitigate its project’s environmental effects.
A public comment period ended Aug. 7, but the state is continuing to meet with project and community stakeholders to determine the scope of environmental concerns and possible mitigation strategies Segale can enact to open its mine.
It’s unclear if an additional public comment period will be opened when a draft EIS plan is complete.
“Rural King County land owners need a way to communicate with their agency leaders,” local Bernie McKinney, a member of Defend Cumberland and the Enumclaw Plateau Community Association, a nonprofit that also opposes the mine project, said. “Get to know the many local folks who are gathering on a regular basis in order to create a bigger voice on the big decisions facing our rural plateau.”
For more information, go to enumclawplateaucommunityassoci
