Request revives river gravel mining issue

<p>Gravel mining in the terraces of the Russian River is an issue so old that President Clinton was in the White House when debate raged in Sonoma County.</p><p>So old that many original opponents have passed on, or passed on their cause to their children.</p><p>So old that environmental technology for determining the effect on the river has advanced immensely.</p><p>So old that Supervisor Tim Smith is the only current board member to have voted on the original mining plan in 1994.</p><p>"We were faced with scientists on both sides of the issue, and the board made a sensible decision back in 1994 to try and end it all in 10 years," Smith said. "I guess we're not done yet."</p><p>No, they're not, because Syar Industries is coming back before supervisors Tuesday with a request to dredge rock that it wasn't able to scoop out just before the Aggregate Resources Management plan expired in spring 2006.</p><p>Syar representative John Perry said the company proposes to take out no more of the high quality gravel used in concrete than was permitted under the original plan, but seeks permission to do it over a five-year span. Perry said mechanical problems with extraction as well as resolution of a 2006 lawsuit filed by opponents contributed to the company's inability to dig out the rock by the April 16, 2006, deadline.</p><p>Opponents of the original mining plan are aghast. They thought mining of the river terraces was an issue that died on the deadline day.</p><p>"Today we know that agriculture is threatened by a declining aquifer, we know we have to conserve water as a valuable resource and we know reclamation does not produce more farmland, it produces another ugly pit," said Dennis Hill, whose family owns vineyard property near mining sites and whose parents opposed terrace mining. "What's best for the environment is not to dig anymore."</p><p>Chris De Bennedetti, son of a Westside Road couple who opposed terrace mining in the early 1990s, said granting an exemption would only allow Syar to return with new requests and new reasons why the county needs more river rock.</p><p>"We are destroying our most scarce resource for gravel, a resource that we can get up the river from Petaluma," De Bennedetti said.</p><p>Last year, more than a million tons of rock came up the Petaluma River, mostly from Canadian pits, five times greater than the amount delivered upriver in 1986. High-quality rock is needed in the concrete mixture used for highway, bridge, residential and commercial construction.</p><p>The aggregate management plan was designed to promote river quality, protect agriculture and provide time for development of alternative sources of rock. Although the county has allowed production increases at one Forestville quarry, it has not been so quick to approve increases at other quarries in Forestville or elsewhere across the county.</p><p>Wendell Trappe, owner of Forestville's Canyon Rock Quarry, which has not been able to get an expansion permit, said the aggregate management plan has not helped him at all. He said he's had to buy rock from Syar or truck it in from quarries outside the county, both of which have resulted in putting more diesel-spewing rigs on the roads.</p><p>In a preview of Tuesday's debate, arguments for and against Syar's gravel mining exemption were aired before the county planning commission at an April 3 hearing. After lengthy public comment and extensive debate among commissioners, a motion to approve Syar's request for a limited three-year period failed on a 2-3 vote.</p><p>A majority of planning commissioners thought the plan was outdated, but also said the issue of Syar's request was a policy matter for supervisors.</p><p>"The history of terrace mining has had its share of controversy," Smith said. "It has proven very difficult to get that land back to agriculture. It all comes down to whether there is merit to the request. We will need to hear whether there is a need for the hard rock for concrete and whether there are extenuating circumstances to Syar's request."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.</p>