Gravel operation meets opposition

HOUSTON — A proposed gravel operation met with civil, but sharp rebukes at Thursday’s public hearing.

The application would allow for Mat-Su Gravel Products to extract aggregates from 50 acres of a 69-acre parcel straddling the Parks Highway. A total of 1.5 million cubic yards of gravel and peat would be hauled off the area over 10 to 12 years. The finished product would include a pond and commercial lots with highway frontage.

Because the parcel is zoned R-1 residential, the developers need a conditional land-use permit to run a commercial gravel operation. Until recently, the application would have gone to the Mat-Su Borough for approval and been subject to its strict regulations. With its newly gained powers of planning, the city of Houston now has the final say.

However, the application still went to the borough for a recommendation from its planning department. The results of that report were presented at the public hearing on Thursday.

In the staff report, the borough recommends denial of the permit because of omissions in the application materials. The existing site conditions were not complete, and the storm water pollution prevention plan is inadequate. Landscaping and drainage patterns were not provided, and there was no plan addressing what the site will look like upon completion of the excavation, the report said. Lastly, the application did not address how the operation would comply with Houston’s comprehensive land-use plan.

If the city council does approve the application, the borough lists conditions it recommends requiring: increased buffers between the mining operation and adjacent properties and areas of open water. The hours of operation should be reduced, all best practices for storm water pollution prevention should be required, and the application should include a clause prohibiting mining within four feet of the water table. While the Environmental Protection Agency would not make a concrete recommendation regarding the application, a representative did detail some of the agency’s concerns.

A notice of intent for storm water discharge was filled, but that as a whole is inadequate for the scope of this operation, said Matthew LaCroix. The Army Corps of Engineers did submit a letter saying the operation did not require a permit under the Clean Water Act, but LaCroix said it does not appear as if the Corps was given all the necessary information.

The wetlands that make up the majority of the property are included as a storm water pollution prevention measure in the application, but sediment must be captured before it enters the wetlands, said LaCroix.

“The overriding requirements … is to prevent pollutants from entering waters of the U.S., and ensuring that discharges do not result in violations of state water quality standards,” LaCroix said in the statement he read. “It is not clear that the current (plan) would achieve either of these goals.”

Additionally, the EPA is concerned the proposed pond would risk the water and habitat quality of the creek and wetlands on the site.

After hearing the concerns from the borough, EPA and local residents, the city council set a work session for the conditional land use permit for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at city hall. The public is invited to attend, but participation will be limited to the end of the session.

“We are not trying to rape the land,” property owner Anna Sutton said. “We are willing to consider the recommendations from the borough and the EPA.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.