Pit Owner Seeks Unlimited Mining

The owner of a 253-acre gravel pit site north of Post Falls wants permission to mine rock indefinitely.

On Monday, Ronald T. Moen will ask the Kootenai County Planning Commission for a zone change that allows him to extract gravel six days a week for as long as he wishes. Moen obtained a conditional-use permit in 1996 that allows him to operate the gravel pit for five years.

No mining has taken place. Moen hasn’t posted his reclamation bond, according to state records.

Moen is asking for the zone change because of the time limitation, according to his application. If the new zoning is approved, it will increase the hours of operation.

The current county permit allows Moen to mine from 6 a.m. to dusk Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday. If the new permit is approved, Moen would be able to run the pit from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Moen says he has to have the more open-ended permit in order to make the operation pay. And he promises to keep it clean.

“We will do everything to keep it sanitary and keep it great,” Moen said. “We feel there is a lot less risk to the aquifer than if you divide it up into five-acre parcels” or allow other industrial development.

But neighbors are livid about the proposal.

“We already have enough gravel pits in the county,” said Jim Knott, who has a goat farm near the pit. In combination with all of the other developments proposed for the area, from a wood-treating plant to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s locomotive refueling depot, “I think we are about to have another Love Canal.

“And I’m not an environmentalist, I’m not a tree hugger,” Knott said. “I’m more of a conservative.”

PLANNING HEARING The Kootenai County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday at the Kootenai County Administration Building to decide on a zone change for a gravel pit near the intersection of Prairie Avenue and Pleasant View Road.