Rezone Proposal Concerns Residents
Jim Upham was born on the edge of Peone Prairie and has spent most of his 76 years there. He can share hours of stories about the area’s history and about the area that served as the Mead Township Dump.
He remembers hauling heaping loads there as early as 1938. “I know it was ‘38 because my father had bought a ‘35 Dodge truck,” he said, “and we used that to take things to the dump.”
He remembers a man named Jack Jones who used to sit by the dump gate and collect money from those who lived outside Mead Township. And he remembers the things people dumped there.
“There were tires, wire…I’m sure there were dead animals. Anything you can imagine,” he said. Since he lives more than 400 feet from the old dump, he was not notified by the county division of building and planning that the owner of the dump property wants to rezone part of it for mining.
But now word has spread throughout the area, blanketing residents with a feeling of unease.
“We never thought to expect such a proposal. It’s inconceivable that someone could do this on a landfill site,” said neighbor Terry Wharf.
The dump property owner, Sandy Sicilia of Pinewood Properties, has applied for a rezone of about 60 acres on the west edge of Peone Prairie - north of Farwell between Market and Fairview - from semi-rural residential to mining.
An estimated 1.6 million tons of sand are available on the site, according to the project file. It would be used for cement and road construction.
Residents are not only concerned about what might be dredged up by mining near an old dump, but also about truck traffic on their narrow roads, dust, runoff into their shallow wells and the effect on their rural quality of life.
Though not yet formally organized, neighbors are working toward a united front as the April 7 rezone hearing approaches.
The old Mead Township Dump closed in 1969. It had become messy, rat-ridden and filled near to capacity, according to a 1964 SpokesmanReview article. Responsibility for the area then passed to the county, which set out poison for the rats and covered remaining debris with dirt.
Neighbors have always been aware of the dump, which sits at the end of Chronicle Street - what used to be called Dump Site Road.
So when they checked the project file and found no mention of the dump in the environmental checklist, neighbors knew something had to be done. The Wharfs started a campaign to prove its existence.
They dug up articles from The Spokesman-Review and the Spokane Chronicle. They took pictures of some of the tires, old boards and bricks that have found their way to the surface. They asked neighbors to write letters to the county planners about what they remember about the dump.
Now the project file is padded with more than 25 letters of opposition, plus a petition containing more than 150 names.
Their clamor got the attention of the owner’s agent, who required an addendum be added to the environmental checklist.
Cathy Ramm, president of Ramm Associates Inc. and the agent for Pinewood Properties, said the owners are currently investigating and field testing the area to locate the boundaries of the dump.
“They have no intent to mine garbage,” she said, adding that the area will not be turned into an open pit mine. Instead, trucks will come in and scoop the sand out, basically leveling the hilly area.
But that is another one of the neighbors’ concerns. The roads in the area are all narrow and noshouldered. Project planners estimate trucks will make four trips an hour from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays through 2010.
Residents worry about the toll so many truck trips will take.
“Can you imagine running semis up this road?” asked neighbor Bob Torgerson, pointing at the ragged Chronicle Street - the only access road to the dump. “You can’t hardly meet two cars here, let alone trucks.”
Or buses, for that matter. The neighborhood is full of children, going to and from school, riding bikes and playing. Members of a nearby adult family home are accustomed to walks on the peaceful roads, which are also frequented by runners and horseback riders.
Neighbors also worry about their wells, many of which are shallow. The ground is made up of sand atop a clay layer. The sand allows stormwater to slowly percolate through the earth. If that’s removed, residents fear storm water would flow to the old dump site and cause pollutants to leach into the water below.
“We’re not tapped into a major aquifer,” Wharf said. “We’re using the rain water on top of those clay layers.”
Acme Materials and Construction has property east of the Pinewood Properties’ project, which it is mining for sand. Though the company supports the rezone, a letter in the project file expresses some concern.
“We found, while prospecting, that the sand dunes aren’t so deep. And then there’s clay,” said Fred Hobbs, project and environmental engineer for Acme, and author of the letter. “The material above (the clay) has the ability to contain moisture. If you remove this, the water has to run someplace.”
Such a situation led to considerable flooding in the Eaglewood subdivision, Hobbs said, noting that Acme will mine less than half of their available property.
“If (the mining) does affect our wells, who will be responsible?” Upham wondered.
Though neighbors don’t oppose development, they want it done responsibly.
“I don’t blame (Sicilia) for wanting to use his land - there’s good money out there,” Torgerson said. “But developing and mining are two different things.”