Rock blasting may cause so-called earthquakes
On Oct. 25, 2007, I was interested in an article in Your Voice with the headline “Tiny quakes shaking Wandermere area. It indicated that the latest quake measuring magnitude 1.7 occurred on Monday, Oct. 22 at 1:40 p.m. east of the Wandermere area.
Just south of the Wandermere lake area is the Perry Rock Quarry, and they have been blasting there for years and have created a large canyon. We’re just south of the quarry area and during the past year the residents along Garden Avenue have been notified when they will blast as we have complained about the blasting. The Oct. 22 blast was at 1:40 and shook our area.
I called your reporter and left a message that whoever his source is who records these blasts as earthquakes should be checked out as I believe that at least some of these Wandermere-area “earthquakes” were due to controlled blasts from the quarry. Also during ongoing freeway construction between Highway 2 and Highway 395, the Department of Transportation did blasting of rock. At the Wandermere Business Park lake near 395 they also blasted rock. On Oct. 30 your reporter called me and said he would look into the blasts.
On Nov. 9 I called the reporter and recorded a message to him that the Rock Quarry had notified us that they would be blasting that day between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. They did blast at about 1:03 p.m. which was recorded on our road by a state employee as a 2 magnitude. I never heard from the reporter and wondered if his source had recorded that as an earthquake.
On Oct. 28 there was another longer quakes article with maps in the Northwest section which stated the same quake information as before.
I’m sure the Rock Quarry is very happy to have its blasting in this area called earthquakes, as it takes the blame for any damage or shaking we endure in our neighborhood if they can be called earthquakes.
I have waited to read some sort of article indicating that these blasts are being called earthquakes. I assumed the reporter would be able to check the dates of the reported quakes with the quarry blasts and other controlled blasting by the DOT and other developers in the Wandermere area. So after over two months I decided to accept Your Voice invitation to air my concerns.
Bob Wakenshaw
Spokane