Yakima County Commissioners approve land designation that could expand Yakima Ridge mining
A swap of land designations on a ridge dividing Yakima and Selah could lead to future gravel mining expansions but also prompt further controversy and possible litigation.
Yakima County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a request to pull nearly 20 acres of land at the site out of a mineral resource overlay and replace it with adjacent land also owned by the Rawley family.
Granite Northwest Construction leases the land from the Rawley family for its mining operation. The company says it needs to expand mining operations because it is running out of gravel.
Not everyone is happy with the decision.
The Yakama Nation says the area is a cultural site that should be protected.
The tribe is now in settlement talks with Granite Northwest, the Rawley family and Yakima County over a lawsuit opposing current mining expansion plans on the ridge.
The land designation changes would eliminate the current proposed mining expansion plans and position parcels just southwest for future mining expansions, according to an agreement between Granite Northwest and the county.
But the move doesn’t have the tribe’s blessing.
In a Nov. 8 letter to the county, tribal leaders opposed bringing any new parcels on the ridge into the mineral resource overlay.
Tribal leaders say the entire mining site resides within a cultural site that once was a fishery, village and burial ground documented by the state Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation.
Under the 1855 Treaty, the Yakama Nation retains its cultural and spiritual ties to the more than 10 million acres of traditional territory it ceded to the federal government.
“The Yakama Nation has never ceded rights to our ancestors’ burial grounds or to any of our cultural resources, which we retain as inherent sovereign rights to this day,” Yakima Tribal Councilman Virgil Lewis said in the letter.
It’s not clear whether the land designation change will impact settlement talks, which are confidential at this time.