Friends of Rocky Prairie

Water Quality &
 Headwater of
Salmon-bearing Streams

Citifor Inc, the former owners who were planning to develop a quarry for gravel, received numerous inquiries and concerns over impacts to domestic water supplies from nearby neighbors. The homes west and south of the site, along Tilley Road and on 143rd Avenue respectively, are presumed served by glacial outwash aquifers that underlie the Port’s property. And wells in Maytown are quite shallow. Other wells likely to suffer the affects from gravel mining and the proposed South Sound Logistics Center are those located northeast of the site area including wells along Angus Drive. If the Port mines the property conforming to Citifor’s plans, pit lakes will be created.

The Pacific Groundwater Group report of 2002 states: “If a quarry is located there, the proposed lakes would increase the rate of evaporation over the existing rate of evaporation without standing surface water. The increase in evaporation could translate into a reduced groundwater discharge rate somewhere else within the drainage basin. Both areas would be expected to experience slight reductions in discharge which would result in lower water levels.”

At the time of the proposed quarry developments, numerous environmental organizations expressed concerns over hydrologic review regarding possible impacts of potential groundwater fluctuation from the project on adjacent streams and wetlands.

The Port property has been identified as the headwaters of two salmon-bearing streams, the Allen and Beaver Creeks. The prairie on the Port property acts like a sponge, storing water during the rainy season and slowly releasing it during the dry season. Not only does this recharge our groundwater, but the slow gradual release of water combined with the springs and wetlands on the property, create the only late summer flow to fill the two salmon-bearing streams. Any paving of this delicate area would create run-off and flooding, thus dramatically interrupting the balance of water, as well as increasing the potential for contamination from oil and diesel residue on paved surfaces, and from other possible spills. Furthermore, development of the SSLC may pose a threat to Deep Lake and Scott Lake because the same headwaters also recharge these lakes.

• As homeowners and stewards near this site, some of the critical issues have to do with the potential for water-level reduction should the property be developed for quarrying or the SSLC: The impact on aquifers, lakes, streams and habitat; and, the availability of residential water (wells).

• We must be concerned about the potential for water pollution not only from trucks, locomotives and their related-industries, but also possible leakages from transferred and stored freight containers.

• Regional environmental groups understand the proposed SSLC development to be a critical threat to the Black River Watershed.