1 thought on “Gravel Truck on South Pass, heading west”
Alan Klotz
We live off of the South Pass past Kendell Rd. towards the Silver Lake Park entrance. Our address is considered to be in Maple Falls. Our routes to attend any school events, county meetings, evenings out, accessing the airport, or just being with family and friends scattered around our county or state would be severely impacted the Ranch Quarry operations. The impact on our quality of life and our welfare is in measurable terms stretching the imagination. Just the road fortifications to handle the traffic created from the proposed Quarry site would demand a major increase of county revenue spending. All the roadways departing the proposed quarry site appear to be “chip coated”, not engineered or constructed to handle the size, weight and frequency of the rock/ gravel trucks from the proposed Rock Quarry. The daily sharing of the road with school buses, assorted construction vehicles, recreational vehicles, and residential traffic would surely demand some sort of relief. The congestion created by widening the curvy roadways would require road closures and alternate routes. How could our rural community pay for this? Would all of Whatcom County be able to support these costs? Would all the State residents be required to support these necessary road demands? What about the other concerns and costs created or impacted to environment by the Ranch Quarry operations? What price can be put on the loss of health or loss of life itself due to the destruction of our land, water, and air that so freely share as a community? What entity would be responsible in blame, ultimately liable for compensation, for rushing this quarry’s operating permits before the environmental data is processed and modeled? Would it be the Ranch Quarry corporate owners’ liability to pay restitution for the environmental disasters? What if they file for bankruptcy? Who pays for the environmental cleanup costs? As a co-owner of property in this community, we must yield toward the greater welfare of said community. The jobs created and revenues collected by Whatcom County for the betterment of its inhabitants by granting the legal permits to operate the Ranch Quarry are outweighed by far too many reasons NOT support the proposed Ranch Quarry’s permits of operations.
We live off of the South Pass past Kendell Rd. towards the Silver Lake Park entrance. Our address is considered to be in Maple Falls. Our routes to attend any school events, county meetings, evenings out, accessing the airport, or just being with family and friends scattered around our county or state would be severely impacted the Ranch Quarry operations. The impact on our quality of life and our welfare is in measurable terms stretching the imagination. Just the road fortifications to handle the traffic created from the proposed Quarry site would demand a major increase of county revenue spending. All the roadways departing the proposed quarry site appear to be “chip coated”, not engineered or constructed to handle the size, weight and frequency of the rock/ gravel trucks from the proposed Rock Quarry. The daily sharing of the road with school buses, assorted construction vehicles, recreational vehicles, and residential traffic would surely demand some sort of relief. The congestion created by widening the curvy roadways would require road closures and alternate routes. How could our rural community pay for this? Would all of Whatcom County be able to support these costs? Would all the State residents be required to support these necessary road demands? What about the other concerns and costs created or impacted to environment by the Ranch Quarry operations? What price can be put on the loss of health or loss of life itself due to the destruction of our land, water, and air that so freely share as a community? What entity would be responsible in blame, ultimately liable for compensation, for rushing this quarry’s operating permits before the environmental data is processed and modeled? Would it be the Ranch Quarry corporate owners’ liability to pay restitution for the environmental disasters? What if they file for bankruptcy? Who pays for the environmental cleanup costs? As a co-owner of property in this community, we must yield toward the greater welfare of said community. The jobs created and revenues collected by Whatcom County for the betterment of its inhabitants by granting the legal permits to operate the Ranch Quarry are outweighed by far too many reasons NOT support the proposed Ranch Quarry’s permits of operations.