By Leslie Brown

Vashon Beachcomber
January 15, 2008

Save for a small scuba-diving boat just off-shore, the stretch of beach where Glacier Northwest wants to build its 400-foot dock and begin offloading millions of tons of sand and gravel was quiet last Sunday.

The sand shimmered in the afternoon sun. A juvenile eagle perched in a tree above the aging dock the company used some 30 years ago to offload gravel. A single grebe dove in the water.

The quiet, however, belied what’s happening on the eastern flank of Maury Island, where a storm of controversy, legal disputes and political wrangling has been unfolding for nearly a decade. In 1998, Glacier announced plans to expand its sand and gravel mining operations at the 235-acre site it owns on Maury, announcing it could extract as many as 7.5 million tons a year — transforming this quiet stretch of beach into what critics say would be the largest gravel-mining operation in the country....

“Nobody’s happy that the Supreme Court turned us down,” said Naki Stevens, director of programs for People For Puget Sound. “And yes, Glacier’s still a big threat. I’m just exuding hope and optimism that nobody in their right mind would want to destroy one of the most, if not the most, important aquatic reserves in Puget Sound when we’re trying to recover the Sound to health by 2020.”

Kathy Fletcher, who heads People For Puget Sound, said House Speaker Frank Chopp told the environmental caucus last week that “he’s very supportive of saving Maury Island.” His statement, she said, has given her hope that conservation groups might prevail in Olympia.

“I think there’s a chance,” she said....

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