Coal Mine May Share Pit With Landfill -- Truck Traffic Worries Black Diamond Mayor

Hearings

Hearings will be held to receive testimony on the draft environmental-impact statement at Highlands Neighborhood Center, 800 Edmonds Ave. N.E., in Renton, March 13, and Green River Community College in Auburn, March 14. Both hearings start at 7 p.m.

BLACK DIAMOND - King County's only operating coal mine in a vast open pit near Black Diamond soon could be doing double duty as a regional landfill for construction debris.

If Pacific Coast Coal Co.'s proposal is accepted by King County this summer, the landfill would be put in the same pit with the mine. A plan to turn the chasm into a 32-acre recreational lake when the coal runs out would be scrapped.

Black Diamond Mayor Howard Botts' biggest concern is unwanted truck traffic through Black Diamond, an unhurried town of 1,510. On some weekends, the biggest traffic threats are bicycles rolling up to the local bakery.

A draft environmental-impact statement issued by the county last week said the Black Diamond landfill could generate about 910 truck trips a day. The major haul routes would be over Highway 169 from Renton, Highway 516 from Kent and the Black Diamond-Auburn Road.

But the landfill also has its supporters, including Dave Huffman, a member of the Greater Maple Valley Area Council. He said 300,000 people are expected to move into Southeast King County by 2000, and the landfill will pave the way for developers to clear land and

build additional homes.

The county has been looking for a new home for construction debris since the closure of the Newcastle landfill near Bellevue last year. Because of the scarcity of such landfills, some of that material is being trucked to Pierce and Kitsap counties. Complaints about illegal dumping in unincorporated areas is at an all-time high.

Rodney Hansen, manager of the King County Solid Waste Division, said the county hopes to contract with at least two landfill vendors to promote competition and ensure there will always be a backup landfill available.

The selection will be based on a final environmental-impact statement due out this summer on three proposals. One of the plans was submitted by mine operator Pacific Coast Coal Co. jointly with John Henry Reclamation, Inc., a separate company that would operate the landfill at the mine site.

Two other companies are bidding with Pacific for contracts with the county: Washington Waste Systems, Inc. of Redmond, which would haul waste to the Columbia Ridge Landfill in Gilliam County, Ore., and Rabanco Regional Landfill Co., Seattle, which would haul construction wastes by rail to a dump in Klickitat County.

Both Washington Waste Systems and Rabanco would operate transfer stations in the South Seattle-South King County area. No transfer stations are included in the Pacific Coast Coal Company proposal.

The draft environmental-impact statement said the selection of all three companies, rather than one, would ``substantially reduce truck traffic'' at disposal stations and encourage competitive disposal fees.

But the document noted that residents living near the John Henry coal mine and proposed landfill had expressed concerns over the potential for increased traffic, dust and noise, as well as possible surface-water and drinking-water contamination.

David Morris, general manager of Pacific Coast Coal Co., hopes to cut truck traffic on roads by working out ``backhaul'' agreements with the owners of sand and gravel pit owners near the coal mine. Under the agreements, trucks would haul material from the gravel pits to construction sites in urban areas, and return with loads of construction waste.

According to the draft document, the bottom liner of the landfill would be placed on backfilled mine spoils averaging about 100 feet deep. The landfill would not include a built-in gas extraction system, but one would be constructed if necessary.

The company had been trying to get the federal Office of Surface Mining to approve the lake plan, which would be less costly than filling the hole back up with excavated dirt. The plan includes a five-acre park for public access to the lake.