Sand And Gravel Firm Agrees To Lease Pit

EVERETT - CSR Associated, formerly Associated Sand & Gravel, has secured a long-term lease on a gravel pit near Gold Bar and has purchased a mined-out pit in Maltby for use as a dumping ground for dirt and concrete.

CSR is running out of materials at its Everett and Arlington pits. The company hopes to dig a huge gravel and hard-rock pit off the Mountain Loop Highway east of Granite Falls, but that plan was set back in 1995 when a Snohomish County hearing examiner ruled its environmental-impact study was inadequate.

The company has since scaled back the hard-rock portion of its proposed quarry, and is expected to soon release a new environmental report. The gravel operation is projected to last 33 years. Critics object to the pit's projected blasting and 565 daily gravel-truck trips.

The leased pit near Gold Bar is at Proctor Creek, off Highway 2, and is owned by C & W Properties and Hos Bros., both of

Woodinville.