Quarry Leaves Couple Between Rock, Hard Place -- More Mining Scrutiny After Aquifer Damage

MONROE - The tiki torches that once lit a path to a duck pond are long gone, replaced by a tangle of berry brambles and fallen trees, dying from lack of water.

Another tumbled alder lies across a useless dock, stretching high above the dry pond pit.

Once this was Mark Poulos' favorite spot, where he fed trout, built the dock and a stone barbecue pit, and floated in an inflatable boat. Now he doesn't go near it.

Poulos and his wife, Gay, live with constant reminders of the night in 1993 when workers at the Cadman quarry south of Monroe accidentally punctured a huge aquifer.

Ground water gushed from the mine face, reaching a peak velocity of 2,000 gallons a minute. By the time the flow slowed to 400 gallons a minute, about 10 days later, neighborhood wells and pipelines were dry, and 25,000 cubic yards of silt and gravel - enough to fill 2,500 dump trucks - had flushed downhill into wetlands and streams.

Water continues to flow from the breached area, in the form of the new Cadman Creek, but former streams in the area have dried up.

In all, the 160-acre aquifer lost 47 million gallons of storage, an average 6-foot drop in the water table.

For the state Department of Ecology, the calamity offered dramatic lessons about quarries. Until then, the state didn't require quarry operators to extensively document the existence of ground water, said hydrogeologist Dave Garland.

"This whole episode has taught us quite a bit about the hydrological impacts of mining," he said. "I would say all mining proposals are getting closer scrutiny . . . '93 was a milestone."

For the Pouloses, that scrutiny comes too late.

They recently settled out of court with Cadman for $50,000, a sum they say will cover their legal bills and the cost of digging a new well. Another neighbor settled with Cadman at the same time, but he declined through an attorney to comment on the details.

"I just wanted closure," said Gay Poulos, of the decision to settle.

"I'm exhausted. I need to go forward, to get my new well in so our property has value again. It's just not worth ruining my life over anymore."

The Pouloses had depended upon an artesian-spring system for their water supply, which they used in their home and to water their landscaping and horse pastures.

Since the aquifer break, Cadman has supplied them with a total of 4,000 to 5,000 gallons of water for their household and horses, said Rod Shearer, manager of operation services. The company also supplied several tons of crushed gravel to restore their pasture road and built them a new fence, he said.

But the Pouloses' trout-bearing stream and two ponds are dry, their flowers and bushes are long dead, and they've given up their horse-boarding business because their pastures turn yellow in summer. They wash their clothes at a self-service laundry.

Gradually, the buffer between their home and Cadman is thinning. More than 100 alder and cottonwood trees on the upper portion of their 20-acre property already have died; those shallow-rooted trees are wetland varieties.

Cadman has tried to be a good neighbor since the 1993 disaster, digging or deepening five wells for local homeowners and building a new community water supply for seven homes and a farm in the Tualco Valley, bordered by the Snohomish and Skykomish rivers.

The company has paid $30,000 to Snohomish County for a two-year monitoring program, and spent $55,000 for consulting work on the county's fish and wetland mitigation plans for repairing the 1993 damage, Shearer said.

Cadman expects to spend $86,000 more completing those projects, which include replanting trees and shrubs in a former wetland forest and rerouting a stream through it. Cadman also has paid a $42,000 state fine for wetland and stream damage.

Yet many community members remain suspicious of Cadman and don't think it has been held accountable for the 1993 mess. Those ill feelings are fanned by Cadman's desire to expand its operation.

"Our concerns and input are consistently ignored by the powers that be. Deals get cut behind closed doors and then we find out later on," said Peg Ferm, a leader of People for the Preservation of Tualco Valley.

Cadman, which is owned by the Belgium-based CBR Corp., seeks permits to expand its 115-acre quarry onto neighboring state-owned land, so 143 acres could be mined at a time. Under the proposal, about 20 million tons of sand and gravel and 22 million tons of quarry rock would be excavated over 20 years. Cadman also wants to add concrete and asphalt plants, concrete recycling and wood-chip recycling.

The expanded quarry would need to draw 2.8 million gallons of water per year from the aquifer and ponds, about 1.65 million gallons more than it now uses.

The county is now putting together a final environmental-impact statement for Cadman's expansion proposal, which is expected to be published early next year. The Snohomish County hearing examiner will decide whether Cadman can expand.

The Pouloses oppose the expansion, and worry about increasing noise levels at the gravel pit. But the settled suit has bought some comfort.

"I'm finding I'm not carrying all that anger and resentment," said Gay Poulos. "I felt violated, something that meant the world to me had been destroyed. But it's time to let go. I think that's healthy."

Diane Brooks' phone message number is 425-745-7802. Her e-mail address is: dbro-new@seatimes.com