Renton Council President Valerie O’Halloran shares Council concerns about asphalt plant

 

For those not familiar with this issue, King County is in the process of permitting an Asphalt Plant just east of Renton, along Maple Valley Highway, 150 feet from the Cedar River.  While almost everyone agrees asphalt is an important commodity and must be made somewhere, nearby residents and some of their elected officials have raised numerous issues about this choice of sites and the proposed design of the plant.  This site was chosen in part for its “Industrial” zoning, which was awarded to the site (I would say in error) back when the site was the home of a long-time nursery/landscape business that had sprung up in the rural area along the highway.  That business was not of  concern to neighbors, and the owner wanted to be “conforming”, so he requested industrial zoning from the county as part of a county zoning update.  Ideally, his business should have instead been treated as a non-conforming but grandfathered use, and this issue would not be here today.

Last year Renton Council agreed to go on record in opposition to the plant location, but there were a few months delay in publicizing and itemizing Council objections.  Valerie O’Holloran, the incoming 2023 Council President, stepped up in a big way and wrote the position statement herself after very carefully researching the issue.  She told me she spent many hours carefully reading all the submitted documents and examining all the engineering drawings.

Council President O’Holloran is well-known for being studious and she passionately shares my view that Renton has had to accept more than its fair share of the County’s necessary but undesirable facilities ( sewage treatment plant, landfill, Cedar Grove compost facility, etc).  While officials throughout King County find Ms. O’Holloran highly professional and easy to work with, Ms. O’Holloran never shies away from earnestly advocating for fair treatment for our city.

There are two main points she brings up that have not been widely covered before.  (1) The plant has not had the full Environmental Impact Statement process, and  it’s containment design has not been reviewed against seismic and landslide risks associated with this particular site. (2) The Engineering drawings submitted for permitting do not include an asphalt truck loading area, the part of the facility that is most likely to produce objectionable odors and air pollution.  Some plants of this size have had to put loading areas indoors to control these negative environmental impacts.  With no loading design included, there’s no way to know what this important element of the plant would look (and smell) like.

Here is her complete letter:

By Renton City Council President Valerie O’Halloran

The Renton City Council is committed to our Business Plan statement to “support planned growth and influence decisions to foster environmental sustainability.” To that end, we agree that the recycling of any product or material is an important aspect of sustainability. Asphalt production and recycling are no exceptions, so we trust that King County will work on appropriately siting such a facility in our region and mitigating its impacts.

We do, however, disagree with the county’s decision to permit the siting of Lakeside Industries’ proposed asphalt plant along the Renton-Maple Valley Road (SR 169) in unincorporated King County, immediately outside our city’s jurisdictional boundary.

We appreciate that the SEPA Threshold Determination included many mitigation measures such as safety redundancies, soil and groundwater protections, and noise-reducing plans as a condition of permit issuance. We are, however, disappointed that it does not adequately address the geology and naturally occurring events such as flooding, erosion, landslides and earthquakes at that location. While it is recognized that the site is 150 feet away from the Cedar River, not recognized as it is adjacent to recent landslides, is downhill from abandoned mine shafts and erosion-risk zones, and is within the impact zone of the Seattle Fault Line just to the north. The geology of the location would have been addressed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). However, it was determined that an EIS wasn’t necessary.

We are also concerned about the impact hundreds of weekly truck trips will have at the already congested intersection of SR 169 and I-405. This increased congestion will cause more traffic diversion onto our city surface streets and through our neighborhoods. After extensive review by city staff, a detailed analysis of these potential impacts was provided to King County Permitting and Environmental Review in a June 2018 letter from Renton’s Public Works department administrator. We would request that traffic mitigation planning include the Washington Department of Transportation, which controls the major impacted arterial intersections in the immediate area.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes typical asphalt plant emissions to include a long list of pollutants that are carcinogenic, and contribute to global warming, acid rain, birth defects, and acute and chronic illnesses. These emissions must be mitigated. To do so, the City of Berkeley, California, as one example, has cited Berkeley Asphalt multiple times for violating Air Pollution Control standards and among other actions, has required the plant to enclose the asphalt truck loading area to control emissions, dust, and pollutants from entering the air during the loading process.

A truck-loading enclosure should be a fundamental requirement for any facility of this type. The Renton City Council is surprised that the construction drawings for Lakeside Industries’ proposed plant include the workup of all the other buildings, but have no reference to the truck loading area, other than a call-out on page 223 that notes “truck loading enclosure to be under separate permit.” Building permits are often phased, but in this case, the permit and construction of this important enclosure should be required, and should be issued concurrent with other building permits, and no buildings should be used prior to the issuance of occupancy permits for this enclosure.

Citizens to Stop the SR 169 Asphalt Plant, a group known as Save the Cedar River, appealed King County’s permit decision to the state Environmental and Land Use Hearings Office’s Shoreline Hearings Board. In that hearing, the geological complexities of the proposed location were discussed. The hearing commenced in November and concluded in December 2022. The Board has 180 days to make its decision.

These are just a few of our concerns. Renton City Council remains hopeful for a positive outcome, namely the reversal of the permit siting the facility at the currently proposed location. However, unfortunately, neither the city nor our city council have any jurisdiction or any legal recourse in the matter.

Valerie O’Halloran

Renton City Council President