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Lakeside Industries Asphalt plant proposed at 18825 Renton-Maple Valley Road
Most of us living in Renton have been adamantly opposed to the building of an asphalt plant along Renton-Maple Valley Road near the Cedar River. Renton’s elected officials are no exception. An organization named “Save the Cedar River” is helping to coordinate opposition to the asphalt plant, and their website documents the many concerns raised by the prospect of an asphalt plant at that location.
I’ve recently heard of false rumors that one of Renton’s elected officials is in favor of the Asphalt Plant. These erroneous rumors undermine Renton’s position on this issue, so it’s important to keep the record straight.
Renton’s elected city leaders have demonstrated unanimous opposition to this plant, and both the Mayor and Council, along with Renton’s city staff, have gone on record documenting their concerns. Renton concerns were documented in June of 2018 in this detailed 8-page report by Renton’s top engineer, Planning/Building/Public Works Administrator Greg Zimmerman.
In May 2022 Mayor Pavone issued the following statement in his newsletter.
“Several residents spoke at a recent city council meeting in opposition to King County Council’s approval of the proposed Lakeside Maple Valley Asphalt Plant outside our city limits. The city has been in opposition of the plant location since 2018. Our concerns regarding transportation routes, traffic impacts, and environmental concerns (due to the plant’s proximity to the Cedar River) were made known to King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review. “We are adamantly opposed to locating the asphalt plant at the proposed site,” said Mayor Armondo Pavone. “City staff are continuing to investigate the actions available so we can protect the Renton community.” King County is currently reviewing appeals regarding the plant.”
I recently spoke with Mayor Pavone again about the proposed plant, and he again confirmed his continuing opposition. He remains concerned about the numerous impacts outlined above, including traffic, dust, odors, and risk to the ecosystem “I am opposed to an asphalt plant at that location” he said.
The Renton Council is also opposed to an asphalt plant at this location, and they asked their Council President to sign an open letter in opposition. The Council letter, which among other issues references the lack of an Environmental Impact Statement and includes concerns about seismic and nearby abandoned mine landslide risk, was studiously prepared and signed by Council President Valerie O’Holloran. It can be found here.
I’ve spoken to President O’Holloran many times regarding this issue, and Council opposition to this plant remains steadfast.
In the early 2000’s, I was a founding member of the WRIA 8 Lake Washington Salmon Recovery Committee, convened in response to the Chinook Salmon going on the endangered species list. WRIA 8 developed a long-term plan in 2005 that ushered in a number of major new salmon recovery projects on the Cedar River. Renton embraced the WRIA 8 effort and plan in a 6-page resolution that can be found here, and affirmed Renton’s commitment on Cedar River to “water quality improvement, flood hazard reductions, open space protection, and maintaining a legacy for future generations, including commercial, tribal, and sport fishing, quality of life, and cultural heritage.”
Our WRIA 8 work set in motion projects like the one featured in the video below. More than $50 million has been spent on these projects to date. Having worked with biologists and other scientists for many years on this committee, the asphalt plant 150 feet from the shoreline seems inconsistent with this planning effort.
Renton Fire Chief Steve Heitman has also gone on record vehemently opposed to the asphalt plant. He documented his concerns in this open letter.
A fire in October 2020 at a Tacoma Asphalt Plant illustrates the warnings by Renton’s Fire Chief Heitman, about the special fire and explosion risks associated with Asphalt plants.
Fire, Explosion erupt at Tacoma Asphalt Plant. See the News Video here.
The legal battle over this asphalt plant is still going on. For Renton and our neighbors to the east to have the best chance of prevailing, it’s important that everyone knows that Renton’s leaders remain opposed to this plant. For details on how you can help and/or donate to this effort, please visit savethecedarriver.org.
Note: Asphalt plant fires are fairly common; a serious one occurred 450 miles away in Calgary shortly after I published this article.
We can fix this easily.
The proposed asphalt plant sits on top of an aquafer. We use a different portion aquafer already at the Maple Grove golf course.
State law prohibits cities from using emmenent domain outside their jurisdiction, except there is a carve out for water use.
Renton needs water to meet it’s Growth Management Act obligations. Already we had to negotiate with Seattle to get access to the water the pump through our city.
Let’s buy the land in top of the aquafer using emmenent domain. It’s cheap now – as there’s no building in it. And we can put pump houses in it because the county zoned it for industrial use.
Two problems, with one solution.
Here’s one of the RCWs that gives the city authority to condemn(aquire) property outside it’s jusrsdiction for water use: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=8.12.030
There about three more references to this idea in the RCW.
RCW 8.12.030 even says we can do it just to protect the water. We don’t even have to use it.
Your suggestion is worth formal consideration Ben. As you know well, Seattle has already done that (accumulating 90,000 acres) in the headwaters of the Cedar River to keep their water supply pristine. I think the value of this land was around $12 Million when Lakeside purchased it. Once it has an Asphalt plant on it, it will be worth tens of millions of dollars more. Interestingly, this past spring the City of Irvine California authorized $360 Million in bonds so they could purchase a nearby asphalt plant and close it down. In other words, they were willing to spend 30 times the Lakeside Industries land price, just to get rid of the negative impacts of the plant. Here’s more info on that. https://voiceofoc.org/2023/05/irvine-set-to-incur-up-to-360-million-in-bonds-to-buy-asphalt-plant/
Steps:
Have the city attorney review the RCW and case law.
Get a preliminary estimate of the property from a commercial real estate appraiser.
Have a hydrologist review the water table on the property.
If the appraisal comes back reasonable, propose a councilmanic bond to the council to purchase the property.
Negotiate with the property owners in good faith, but use eminent domain if needed.
I estimate this could be done in six months as only two of those steps are concurrent, and our city could enjoy our new water source.
Agree that would be a good process Ben.
For other reading this, I’ll clarify that hydrologists come into this because Renton draws it’s water from an aquifer beneath the Cedar River, not the Cedar River itself (unlike Seattle). So the question that is always asked is whether any pollution that enters the river impacts Renton’s drinking water.
This is never a simple question, because there is no way to really know what connectivity there might be between these two bodies of water underground. From core samples, we know they are generally separated by a hard clay layer, but we can’t guarantee that is unbroken, especially below the river bed where we are very careful never to take core samples because we don’t want to introduce a way for the river to flow into the aquifer. We also don’t know where every coal mine was dug, and where every shaft extends. There are numerous ways that polluted groundwater could potentially get into our drinking supply.
Protection of Renton’s aquifer is so important that decades ago we defined an aquifer protection zone within the City of Renton, and limited business activities that can occur on this zone. We did this even though we have awareness that a clay layer separates the aquifer from the topsoils.
While Lakeside Industries says they are going to build a modern plant that cleans and manages runoff, the Fire Chief’s letter and council letter both raise the concern that fire, explosion, or natural disaster could overcome these protections. If Renton’s aquifer was contaminated in the course of a natural disaster, Renton would have an exponentially more difficult time rebuilding.
During the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001, a landslide formed that blocked the Cedar River. Only the heroic actions of two Renton workers who immediately commandeered a nearby contractor’s heavy equipment and carved an alternate river channel saved the area from an overwhelming flood and then devastating flash-flooding downstream. If an asphalt plant was in the middle of the potential flood basin, and these two heros were not nearby to save the day, diesel fuel and other poisonous products would end up in the river and possibly the aquifer.
Obviously a fire or explosion could overcome the sediment retention systems at the plant as well. The fire department would need to dump water and foam to suppress burning asphalt and products, and as the fire chief says they can’t guarantee that the runoff would not go into the river. And it would be hard to argue that fire is only a remote possibility, since it just happened last Sunday in Tacoma.
That’s not going to work. The only solution is a series of crazy TikTok videos.
The complete text of Fire Chief Steve Heitman’s letter is here:
The Renton Regional Fire Authority (RRFA) is an all-hazards capable fire service agency for the City of Renton, Fire District 25 and Fire District 40. Despite this, the RRFA has serious concerns regarding the proposed asphalt plant, located at 18825 Renton-Maple Valley Road in Renton, due to the high hazard risk it presents.
This type of plant has several highly toxic, combustible and flammable chemicals for the manufacture of asphalt that are incompatible with life and the environment. Also, asphalt plants can include emergency incidents that result in explosions from asphalt fumes, fire and toxic exposures.
The RRFA also has concerns over the runoff that would occur from either fighting a fire or a chemical spill that may occur, and the close proximity of the Cedar River. A catastrophic failure due to explosion or a seismic event could create the right conditions for entry into the river and grow the hazard area exponentially due to the movement of the water.
Despite requiring vigorous safety and fire prevention systems, these plants are vulnerable to catastrophic failures if any part of the system fails. The atmospheric release of toxins from a spill or fire can have long-reaching impacts on the surrounding population, and the crews who respond to mitigate the emergency. Any type of emergency at this facility will involve several resources from multiple agencies, that may have an impact on other jurisdictions and their response capabilities to other emergencies, due to the large number of resources required, and the time needed to effectively handle an emergency of this magnitude.
In addition, in talking with other jurisdictions that have asphalt plants in their area of response, some noted issues with the delivery vehicles and the problem of leaking chemicals as they traversed area roads, and the lack of ability to address these issues. With the Renton-Maple Valley Road consisting of only two lanes, the RRFA is concerned regarding the potential for these chemicals to combust on the roadway. Not only would this close a major thoroughfare, but access to mitigate these emergencies would be hampered at the least by difficult access and slow response times.
Due to the high hazard nature asphalt plants can present, our organization would be concerned with, and attempt to address, the following through our fire code review process during the planning, construction and operation of this plant.
Design and construction that mitigates hazards and includes the following elements:
Fire detection and suppression systems
Automatic shutdown of systems, power and gas during emergencies
Fire resistive construction materials
Adequate water supply and fire department access
Control of ignition sources, static electricity and electrical equipment installation
Adequate setbacks from other surrounding properties
Operational concerns and requirements to mitigate and reduce hazards include the following elements:
Regular inspections of the facility, storage, handling, and use of on-sight ignitable and chemical materials
Cleanup and maintenance procedures
Where hot works occur
Emergency planning and response procedures with facility staff
Inspections, maintenance and upkeep of fire protection systems and operational equipment of the facility
While there are a number of codes that have been adopted nationally that attempt to mitigate and reduce hazards, this high-risk occupancy presents some unique challenges that will require ongoing review through the life of operations to ensure community and firefighter safety.
Very Respectfully,
Steve Heitman
Fire Chief, RRRFA
I want to recognize and appreciate our city leaders for their dedication in opposing the proposed asphalt plant near Cedar River. Their commitment to the wellbeing of Renton is evident.
However, while intentions are commendable, they need to be followed by decisive action. The Cedar River is more than just a waterway; it’s our heritage. We’ve consistently stepped up to protect it, and this is another instance where we need to ensure our words turn into actions.
To our city’s leadership, your intentions are clear and valued. But now, more than ever, we need to see results that align with our collective vision for Renton.
Greg
If the plant goes ahead, the Maple Valley / 405 Interchange will be a shit show once the trucks start rolling.
Drivers will wait for multiple lights as the asphalt trucks slowly shift through the gears and make wide turns.
As if the location next to our river isn’t detrimental already…
Renton should put a stop to this immediately. It’s not that asphalt plants aren’t a necessary evil, but we’re being asked, once again, to bear the burden for other areas of the county.
We already have the dump and sewage treatment plant. Enough is enough.
We now have people wanting to build a gravel pit/asphalt plant near Cumberland on the Green River. They estimate 700 trucks in a 24 hour period will travel either thru Enumclaw or thru 4 corners to hwy 169.
Please come to the Black Diamond council meeting on March 7 at 7pm to add your voices to ours in opposing this plant.
Thank you,