Comments sought for gravel pit applications
The Daily Inter Lake
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality is seeking comment on two gravel pit applications in Flathead County.
The first is an application by LHC Inc., for an open-cut permit for a gravel extraction and crushing facility on 153 acres owned by Paul and Sharon Tutvedt in West Valley.
Most of the material extracted would be crushed on site and transported from West Valley Drive to Church Road to Stillwater Road to the LHC facility about three miles south of the mine site.
The existing site is open agricultural land used for hay and small grain production with a small pond to the south. Initial operation would avoid the pond and would disturb about 40 acres. Mining would continue over the 20-year life of the mine.
Approximately 1.5 million cubic yards of material would be removed from the gravel pit
Upon completion, the site would be contoured, re-soiled, seeded to pasture grass and returned to agricultural land. Final reclamation would be completed by July 2027.
The state environmental agency will accept written comments on this application until 5 p.m. on June 20.
The second application is a proposal by Schellinger Construction to add 89.1 acres to its existing gravel mining permit at its facility about 4.5 miles southeast of Whitefish. It is a long-term asphalt, concrete and aggregate washing business formerly owned by Carlson Sand and Gravel.
Land proposed to be added to the permit is currently a pasture with a few pine trees.
Mining would progress in phases, and three new wells would be added to the monitoring program that regularly tests the groundwater.
Final reclamation would be completed by October of 2056.
Hours of operation for mining and processing currently are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hours would change to include full-time Saturdays and early start times of 5 a.m. for the concrete plant.
The Department of Environmental Quality will accept public comments on this proposal until 5 p.m. on June 27.
Comments on either permit application may be sent to Rod Samdahl at rsamdahl@mt.gov. For more information, call 406-755-8985.
Information about the applications also is available online at http://deq.mt.gov/ea/opencut.asp.