Alleviating citizen concern that designating a mineral overlay zone at Fred Hill Materials’ Shine gravel pit largely approves the company’s “pit-to-pier” project weighed heavily on the minds of Jefferson County commissioners Monday.

“The public doesn’t see this as two different projects,” said Glen Huntingford, in summing up what the commissioners heard during a 2½-hour public hearing on the mineral overlay last week in Chimacum.

“I don’t think it’s true, but that’s their perception,” said Huntingford, R-Chimacum.

Planning staff member Greg Ballard included language in a report to commissioners delineating how the proposals differ and what each will need for approval.

The main part of Ballard’s summary is that the pit-to-pier proposal — which would include a 4-mile conveyor belt to carry gravel from the Shine pit to an 1,100-foot pier jutting into the Hood Canal, where it would be loaded onto barges and sent to other locations — will need a separate environmental-impact statement.

State, federal agencies

It will also be under the eye of regulatory agencies at the state and federal level, including the Army Corps of Engineers, Ballard said.

Commissioner Pat Rodgers, R-Brinnon, wondered if the commissioners should be talking about the pit-to-pier project during their deliberations on the mineral overlay zone.

“I’m not sure one is dependent on the other,” Rodgers said during Monday’s hour-long session that is part of the commissioners’ decision-making process on the zone.

The commissioners will continue to study testimony, the county’s comprehensive plan and the state’s Growth Management Act, but they want to talk with county civil attorney David Alvarez before they go further.