Photo by Michael Woodward

HAULING GRAVEL: A gravel truck makes its way down Front Street.

Lyle Tullis’ gravel quarry called Shasta Ranch has unearthed gravel almost daily since it opened for business in March. The quarry is located off the Sacramento River about 2.5 miles southeast of Anderson.

“We’ve been hauling aggregate since March 19. We’ve had no issues, no accidents and no tickets,” said Tullis, adding that he operated his gravel mining business for 30 years.

Opponents to the project include Shasta County Citizens for a Healthy Environment (SCCHE) and Cottonwood Enrichment Council (CEC).

The enrichment council protested the use of gravel trucks on Front Street, considered by many as a historic location.

“I’m against them tearing up the downtown.”

“I’m offended by the destruction by those trucks going through that little street,” said council president Linda Pritchett. Others in Cottonwood have grown used to gravel truck traffic.

“They’ve always come through here,” said Mel Lyon, a waitress at Old Town Eatery on Front Street where she has worked for 13 years. “I haven’t noticed any increase.

“Go down the street and take a right, there’s another (quarry) right there,” she said, referring to the Anderson Cottonwood Concrete Products quarry.

Front Street business owners Ed Earhart and his daughter Amy Woods both noticed increases in trucking activity in the spring, but they said traffic has since relaxed.

“I picketed against it when it was first proposed, I didn’t want any more trucks than there already was,” Woods said.

The route through Front Street is one of three routes used by trucks servicing Shasta Ranch. The use of the various routes serves to balance traffic between those routes so one is not overused, according to Shasta County Senior Planner Bill Walker.

The project has garnered three complaints according to the planning department. One involved the alleged raising of a road within the project that Walker said upon inspection had not been raised significantly.

Another complaint involved the alleged dumping of lime into wetlands. Walker said he found no evidence of that.

The third complaint dealt with mining activity and the forecast of high winds, as mining activity is not allowed when winds are expected to exceed 20 mph, Walker said. Walker said he found that winds were forecast at 19 mph but were expected to gust to 25 mph. Walker said he called on Shasta Ranch to cease operations during those conditions.

Turning to Shasta County courts with their complaints, SCCHE petitioned for a stay and a preliminary injunction, both were intended to halt the mining. Both were denied by judges in Shasta County court. More recently, SCCHE and the Sierra Club have joined in a lawsuit against the county for allowing the Shasta Ranch project.

“Their original complaint alleged a number of violations of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),” said Shasta County Counsel Michael Ralston. “The county feels that the county has done all the things it was supposed to do, and that the environmental work was satisfactory.”

The lawyer for SCCHE was reported to be on vacation and unavailable for comment. In the coming months, both sides will present their cases to review whether the county’s planning process was legitimate.