LIVINGSTON— Park County commissioners are voicing opposition against a proposed Emigrant gravel pit north of Yellowstone National Park in Paradise Valley.
Commissioners Bryan Wells, Mike Story and Jen Vermillion signed a letter Tuesday morning that will go to Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC).
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The letter lists reasons they oppose the gravel pit, including impacts to taxpayers, health and safety concerns, impacts to the tourism-based economy, impacts to wildlife and impacts to air quality.
“Hopefully it changes their ideas,” said Story.
Riverside Contracting, a Yellowstone National Park contractor, submitted a lease application for 80 acres of land known as State Section 22 to produce construction aggregate for ongoing road reconstruction in the park and for local projects.
Story said the Emigrant community has enough resources on private land to produce gravel, a type of aggregate, without developing the 80-acre plot of land.
“We got two other gravel pyramids (on) private land. Both of them already had a footprint from a gravel pit before. So, I think it's a win-win on this,” he added.
The request to the state sparked outrage for multiple Park County residents, who wrote to the commissioners asking they oppose the application.
“People don't come to Paradise Valley to just sit around. They come to recreate on our rivers, to climb our mountains. To see the industrial nature of something like this, I don't think that's going to be good for anybody,” said Rebecca Henson, an Emigrant business owner.
“We grazed those lands during the early summer, and we would be concerned about the dust that the cattle would be ingesting. In addition to the loss of grazing land that we would have to endure with the new gravel pit location,” added Michael Actkinson, whose ranch borders State Section 22.
A letter from the commissioners approving the request was drafted in February but never signed and sent. Residents were pleased with the change of heart at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The decision that we received today from the county commission, the letter that they wrote is a direct result of all this community putting all of their effort into letting them know that we don't want to sacrifice our local public lands for unnecessary development,” said Max Hjortsberg, managing director at Park County Environmental Council.
The DNRC Land Board will have the final approval on the gravel pit.
