State seeks penalty from pit owner
SAGLE — Trouble is deepening for a gravel pit where conditional permit approval has been granted for controversial asphalt plant.
The Idaho Department of Lands is seeking a $10,000 civil penalty against Frank Linscott for alleged violations of the state’s Surface Mining Act. The agency is also demanding a $248,000 reclamation bond and an updated reclamation plan for the gravel pit on the west side of U.S. Highway 95 north of Monarch Road.
If Linscott fails to pay the penalty by March 30, IDL warns it may seek an injunction to shut down the pit and Linscott will risk $1.8 million in penalties, according to a Feb. 15 letter from IDL to Linscott.
The IDL demand letter comes in the weeks leading up to a March 22 permit approval reconsideration hearing being conducted by Bonner County’s board of commissioners.
A plan to restore the landscape after the Linscott mine is played out was approved by IDL in 1998. At the time, only 30 acres of the site had been reportedly disturbed, but aerial photography showed more than 67 acres of disturbance, according to Eric Wilson, IDL’s Resource Protection & Asset Bureau chief.
State law requires bonding to be submitted prior to affecting additional lands.
“This has not happened once over the 20-year life of this mine,” Wilson said in the Feb. 15 demand letter.
Willful falsification of records and plans governed by the Idaho Surface Mining Act is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, according to Idaho Code.
Bonding for the gravel pit was covered under IDL’s Bond Assurance Fund, which was established to allow small- to medium-sized mining operators comply with state bonding requirements. However, operators of those mines are limited to 40 acres of disturbed area.
In explaining the proposed $10,000 civil penalty, Wilson notes that the penalties for violating the surface mining act can pile up. They range from $500 to $2,500 per day.
“The total for just the last two years could be at least $365,000,” Wilson wrote.
Moreover, penalties for falsifying required Surface Mining Act documents and records could reach $110,000, according to Idaho Code.
Last month, the county commission agreed to reconsider its position in denying an appeal of conditional permit approval of a proposal to relocate Interstate Concrete & Asphalt’s batch plant from Sandpoint to Linscott’s pit. The board will reconsider the matter of the pit’s nonconforming land use during the March 22 hearing.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.