Daniel Shefter moved to the small town of Bondurant for its scenic beauty, high quality of life and remarkable fishing. What he didn’t move there for was traffic and significant noise, features he worries could become an everyday reality if a gravel pit expansion is approved by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) near his home.
Wyoming DEQ approved the expansion last month despite 55 objections from numerous residents and groups like the Wyoming Outdoor Council, Trout Unlimited and the Snake River Fund saying the mine expansion will harm the mixed residential and agricultural area.
DEQ has said all of the concerns brought up in the objections will be addressed by following recommendations through Wyoming Game and Fish and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Scott Evans, owner of Evans Construction, told Cowboy State Daily there isn’t a gravel pit in the world that isn’t met without at least some pushback from neighboring residents. He wants to expand the mine because of market demands.
“I point to the need to do it based on the way the markets are shaping up now, we need to do it,” he said.
Three appeals, one of which filed by Shefter, were filed contesting DEQ’s approval of the expansion, which will next be considered by the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council. The first hearing on this matter is scheduled for Dec. 3.
Former Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank is representing the people appealing the DEQ decision. Crank declined to comment to Cowboy State Daily because of the pending nature of the litigation.
DEQ did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The mining expansion permit is considered active unless overturned, but Evans still needs to get separate air and water quality permits approved before he can start the expansion
What’s It About?
Evans wants to convert its Limited Mining Operation (LMO) permit for the Bondurant pit into a small mining operation and expand its current permit from 10 acres to 35.6 acres, but has no plans to change any of his current mining operations. Evans has held this permit since 1985. Plans would be for the expanded mine to operate through 2045.
After the mining is complete, Evans said the property will be potentially used to build a cabin for his mother to stay in.
The Evans family purchased the property around 1990 with the purpose of using the mining permit that came with it. Expanding the mine, Evans said, was always a long-term plan.
He also pointed to the fact his mother grew up in Bondurant and that his family has homesteading roots in the area. Evans said his company routinely goes above the requirements DEQ lays out for it for its business facility in Jackson.
“Everyone is so concerned with the big, bad company being in there and not caring about the environment,” Evans said. “No one cares more about the environment than we do or I do.
Evans Construction won a $430,000 emergency bid to fix the “Big Fill” slide over Teton Pass last summer when the road caved out.
According to DEQ, Evans has been working on the expansion proposal since at least 2022. Shefter said that doesn’t align with what Evans told the public, with some neighbors saying they were told there would be no expansion from him as recently as six months ago.
Environmental Impacts
Some of Shefter’s main concerns are that the property is directly adjacent to wetlands and that it serves as a migration corridor for wildlife. He worries that downstream wetlands and Dell Creek, which directly borders the gravel pit, could become contaminated as a result of possible gravel runoff into the creek.
Evans says there are three sources of water on the property- two seasonal drainages and groundwater that leaches into an existing pit from the east.
Shefter said that the two drainages that flow through the property run year-round are in fact streams and another letter writer said they saw water flowing through the property Aug. 28.
Evans disagreed, saying the drainages only run seasonally and were dry in July 2023, so there was no reason to get a third-party analysis from a wetlands expert. DEQ also cited a visit it made to the site in October 2019 where they saw no water in one of the drainages.
Shefter wants permitting delayed until at least 2025 until the status of water running through the property can be fully studied.
In order to alleviate runoff concerns, Evans plans to build a dewatering ditch to remove groundwater and divert it into the wetlands. He has also committed to avoiding working in the pit when water is present, which Evans argued mitigates concerns about contaminants being discharged into the wetlands. Settling ponds already exist on the property as well and Evans maintains that the water that flows off a hillside from the property into the creek is “crystal clear.”
Game and Fish considers the area crucial winter habitat for moose — and upstream from federally-recognized wetlands and waterbodies that Game and Fish deems “aquatic crucial habitat priority areas.
Game and Fish considers the segment of Dell Creek that intersects with the proposed permit area an Aquatic Crucial Habitat Priority Area.
Dell Creek flows southeast to northwest, south of the permit area, then turns southwest and moves inside the proposed permit boundary at certain junctures. Dell Creek merges with Jack Creek about 1,200 feet downstream of the permit boundary and then empties into the much larger Hoback River 300 feet further.
Required Mitigation
Game and Fish is recommending Evans:
• Preserve existing vegetation wherever possible.
• Stabilize all exposed surfaces.
• Use erosion control products.
• Clean, fuel and maintain vehicles at off-site areas or at least 500 feet from streams and riparian areas.
• Properly contain stockpiles of material move them at least 500 feet from waterways or storm flow.
• Avoid making any direct impacts to Dell Creek from March 31-July 31.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife made specific recommendations for the grizzly bear and monarch butterflies on the property.
Game and Fish has recommended that development of the new mining areas be minimized from Nov. 15 to April 30 in order to not disturb migratory patterns.
Notification
The Land Quality Division of DEQ completed a technical review of the expansion in March and then instructed Evans to submit a public notice for the expansion in July. Public notices were put out from July to September.
Still, many objectors said not enough public notice was given to the project and asked for an extension of the original 30-day comment window and for public meetings. The DEQ refused those requests.
Bondurant resident Jonathan Dawson wrote that the notice he and his wife received about the project from Afton-based Sunrise Engineering contained no telephone or email contact information and arrived by mail after two of the publishing dates had already expired. The actual permit application wasn’t included in the notice and Dawson said Sunrise refused to provide it when asked.
“My wife (79 Years old) and I (aged 80) had to travel to the County Clerk’s office in Pinedale with our own copy machine to obtain a complete copy of the application,” Dawson wrote in an Aug. 28 letter opposing the project. “Many of the residents in Bondurant were completely unaware of what was happening and its scope. This does not meet the commonsense test for fairness.”
The permit allows Evans to operate processing equipment and haul materials from 6 a.m - 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday with no noise limitations. This represents a substantial uptick in use from the less than 10 gravel trucks a year that use the dirt Dell Creek Road to get to the pit currently, Shefter said.
Evans has committed to importing water by truck to the site to apply along the access road and other high-traffic areas in its processing area to help with dust remediation. It has also said it will not mine within any riparian areas inside the permit boundary.
The proposed permit boundary is already partially fenced and would be completely fenced before mining begins.
However, Shefter said Evans already started some of the expansion in September before being approved for any permitting.
“Since these conditions could not have been satisfied in September when the Conditional Approval was issued on October 4th, the Applicant has already illustrated that it will take the ‘ask for forgiveness instead of permission’ tactic for its proposed mining operation,” Shefter writes in his appeal. “This violation, by itself, should be sufficient for the EQC to deny the Mine Permit.”
Evans denies that any of this increased activity was related to the actual expansion.
“That had nothing to do with the mining,” he said.
Local Regs
Shefter and other letter writers also questioned whether the expansion violates a number of Sublette County Planning and Zoning regulations, including setback rules that require a 300-foot distance from any public road for mining activities. He said the actual distance is less than half.
In August, Sublette County Planning and Zoning gave a green light to the project, saying “The property … is in full compliance with the Sublette County Zoning and Development Regulation” and “the proposed gravel extraction or mining operation does not conflict with any existing” county regulation.
Sublette County Planning and Zoning Director Dennis Fornstrom further explained to Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that since the mine will be continuing its current activities on the site, the only permits it needs to get approved are through DEQ, which he said has stricter requirements than Sublette County.
“You can’t take something away once it’s been there,” he said.
If the mine expands into the production of asphalt and concrete, as Evans has indicated it may do at some point in the future in its application, then Fornstrom said it would need the county’s approval.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
