Painted Rock mine proposal prompts truck ban effort

Four years after the first news that a gravel mine was planned for Washoe allotment land above Johnson Lane, Douglas County is proposing to ban trucks at the top of the main route trucks would take.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Managment issued a final a finding of no significant impact and a decision record for the Painted Rock Mine project.

The decision came a day before Douglas County commissioners introduced an ordinance that finds the exact opposite on Thursday.

Knox Excavating has been seeking approval for a sand and gravel lease on 148.8 acres on a Washoe allotment parcel and a tenth are from another Washoe parcel for the entrance.

Residents have 30 days to appeal the decision at paintedrockmineproject.org, according to the Decision of Record.

“This item is proposed to protect the safety of the current users of the aforementioned roadway, to promote the health and safety of the residents adjacent to the roadway and to prevent an increase in the depreciation and wear on the roadway and otherwise help preserve this section of the road,” according to the report authored by Assistant County Manager Scott Morgan.

The county cited a draft environmental assessment that a peak 170 truck trips would use Johnson Lane to haul 1,000-2,000 tons of gravel a day. The mine is expected to operate for 25-30 years.

The analysis in the assessment acknowledges that the increase in truck traffic would cut the life of the pavement between East Valley Road to the Johnson Lane off-highway vehicle area by more than half, from 33.9 years to 15.1 years.

The assessment “helpfully” suggests the county do an overlay of the pavement to improve the life of the road to 20 years.

“When one road surface degrades more quickly than anticipated, funds must be diverted from other projects to make necessary repairs and the county’s budget cannot accommodate as many road maintenance projects over time,” Morgan wrote.

The county has an ordinance that prohibits truck traffic on specific routes in Carson Valley. Some of those are related to the former Bing Pit, which has been closed for a couple of years.

Trucks are also prohibited on both halves of Waterloo Lane, on the future Muller Lane Parkway and the Dressler Lane Bridge.

Public comment typically isn’t taken at ordinance introductions, which are designed to let people know a rule change is pending.

The county will likely hear the second reading of the ordinance in August.

The property proposed for the mine is owned by a Washoe family and held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, one of scores of parcels in the Pine Nut Mountains. Allotment lands aren’t under the control of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.

There are around 300 different allotments covering 59,310 acres in Douglas County that were distributed just before the start of the 20^th Century.

The Washoe who have the allotments consider it private property, 85-year-old Fritz Smokey told The Record-Courier after a public presentation on the project in March.