MORSE TWP— For months, the sounds of excavation and trucks hauling has echoed along Wolf Lake Road west of Ely as thousands of truckloads of fill have been removed and hauled west as part of the construction of a new state off-road vehicle campground near Soudan.
The production and hauling has been undertaken by Low Impact Excavators, of Ely, which is serving as a subcontractor to the general contractor on the campground project, Superior-based Nordic Group. So far, the company has hauled about 45,000 cubic yards of fill for the project, or the equivalent of about 4,500 truckloads. Hauling is expected to continue for some time with an engineer’s estimate of 80,000 cubic yards of granular fill and 10,000 yards of Class 5 to complete the facility.
Through the months of intensive gravel removal, the pit, on land owned by Jim Boals, has been operating without a county-required permit. After receiving a complaint from a neighbor along the road about the noise and truck traffic from the operation, the Timberjay inquired with St. Louis County about the operation only to find that county officials were unaware of it. Under the county’s ordinance, only small private pits utilized by landowners for their own purposes, are exempt from permitting.
Given the scale of the gravel removal in question and its use for a public project, St. Louis County required Low Impact to obtain a performance standards permit, which county officials issued on Nov. 7. The permit is good for two years and allows the gravel removal for the purposes of a public project only. Private commercial use of the pit would require a conditional use permit and a public hearing according to the county ordinance.
The county issued no fine for the failure to obtain permitting earlier in the year when hauling began. “Our goal is always to gain compliance, which in this instance has now happened,” said St. Louis County spokesperson Dana Kazel.
That didn’t sit well with Gary Smith, a resident near the pit, who complained that the trucks that frequently make dozens of trips a day hauling from the pit have been driving too fast for the conditions on the winding road. He blames the truck traffic for the death of his 13-month-old lab, named Rainy, although he acknowledges he didn’t actually witness the incident that killed his dog.
Smith said there are several entrances onto the road which can be difficult to see and he’s worried that the trucks, whose drivers may not be familiar with the situation, could hit a person the next time.
More questions
The campground project has required an enormous amount of fill in part due to shallow bedrock, according to Sara Joy Berhow, spokesperson for the DNR’s parks and trails division. The bedrock limited the DNR’s ability to excavate and so required the extra fill to meet the necessary grades for the project.
While the bulk of that fill came from an unpermitted pit, the DNR’s contracts puts the onus for compliance with permitting on the contractors. Section 01 30 00 of the contract, titled Administrative Requirements, lists the following under Codes, Permits and Regulatory Requirements: “2. All other building permits, mechanical permits, plumbing inspection applications, sprinkler permits, licenses, inspection fees, dewatering permits, or other requirements of governing bodies that have jurisdiction over the project, shall be secured and paid for by the Contractor.”
The Timberjay referred questions and offered an opportunity for comment to Low Impact Excavating. The company did not respond as of press time.