Four Oregon Groups Ask Kotek to Stop Sunny Valley Gravel Mine on Grave Creek

A coalition of Rogue Advocates, WaterWatch of Oregon, Rogue Riverkeeper, and Friends of Country Living is urging Governor Tina Kotek to reject a deep-pit gravel operation on Grave Creek, a tributary of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River.

Eighty to ninety feet deep. Within fifty feet of Grave Creek.

That is the shape of what a Sunny Valley company wants to dig into the bank of a stream that already runs dry in places, that feeds the Wild and Scenic Rogue, and that threatened coho salmon and steelhead depend on for cold water and the gravel they spawn in.

For more than a decade, the people who live along Grave Creek have been telling the state of Oregon this is the wrong project, in the wrong place, on the wrong water. On Monday, May 12, 2026, three other organizations stood up alongside them and said it together. Rogue Advocates, WaterWatch of Oregon, Rogue Riverkeeper, and Friends of Country Living sent a joint letter to Governor Tina Kotek asking her, and the state agencies that answer to her, to take a hard look at a proposal the coalition believes cannot be justified given the risks to salmon, drinking water, and the rural community that has carried this fight the longest.

Read the full coalition press release (PDF)

What is being proposed

Sunny Valley Sand and Gravel, Inc., a company led by former Josephine County Commissioner Andreas Blech, wants to mine aggregate on a 210-acre property in Sunny Valley, the rural community along Interstate 5 north of Grants Pass. The site sits along Grave Creek, the tributary that meets the Rogue at the boundary of the Wild Rogue Wilderness. Anyone who has ever floated the lower Rogue knows the Grave Creek boat ramp. It is the most common put-in for the 40-mile federally designated “wild” segment of the river.

The plan, according to the coalition, is to dig numerous pits down to bedrock, roughly 80 to 90 feet deep, within 50 feet of Grave Creek itself. As groundwater fills those pits, the operator would “dewater” them, pumping the groundwater out so mining can continue. The coalition warns that pumping is almost certain to pull water away from the creek, and away from the wells of the homes nearby.

Why it matters

The coalition’s letter lays out three connected threats.

Salmon, steelhead, and the cold water the Rogue depends on. Grave Creek is one of the cold-water tributaries that supports threatened coho salmon and steelhead in the Rogue Basin. As Frances Oyung, Rogue Riverkeeper program manager at the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, put it: “Tributaries like Grave Creek are the lifeblood of the Rogue. They are the source of cold, unpolluted water and support spawning and rearing habitat for several native fish species. By negatively impacting the Rogue’s tributaries, one harms the larger waterway as well as the tributary watershed itself.” With Oregon’s snowpack severely depleted again this year, taking more water from a stream that already runs dry, in a watershed already over-appropriated, is the wrong direction.

Drinking water for the people who actually live there. In Crook County, domestic wells near a Knife River aggregate operation are under investigation for dangerous levels of manganese and aluminum, an inquiry Senator Jeff Merkley has been pushing for answers on. Why allow a similar pattern on Grave Creek before those answers are even in hand? “It’s crucial to our mission to do what we can to protect the livability of Sunny Valley,” said Debra Lawwill, president of Friends of Country Living. “Without access to clean water, this community’s survival will be threatened.”

A history that should give regulators pause. WaterWatch of Oregon staff attorney Tory White did not pull punches: “These concerns are compounded by a history of illegal mining and unlawful water use at the site.” The applicant, Andreas Blech, is a former Josephine County Commissioner who resigned on December 5, 2025 rather than face a recall election after the county clerk verified more than 6,700 valid signatures. The mine application has continued moving through the state regulatory process. The coalition believes the public deserves a review on the merits, not on momentum.

Steve Rouse, president of Rogue Advocates, put the bottom line plainly in the coalition’s statement: “Given the remote, poor quality gravel resource along Grave Creek and the speculative demand, the environmental risks of the mining are simply not justified.”

What the coalition is asking for

The letter and accompanying release focus on three asks:

1. State agency scrutiny, not deference. The water and mining questions raised by this proposal belong to the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The coalition is asking those agencies, with the Governor’s attention, to require real evidence (not the promise of evidence) before the mine plan moves forward.
2. Protect Grave Creek’s flows and the Wild Rogue downstream. The over-appropriation of Grave Creek and the Wild and Scenic status of the Rogue downstream are binding constraints, not background notes. Withdrawals and the “dewatering” of 80- to 90-foot pits within 50 feet of the creek must be evaluated against what the creek and the fishery can actually withstand.
3. Protect domestic wells. Regulators should investigate well-impact and water-quality risks now, before mining begins, and apply the lessons of the ongoing Crook County investigation to a strikingly similar fact pattern in Sunny Valley.

Where this sits in the process

DOGAMI’s mine plan review is in its late stages. Once the reviewer finalizes the application package, it goes to commenting agencies (DEQ, ODFW, OWRD, and others) for input. That moment is approaching, which is part of why the four organizations are speaking publicly now.

In parallel, the underlying water right the mine would rely on, Oregon irrigation Certificate 3943, is the subject of a separate proceeding now pending before the Oregon Court of Appeals, where WaterWatch of Oregon is challenging the Water Resources Commission’s December 19, 2025 final order declining to cancel the right. That appeal is unlikely to be resolved this year. The coalition is not asking anyone to predict its outcome. The coalition is asking only that a mine plan dependent on a contested water right, on a stream that already runs dry, deserves the most careful scrutiny Oregon can give it.

Why this is a coalition

It is unusual for four organizations to stand up together on a single Josephine County land-use matter, and that is part of the message. WaterWatch of Oregon brings four decades of work protecting instream flows. Rogue Riverkeeper, operating from the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, brings the Wild Rogue’s downstream interests into the conversation. Friends of Country Living speaks for the Sunny Valley residents who have lived with this proposal longest. Rogue Advocates focuses on protecting Oregon’s resource lands and rural communities from speculative development. The shared message is plain: this is the wrong project, in the wrong place, on the wrong water.

What you can do

• Read the coalition press release. Read the full coalition press release (PDF).
• Contact Governor Kotek’s office. Tell the Governor you support the coalition’s request that state agencies take a careful, evidence-based look at the Sunny Valley proposal and protect Grave Creek, the Wild Rogue, and the wells of Sunny Valley. Call the Governor’s office at 503-378-4582 or use the contact form at oregon.gov/gov/pages/contact-us.aspx.
• Contact DOGAMI’s Mineral Land Regulation and Reclamation program. As the agency nears the end of its mine plan review, public input matters. The MLRR program can be reached at 541-967-2039 or mlrr.info@dogami.oregon.gov. Program page: oregon.gov/dogami/mlrr.
• Contact your Josephine County Commissioners. County approvals for this mine were granted years ago under a “feasibility” standard that deferred the hard questions to state agencies. County leaders should be on record about what they expect of those state agencies now.
• Stay informed. Sign up for Rogue Advocates’ newsletter to follow this case and our work to protect resource land in Josephine and Jackson Counties.

Rogue Advocates is proud to stand with WaterWatch of Oregon, Rogue Riverkeeper, and Friends of Country Living. We will keep tracking every step of the agency review process. Grave Creek deserves it. The Rogue depends on it. Sunny Valley has been asking for it for more than ten years.

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Press contact for this coalition release: Tommy Hough, WaterWatch of Oregon, (206) 291-4145, tommy@waterwatch.org.