SAGINAW — More than 70 people gathered at the Delight Valley Church of Christ Tuesday night to voice their concerns with Lane County commissioners and other local and state officials about the proposed expansion of a gravel pit and asphalt plant owned by Mike Miller and his company, Northwest Mineral Resources.

The pit, which has been idle since 2011 when a gravel and sand contract with the state Department of Transportation was completed, has been the source of controversy for area residents for several years.

Also in 2011, Northwest Mineral Resources settled a lawsuit with Lane County in which the county alleged that numerous aspects of the operation violated county rules.

Scott Byler, who represents a core group of residents, said at the hearing that the company has demonstrated a total disregard for legal requirements. “I would ask that there are some very specific controls that are enforceable,” Byler said.

Byler was among 15 people who shared their concerns with all five county commissioners, as well as with officials representing the state Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, the Lane County Land Management division and other agencies.

In anticipation of the keen interest in the issue, officials moved the meeting location from a smaller Head Start building to the Delight Valley church.

County commissioners were mostly in a listening mode at the hearing, although board Chairman Pat Farr made a few comments to the residents.

“Oregon’s land use laws are designed to protect the rural ways of life and (make sure) that mineral resources are not constrained,” Farr said. “The agencies in the room tonight are not here to take one side or another, they are here to seek a middle ground.”

Miller did not attend the hearing. His attorney, Kim O’Dea, was in attendance but made no statement.

Northwest Mineral Resource’s application seeks to reopen and expand the gravel pit, in addition to possibly adding the asphalt plant. Miller, a Springfield real estate broker, has said he has no plan to restart operations immediately.

The application actually rests with the state geology department, which said it recently finished circulating the application to other agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration, for comments and suggestions.

“We don’t have a public process, so to speak, but we are very sensitive to the concerns of the public,” Vaughn Balzer, a floodplain mining and water quality reclamation specialist with the geology department, said at the hearing.

Balzer said his agency decided not to move forward with the permit process until first hearing from the public and also from state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, who has expressed concerns about the project and who attended Tuesday’s hearing.

Balzer vowed the agency will again contact the core group of neighbors before issuing any permit.

Even after the geology department issues a permit, the site owner and any operator will be required to obtain a land use permit from Lane County, as well as an air quality permit from the regional air protection agency.

Saginaw resident Mike Markham said he and his father used to work for the company that owned and operated the site until 1998.

“We had an operation that ran for 50 years, and it really had no impact on the neighborhood,” Markham said. “This new company is quite the opposite.”

Prozanski echoed that sentiment.

“How can you have someone who goes outside the bounds of the law and actually creates havoc and then (pays the fines and) says it’s the cost of doing business?” Prozanski said. “That is not right.”

Rudy Severns, another area resident, said he is mostly concerned about the proposal to include an asphalt plant on the site.

“Being due south of the operation, the prevailing summer winds are north and northwesterly,” he said. “Any asphalt operation will dump its fumes directly on us.”