A look at the work of Amy Rudko, a mapper for the Washington Geological Survey (WGS) helping plot a path towards Washington’s continued growth.
By Aryonna Willoughby, DNR Communications
On the edge of a forest road out in Grays Harbor County, Amy Rudko lifts a pair of buckets into the bed of a dusty pickup. The buckets are heavy, each filled to the brim with five gallons of rocks gathered from a nearby basalt outcrop deposited roughly 50 million years ago. Rudko is driving them to their next destination, a materials testing lab nearly 50 miles away. At the lab, the rocks will undergo durability testing to determine whether they meet the criteria required of “aggregate”—Washington’s most valuable produced mineral commodity.
Made from an unassuming list of raw materials, such as sand, gravel, and crushed rock, aggregate is the main ingredient in construction products like asphalt and concrete. These products are the building blocks for homes, roads, buildings, and bridges.
As Washington’s population growth continues to pick up pace—it’s estimated to hit over 9.7 million by 2050—the need for more infrastructure is rising. Across the state, land-use planners in local jurisdictions are deciding how to meet these demands long term. To help with this process, the Washington Geological Survey (WGS) is producing county-scale maps of aggregate resources for all 39 counties.
Leading the work is Rudko, the Survey’s first full-time aggregate resource mapper.
Rudko joined WGS in 2022, following position funding passed by the Washington State Legislature. This new funding came on the heels of the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill enacted in 2021 that invested $110 billion nationwide to repair roads and bridges.
Before Rudko was brought on, some mapping progress had been made, but it was limited by fluctuating funding. From 2005 to 2022, county-scale aggregate resource maps were created for just four counties across the state: Clark, Pierce, Lewis, and Yakima. These maps were derived from the state’s existing collection of geologic maps, which provide full coverage of the state’s geology, but across a much broader scope.
“Geologic maps are great if you have a geological background or maybe you’re a geologist, but it’s really rare for a land use planner to feel confident interpreting the geological data for their needs,” Rudko explained.
Since Rudko was brought in as a full-time aggregate mapper, she’s helped produce an additional four maps for Kitsap, Skagit, Spokane, and Grant counties.
“When I got hired, it was really cool to see the effort—and funding as well—be put toward making this project something that could be a little more standardized moving forward and have a predictable outcome,” Rudko said.
WGS started providing local jurisdictions with aggregate maps in the early 2000s, following the passing of the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990.
The GMA was designed in response to the growing threats posed by urbanization, particularly in the Seattle area. Concerns included traffic congestion, urban sprawl, surface runoff pollution, and the loss of nearby farmland and wilderness. As a result, the GMA requires local governments to develop and maintain detailed land-use plans and development regulations for their long-term growth. These plans must include designations for natural resource lands and strategies to protect them from urban sprawl and other types of development.
Counties and the cities within them need to update their comprehensive plans every 10 years. And, in addition, the state is required to provide planners with useful geologic data to guide these updates.
Without accessible information, some jurisdictions previously relied on private contractors to provide maps of their aggregate resources. However, the cost is steep, and many jurisdictions find it unaffordable to hire a contractor.
But now, with a full-time aggregate resource mapper, WGS is in its best position yet to help local jurisdictions meet their GMA requirements.
Rudko works with Geologic Planning Liaison Tricia Sears to help lead outreach and communication with counties, cities, and tribal governments. Together, the two equip land-use planners with all the information, data support, and technical training needed to fully understand each map’s findings.
“It’s been really great to work with Tricia because I’m trying to translate geology into aggregate language that a planner could understand, and Tricia can translate what the planners need from me,” Rudko said.
Sears agreed that this dynamic serves both the state and jurisdictional land-use planners well.
“When we listen to planners and others, we get a better understanding of their needs and concerns, and we can assist them more effectively,” Sears said. “I find it exciting to see staff at WGS, local jurisdictions, tribes, and other state agencies become more aware and understanding of our work as well as us becoming more aware and understanding of their work.”
Rudko also works with regional surface mine inspectors from WGS’ Surface Mine Reclamation Program and with forest road engineers from the State Lands Forest Roads Division, who each lend knowledge on local aggregate to the project.
From start to finish, each map takes between six and 12 months to produce and is reviewed by a team of internal scientists, including Dr. Russ Di Fiori, manager for the Geologic Mapping Program.
“Geologic data has always existed for these areas, but it wasn’t in a form that a planner could open up and make a decision with,” Di Fiori said. “Our aggregate maps provide that bridge. They take the raw geology and tell you what it means for a county’s long-term planning.”
Identifying aggregate resource areas is just the first step in what Rudko calls a “long game.”
The end goal of the mapping project is to help counties and cities identify potential new aggregate sources so they can be developed into mines, pits, or quarries. These mines will provide future generations with the aggregate they need to support their communities. It can take years—sometimes more than a decade—for a mine to receive all the proper permitting from the state and local governments. These hurdles are a necessary procedure to ensure each mine is operating with as little environmental impact as possible.
Part of the regulatory oversight is led by the Surface Mine Reclamation Program, which is responsible for overseeing and managing the reclamation of mines as they approach their end of life or get “mined out.”
The program helps surface mine operators restore vegetation, soil stability, and proper water conditions at mine sites for new land uses, such as parks, trails, or even urban development. Mine owners are expected to engage in segmental reclamation throughout a mine’s operation, restoring parts of the mine as each piece reaches its end of life.
Washington is just one of the few states that have state-level surface mine reclamation regulations.
“Surface mining can be considered a temporary land use, especially on a geologic timescale,” Rudko explained. “[So] Washington State is fortunate to have the Surface Mine Reclamation Program to help ensure these lands are thoughtfully reclaimed for future use.”
For now, Rudko is focused on her next steps, finishing the Grays Harbor County map, which is planned to drop in July. After, Rudko and her colleagues will begin work on the next one.
Only 29 counties to go.
To learn more about the Rudko’s aggregate mapping work, visit WGS’ Aggregate Resources page.
