Mineral Resource Lands (MRLs) are areas identified by Whatcom County as containing significant deposits of sand, gravel, or hard rock—materials essential for building and maintaining roads, bridges, schools, homes, utilities, and other public infrastructure.

Under the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA), adopted in 1990, counties are required to identify and conserve areas with significant mineral resources to ensure these finite resources remain available for current and future generations. To meet this requirement, Whatcom County established Mineral Resource Lands through its Comprehensive Plan and development regulations to protect important mineral resources from being permanently lost to incompatible development.

Whatcom County’s Comprehensive Plan established a goal of maintaining a 50-year supply of commercially significant construction aggregate resources. The 2014 Aggregate Resource Inventory Update found that existing permitted reserves were not sufficient to reliably meet this long-term goal and identified the need to preserve and responsibly develop additional mineral resources.

“Without any additional resource allocation, in twenty years some of the effects of local aggregate resource scarcity will be experienced in Whatcom County.”
— Whatcom County Aggregate Resource Inventory Study Update, 2014

The study evaluated historic aggregate consumption and future demand and concluded that maintaining a reliable local supply would require continued protection and responsible use of designated mineral resources.