The County of Barrhead may be seeing another gravel pit operation in the near future if council approves a new proposed project.
Inland Aggregates, a division of heavy building materials company Lehigh Hanson Canada, presented their development application at County council Tuesday, Oct. 16. The company wants to extract and crush sand and gravel from approximately 149.23 acres northwest of Camp Creek.
The property is currently owned by Glen and Therese Kalmbach and is used for annual crops, most recently canola. However Inland Aggregates is in the process of purchasing the property, and landowners have provided their consent to mine and reclaim.
Inland Aggregates’ plan is to extract 400,000 tonnes of sand and gravel per year over the next 20 years, averaging 50 loads per day over a period of 10 months a year. Most of this activity will occur during regular construction season, and will require 24 hours per day processing for six days per week.
Hauling hours must take place only within the hours specified by the Development Authority, for example Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and no hauling Sunday.
“Because it’s a continuous year-round long-term plan, by decompressing the trucking schedule we could take a lot of that impact off the highway,” said Inland Aggregates area manager Kevin John. “This way we can keep the roads in a safer condition.”
Although a small portion of the crushing will be done on the pit site, most of the material will be brought to Villeneuve for further processing before reaching its final destination in Edmonton.
“If you were to crush 100 per cent on site that would create more noise, but our plan is not to do that. We want to limit the amount of crushing that’s done on site,” said John. “But we want to remain flexible too. There are going to be times when crushing on that site may make more sense.”
Trucks leaving from the pit will initially use Haul Route 2, which follows Township Road 614B and connects with Highway 33. Trucks approaching the pit will follow Highway 33 to Range Road 55A, traveling north until the intersection with Township Road 615. Following this road will take them back to the pit area.
However once the Haul Route 1 road is upgraded and approved, Range Road 53 will serve as a direct route to Highway 33.
“We understand there are quite a few upgrades to the road required but we’d be willing to undertake that, probably in conjunction with some of the other operators when the timing is right,” said Inland Aggregates land manager Trevor Lema. “What that does is put the least amount of impact on the county road. It’s the shortest amount of road usage to get out to the main highway.”
When the project is complete, the land will be reclaimed to almost an 87-acre water body and wildlife habitat. The sloping of the land around the pit will create a wetland of sorts, said Lema, which will attract the wildlife.
Notification was given to adjacent land owners, landowners along the proposed haul route, Alberta Transportation, Woodlands County and Alberta Environments Sept. 20, 2012. Recipients were given until Oct. 10 to comment.
Three letters and one email of concern were received from those notified. Concerns included access to adjoining lands, environmental issues, dust and noise issues, haul routes, road standards and road maintenance.
At this point council can either table the application to receive more information, refuse the application with reason, or approve with conditions. Councillors moved to postpone a decision until the next council meeting Oct. 30.
