Gravel pit critics say province has broken vow to properly monitor dust
The province is dragging its feet in accurately monitoring potential dust hazards posed by a southwest Calgary gravel pit feeding ring road construction, say neighbours adjacent to the operation.
Mack and Lenore Kay, who live a stone’s throw from the mine, said months of pressure to have particulate monitors moved into positions that would properly measure dust levels and governments vows to do so have come to nothing.
In mid-December, an Alberta Transportation official said the devices would be moved in the new year and that data from them would be publicly posted “very shortly.”
“They’ve had a month to move them and they haven’t,” said Mack Kay, who lives in the community of West Springs.
“We’ve had nature’s air monitors working — the snow is covered in dust.”
At 100 metres distance, he said, no other gravel pit in the province is situated so closely to a neighbourhood.
Last year, Kay said, the pit’s gravel crusher “shook our home.”
Kay said three air quality monitors have been placed around the pit in spots unlikely to make crucial readings, one of them on the operation’s west side which is usually upwind from a gravel crusher.
Though Alberta Transportation has said the pit has rarely exceeded provincial particulate standards — and only then likely due to wildfire smoke last summer — they briefly shut down the pit’s operation last month after visually inspecting dust fallout around homes.
Alberta Health Services has made limited comment on the operation, saying they’ve been working on the matter with the province, on whose jurisdiction they say the gravel pit falls.
In emails sent last week to concerned residents, AHS Calgary Zone Medical Officer of Health Jason Cabaj said his agency is in agreement with Alberta Transportation’s conduct with the monitors, but also said they should be better-sited.
“We did recommend adjustment of locations on the downwind/east side to address concerns that possible exposures to fugitive dust were not being captured with respect to your neighbourhood,” wrote Cabaj.
“Our understanding is that Alberta Transportation is planning to make adjustments to address the issues being raised.”
Cabaj also states residents’ frustrations are well-founded and that the AHS “certainly agree with the importance of getting the details of air quality monitoring right to accurately identify and characterize any potential health risks.”
Fine particles of silica contained in gravel pit dust can have toxic impacts when ingested and signage on provincial gravel pits include just such warnings.
Some area residents are concerned the dust has been making its way to two neighbourhood schools.
Two of the three monitors will remain where they are, while a third will be shifted 100 metres to the south later this week, said Alberta Transportation spokesman Rizwan Hussain.
A monitor will also be placed on the east side of the pit to align with the two schools, though “it may take some time … The data will be posted pretty shortly,” he said, adding the moves are being done through consultation with AHS.
“The data will prove there’s no concern for health quality,” said Hussain.
The pit, which opened last spring, is to stay operational to supply the ring road project until October 2021. Provincial officials say the pit location was chosen partly because its lower ground level could be used as a right-of-way for the ring road’s future west leg.