Residents oppose pit that would shift gravel into city on conveyor
A proposed gravel mine on Calgary’s northwest edge that would shuttle rock into the city on a 4.5-kilometre conveyor belt — an attempt to quell neighbours’ opposition — is still meeting resistance.
The Lehigh Hanson Scott Property operation, which would produce gravel from a 161-hectare site just outside city limits at the north end of Rocky Ridge Road N.W., would include a covered conveyor system burrowed beneath both 144th Avenue and 85th Street.
It would run on the surface alongside both roads, skirt past correctional facilities along 85th Street, before reaching the company’s existing Spy Hill facility on 112th Avenue N.W. for “processing and transport,” states a presentation viewed by Bearspaw residents at an open house Feb. 8.
Lehigh Hanson says it plans to make an application for the project with Rocky View County in the fall, and that the conveyor system should make the proposal more attractive to neighbours concerned about increased truck traffic.
“By implementing the conveyor system, Lehigh will not require a single haul truck on the road to support this operation,” project manager Valerie Haaf said in a statement.
“The conveyor will reduce emissions, noise and dust, and eliminate traffic issues typically associated with aggregate operations.”
The operation could supply aggregate for 25 years and would be mined in 25-hectare phases, says the company.
Ultimately, said Haaf, the project would “leave a positive legacy in the community through consultation on a final reclamation plan that could benefit the neighbourhood for generations to come.”
But some nearby Rocky View County residents who say they’re already enduring existing gravel mining operations in the city limits argue the so-called Scott Property pit has no place in their rural residential setting.
In an email sent to the company last July, Bill and Sharon Corbett voiced skepticism about the sincerity of its public engagement and dismay that the project was being considered.
“We are offended that once again the development of an open pit gravel mine is being pursued in light of overwhelming community opposition,” they wrote.
“No social licence exists for an open pit gravel mine.”
At the time, the Corbetts expressed concern over the noise produced by drilling on the site.
Mike Edwards, who’s lived in the home that backs onto the proposed pit since 1984, noted Rocky View County rejected gravel mining applications for the site in 1994 and 2010 after residents voiced concern over effects on the water table, noise and carcinogenic silica dust.
“They haven’t learned anything and they’ve been trying to keep this under the radar,” he said.
There are already six other gravel operations in the area that annoy nearby residents, said Edwards, “and we hate to think what it’d be like with another being so close.”
Lehigh Hanson downplays the density of rural housing in the area and number of people potentially affected.
Edwards also said Calgarians should be concerned, given the fact Rocky View County would reap the benefits of gravel fees from the operation while the city is stuck with increased truck traffic after the gravel is conveyed to Lehigh Hanson’s Spy Hill facility.
Heavy truck traffic — mainly from gravel haulers — has been a safety concern among Royal Oak residents for years.
But Calgary Ward 1 Coun. Ward Sutherland said the conveyor method will reduce truck traffic from the proposed pit.
And though the company’s presentation said gravel products from the Rocky View pit would be transported from its Calgary facility, Sutherland said that aggregate would simply “replenish something that’s diminishing, I’m assuming,” at the 112th Avenue site.
“It’s way better to have a conveyor system.”
He said locating gravel pits farther from the city drives up the cost of product and increases truck traffic, adding gravel is needed for infrastructure that’s used daily.
“People want to drive on roads and use cycle paths — it’s a part of everyday life,” said Sutherland.
The proposal for a conveyor belt system, he said, would come under scrutiny by both provincial and city regulators.
Haaf said the Scott Property operation is a “progression, not an expansion” of work ongoing at its Spy Hill site, and that “operations at Spy Hill will be reduced as a result of source material coming from the Scott Property instead of being mined on site.”
Rocky View County officials wouldn’t comment on the project, saying they’ve yet to receive an application for it.