Gravel-pit cleanup oversight lax

Albertans could be losing out on gravel royalties and taxpayers could be on the hook for cleaning up gravel pits on public land, all because of lax oversight, the auditor general has found.

Merwan Saher said in a followup report that “the department has not implemented an effective process to carry out its responsibilities to enforce land reclamation obligations, nor has it verified (sand and gravel) removed by operators.”

The report found the government levied no fines against operators who did not comply with reclamation rules, and doesn’t even keep a list of operators against whom it has initiated enforcement action. Further, the province didn’t follow its own process to review the inspection results, and failed to determine the cost of reclamation done by operators.