qathet Regional District’s planning committee is recommending the regional board advise the ministry of mining and critical minerals that it has no objection to expansion at Select Sand and Gravel.
At the January 28 planning committee meeting, directors reviewed a notice of work, which would provide for expanding the existing permit to expand the mine permit area from 14.5 hectares to 29.28 hectares. The recommendation had six conditions to pass along to the ministry.
According to a staff report, the existing gravel pit supplies aggregate to the local construction market, and the applicant wishes to increase annual extraction from 68,000 to 170,000 tonnes.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said on a map attached to the staff report, there is a vegetated buffer area shown adjacent to the existing operation, plus a future phase of mining area. He said if the motion passes as recommended in the agenda, would that allow the mining operation to go to the edge of the boundary in the expanded area, where a vegetated buffer area does not exist?
General manager of planning services Laura Roddan said the existing vegetated buffer area, on the east side of the property, dates back to the original application in 2009. She said if extending the vegetated buffer is a desire of the committee, the committee might want to add that to the conditions outlined in the recommendation.
Electoral Area A director and committee chair Jason Lennox said this is an existing operation and there are quite a few points to consider around wastewater, environment, plus adjoining residential areas.
Gisborne said he would move the recommendation with the addition to the first condition, which states that the 100-metre treed buffer along the eastern boundary be maintained, and he wanted to add that the buffer be extended to meet the northern property boundary.
He said in 2009, there was community outcry from neighbouring properties about the risk of dust, noise and other issues. He said he wanted to give thanks to Select Sand and Gravel because the operations have been going on there, and with the treed buffer, the complaints from people in that area have been very minimal.
“A lot of them who I have spoken to have been appreciative of the work that is being done by Select Sand and Gravel,” said Gisborne. “I remember talking to some folks in 2019, and there was concern that if the mining operation continues on that lease going north, was that going to go past that treed buffer and start moving toward where the residences are?”
Lennox said the one question he had, by increasing the buffer area, does that negatively affect the company’s business plan?
Roddan said she recreates on the trails in the area in question and believes Select has already logged the area in question. She said if the condition was as Gisborne amended, there might have to be some replanting in that area.
Gisborne said he hasn’t gone up to the site in a number of years. Some of the concern he recalls from many years ago was how close the operations are getting to residential areas. He said if the vegetation is allowed to regrow, that might be appropriate. He didn’t believe that replanting needed to occur.
“The concern is: will there be gravel and material extraction approaching the property boundary?” asked Gisborne. “If the buffer area gets extended, that would alleviate those concerns in the community.”
The committee’s recommendation that it has no objection to the expansion, with conditions, carried unanimously.
Conditions included the applicant adhering to the noise and dust control plan, to post notice on recreational trails to prevent trail users from entering the site, that the water monitoring system be continued, that no contaminated materials be deposited at the site, and for consideration of a drainage study to determine if a stormwater management plan be implemented to ensure the operation does not negatively impact properties downslope of the permit area.
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