The first loads from a newly approved gravel pit in Joe Rich could be trucked out within a few months.
Though considerable site work needs to be done before full operation gets underway, some extraction of gravel is expected to begin this spring.
“We‘ll start working on the site within the next month, and I think within a month after that, some material will be coming out of there,” Tom Weisbeck, of CRC Developments, said Wednesday.
The company has been granted permission by the Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources to operate the Pyman Road pit, which was the focus of considerable public opposition from some Joe Rich residents.
“I still don‘t think it‘s the best place for a gravel pit,” said Reg Volk of the Joe Rich Ratepayers Association. “It‘s in an area with scenic grasslands and a sensitive habitat.
“What this approval shows is that there‘s a need for the Mines Act to be changed to allow for more public input,” Volk added. “I think there‘s no doubt that, right now, the process for gravel pit approvals favours the applicants.”
Plans call for the pit‘s development to be phased in over a 50-acre site, with no more than 12 acres being used at any one time. The ministry also attached a number of conditions to its approval, relating to landscaping, a stipulation there be no gravel trucks on Highway 33 after 4 p.m. between Dec. 1 and March 31, and a deposit to ensure operation areas are reclaimed after use.
Along with concerns about environmental impact, opponents of the pit say children walking to school could be put at risk by gravel trucks using area roads.
Projections are for six gravel trucks an hour during normal business hours. The Central Okanagan‘s construction and road-building industries need to get gravel and rock from nearby locations, rather than trucking material in from as far away as Okanagan Falls and Falkland, Weisbeck said.
“There‘s a definite need for an operation like this,” he said. Top of Page
