I must emphatically voice my extreme opposition to Rocky View County’s (RVC) revised draft of the gravel policy (Aggregate Resource Plan). To avoid redundancy I will not repeat the endless details that so many RV residents have been saying for decades, but I will highlight the following:
- Health: Proximity to gravel pits can lead to lung disease, especially in children. A 500-metre setback is totally unacceptable. Setbacks must be a minimum of 1,600m or one mile, unless those within that radius agree to a lesser distance. Obtaining such agreement must be the sole responsibility of the aggregate companies, not that of RVC.
• Landowner Rights: The objective of sterilizing privately-owned land until the landowner "proves" his/her land does not contain commercial quantities of gravel is so contrary and irreconcilable to the most basic tenet of landowner rights that it defies comment.
• Direct Subsidy: The annual revenue RV hopes to receive from gravel operations is barely enough to pave 1.5 kilometres of road. Taxpayer expense regarding road repair caused by incessantly heavy truck traffic will exponentiallyexceed the minuscule amount RV hopes to collect. While there is merit in RV attracting commercial and industrial development, that merit is 100 per cent financial but this proposal is a money loser for the County - a big loser . A full financial accounting of anticipated costs of road repair and maintenance due to gravel truck s must be independently done. Such costs must not be borne by resident taxpayers.
• Indirect Subsidy: Homes near gravel pits and/or gravel truck routes will certainly decline in value, probably severely decline. Effectively, this is a subsidy from individual homeowners and landowners to the aggregate industry.
• Water: Residents close to gravel pits incur the risk of having their groundwater polluted or not having any groundwater at all.
• Traffic: Those in the Bearspaw area and along Big Hill Springs road will have greatly increased heavy truck traffic. Gravel trucks must be kept off roads in residential areas.
Gravel companies have the right to expect profit from their operations. So does RVC. Nearby residents have the right – or should have the right – to not have their homes, properties and quality of life devalued. This proposed policy does not even recognize their right to clean air, cleanwater and safe roads.
Jerry Arshinoff
