Sand and gravel pits could come within 50-metres of homes under new rules approved by Sturgeon County this week – but only if they meet a heap of new standards.
Sturgeon County council voted 6-1 March 9 to implement a series of recommendations from the Resource Extraction Regulatory Review report.
County council moved to review its decades-old rules for sand and gravel operations back in 2019. The review involved online surveys, focus groups and an open house held last November.
The county’s current rules rely heavily on large buffer zones requiring sand and gravel mines to stay 400 to 800 metres away from homes – some of the biggest setbacks in Alberta. Left as is, these rules would more or less forbid the creation of new gravel pits in the county and net the county $14 million.
Based on public consultations and a review of best practices, the report recommended that the county switch to a system based on performance standards, smaller setbacks, ongoing monitoring and consultation requirements. These rules would apply to all future sand/gravel operations, with current ones continuing under the old rules unless they applied to switch.
The new rules would require companies to stay at least 50 or 200 metres from homes while digging for aggregate and 300 metres away while crushing it.
They would also have to meet a suite of performance standards related to noise, traffic, dust, reclamation, visual impacts and air and water quality. Recommended standards included set hours for operations and hauling, a 60 km/h or lower speed limit for haul vehicles, specific decibel caps for noise (backed by on-site monitors) and regular open houses and communications with area residents. Companies would have to issue reports on these standards each quarter and be subject to third-party evaluation each year.
The report called on the county to create a dedicated sand and gravel communications platform, such as a website, that would include maps, contact information and other information about aggregate operations. It called on the county to review the distribution of its Community Aggregate Payment levies (cash collected from sand and gravel mining used to support community programs) and to expand the membership of the Calahoo-Villeneuve Sand and Gravel Advisory Committee so that it covered all regions with sand and gravel operations.
These changes would create new jobs, protect the environment, improve communications between companies and residents and add another $50 million to the county’s coffers in the coming decades, the report found.
Council debate
Mayor Alanna Hnatiw said it had been decades since council last reviewed its sand and gravel regulations, and county residents deserve better rules than the county’s current arbitrary setbacks.
Coun. Karen Shaw opposed implementation of the report, saying the consultation process for it was flawed and that its recommendations could create inconsistency and uncertainty.
“By doing this, we have the potential to throw our residents under the bus.”
Not making these changes would throw residents under the bus, countered Coun. Kristin Toms, as that would mean not leveraging the county’s resources to benefit the community.
“We’ve heard over and over again that our current regulations are a huge barrier for everybody, which means we’re not getting tax revenues from (sand and gravel) and we’re not benefiting our residents or the community as a whole,” Toms said.
Some of the approved recommendations required changes to the county’s land-use bylaw and the Calahoo-Villeneuve Area Structure Plan. Administration plans to table those changes by April 2021.
The resource extraction regulatory review report can be found in the agenda package for the March 9, 2021 meeting.
