The proposal for a rock quarry and borrow pit near the landfill and the Cable Car neighbourhood has hit lots of resistance from concerned residents.
As well as those who came in person to Kitimat Council's November 16 meeting, councillors were also presented with a petition of 131 signatures against the proposal by Daudet Creek Contracting.
As it is the council at the moment can’t decide if a pit gets approved as it’s an application to the Ministry of Forest, Lands & Natural Resources Operations, however they have forwarded the list of community concerns to the ministry in the hopes they can take those into consideration with their decision.
Council will get their own shot at determining the fate of the quarry in the future though as if it’s approved by the province it will still need a temporary commercial use permit which is issued by the municipality.
Jack Oviatt, who is on the board of directors for his son’s owned Daudet, tried to soothe concerns of the project with council and the public. For noise, one of the big concerns, he said the location is far enough away that it should not be a problem. The pit’s first phase is at the property’s southern-most area which is also a further distance than the landfill from Cable Car. Existing haul roads will also be used to manage dust and there will be no more trucks running on the roads with the pit than there is with today’s operations.
Cable Car resident John Pozsgay, also owner of John’s Contracting, in turn presented council with the letter of 131 signatures of Cable Car residents concerned with the project, saying that the impacts of traffic on the highway from the project should be a concern to anybody who uses Highway 37S.
It wasn’t all opposition though. A resident of Chinook Street said he’s not worried about noise from the project as his property is quite close to the landfill and he rarely has trouble with noise from there. The person also had confidence in the company itself to manage any issues.