Neal Norman, owner of Reg Norman Trucking in Dawson Creek, says he’s been having trouble renewing a gravel pit his company has operated since 1981.
It’s been 14 months since a renewal application was submitted, Norman told the Peace River Regional District at their Dec. 8 meeting, and. An application was also made to expand gravel pit operations on 7.67 hectares, and the site is located 20 kilometres west of Dawson Creek and 1.5 kilometres west of Highway 52 North.
“The renewal process has really got slow. It’s really tough, but for the people at the PRRD and the Agricultural Land Commission, over the past year on this pit, I have reclaimed everything except for the working area,” explained Norman, which he says amounts to half of the site.
Reclamation hasn’t gone farther than that because the site is still used as a pit base and for crushing gravel, he added. PRRD directors voted in support of the application, which will be forwarded to the Agricultural Land Commission.
Gravel from the site has been valuable to many, Norman said, supplying materials for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, forestry, oil and gas, and local municipalities.
The land is currently designated for agricultural use under the Agricultural Land Reserve, and zoning allows for gravel extraction and processing.
The Ministry of Agriculture provided comments to the PRRD’s planning department regarding the expansion application in a Nov. 28, 2023 letter.
“While the submitted ALC application provides a brief description of proposed reclamation intentions, the provided proposal does not include a detailed reclamation plan,” wrote the Ministry.
The gravel pit also shares a road with parcels actively being used for agriculture, explained the Ministry, suggesting the PRRD may want to check that the trucking company's gravel extraction operators are using “appropriate equipment hygiene protocols” to prevent the spread of invasive weeds or diseases between fields.
While the site is not currently used for agriculture, the Agricultural Land Commission places importance on reclamation to preserve land for future agricultural production.
“Those submitting proposals related to aggregate extraction should therefore be aware that failure to submit a reclamation plan may adversely affect the application,” states the ALC’s P-13 policy, with the Ministry including the reference in their letter.
You can read the ALR application here:
Attach - Application, PRRD File No. 23-008 ALR NFU by Tom Summer on Scribd
