The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is urging the province to place a dozen conditions on Lafarge Canada's gravel mine operation near Egmont if the company is granted a permit to allow drilling and blasting on the site.
Lafarge has applied to the provincial Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources to amend its permit at Earle Creek to allow quarry mining within the footprint of the current mine site, situated about 2.5 km from Egmont.
Estimating that 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of blasted material per year are needed to meet its needs, the company plans to blast once a day until the quarry production is established, when it would start blasting two to three days per week, SCRD planner Teresa Fortin said in her report for the June 20 planning and development committee meeting.
"The applicant is offering to control the noise by directing the blast overpressure away from Egmont; not blasting when there is a temperature inversion or low solid cloud cover; and keeping below the 120-decibel level established by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources," Fortin said.
Objecting to the application, resident Kal Helyar said the original mining permit for the site was issued in 1975 to Argus Mining, with Lafarge taking over in 1983.
When the original permit was granted, Helyar wrote in his submission to the board, "Egmont was a small fishing and logging town and the extra employment was welcomed by the residents. Over time the operation has grown drastically, and the nature of the town has changed dramatically. The primary employment in the area is through tourism and only one full-time staff member of Lafarge Earle Creek resides in Egmont."
Helyar, who operates Porpoise Bay Charters, urged the SCRD board to ask the province to place noise and visual caveats on the operation, "so that the town has a future as both a resource base and a tourism destination."
He also asked for the mine's hours of operation on the weekend to be reduced.
In its referral to the province, the board recommended the company consult with the Sechelt Nation, BC Parks, the Egmont community, adjacent property owners, and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The board also recommended the province order the company to construct and maintain a visual and sound barrier around the quarry site and impose hours of operation that are consistent with the SCRD noise bylaw.
The recommendations also include a request to have the applicant obtain an independent assessment to measure and record baseline noise levels, to monitor noise levels at different times of the day and to work toward lowering noise levels over time.
At the June 20 meeting, a Lafarge representative said the company had undertaken an independent noise study on the site that found levels were below the accepted minimum set by the province.
