Aggregate Mining - Fraser Valley

This item was submitted by Tony Rees who lives in Lake Errock, a small community in the Fraser Valley which lies across the Lougheed highway from an aggregate mine which the government wants to expand and permit processing including asphalt production.

Tony writes: They have been working on a proposal which will designate "Green" areas which ironically are planned for exploitation with no regard to environmental concerns. There are already issues about logging in the area, but this plan is more destructive than anything we have faced before. The Minister responsible for Energy, Mining and Petroleum Resources is our local MLA Randy Hawes. He and the mining companies want unfettered access and to avoid community input, beyond one poorly publicized meeting on October 7th. They will hold three other meetings in other districts. and that is it. They hope to push it through quickly and quietly.

The main purpose of the Aggregate Pilot Project, it seems, is to silence community opposition. Our local representative for the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) tells us that Mr Hawes and his cronies might be open to talking AFTER they ram this Pilot Project through! There is no reason to think that, if they won't listen now, that they will listen to us after they have what they want! Lake Errock and the surrounding wetlands will be seriously affected this expansion. Hence we want to slow this process down, this area needs a serious environmental assessment especially with regard to water issues related to the watershed, Lake Errock, Harrison Bay and the neighbouring wetlands. It seems to be the same philosophy from the Campbell Liberals as we all saw with the HST - bring it in with little notice and have it a done deal before the opposition can get organized.

Two pertinent documents are attached below. A Google map and a Google Earth map of the area are shown above.

Tony became involved after the mine was operating outside of their regular hours and had lines of trucks parked on the highway late into the night. On September 9th, 2010, he contacted Randy Hawes who called back within a day, but told Tony he knew neither where Lake Errock was, nor where any mines were located. Subsequently a mining inspector, Ed Taje, phoned from the Ministry in Victoria. Taje did say the company had been operating outside of their hours and had been told not to do it again. He confirmed that the mine was asking to expand. Neither Mr Hawes nor Mr Taje mentioned the Aggregate Pilot Project or the upcoming meeting. Further the government chose to notify residents of the meeting by putting an ad in a local paper in Mission, not through a mail out to all residents.

Putting all this together, it is Tony's opinion that there is a deliberate plan to push this "pilot project" through, avoiding the inevitable confrontation such a drastic plan would generate, and they hope this will forever silence opposition to unrestrained mining for aggregate in this area. This "pilot" method will then be repeated elsewhere.

The community is mobilizing and they need help. If you want to get involved, contact Tony Rees, 604 682 7742

Further information can be found through the local environmental group Area C Environmental Stewards (ACES) at http://areacenvironmentalstewards.com/. Information about this issue is found at http://areacenvironmentalstewards.com/community-events/.

File: 

FVRD_AggregatePilotProject_FinalRecommendations.pdf

FVRD_Aggregate Pilot Project_Council of Councils Meeting Summary Notes.pdf