Mountain View County council has instructed administration to undertake a public information and consultation process, including an open house next week, regarding proposed tree clearing and testing at the Winchell gravel pit southwest of Cremona.
The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The county has received approval from the province to test around the existing county gravel extraction operation at the site, located on Twp. Rd. 290 southwest of the intersection of Rge. Rd. 53, council heard.
“The results of this testing will be submitted to the province of Alberta to determine if a future pit expansion is granted,” administration said in a briefing note to council.
The county has operated the pit since 1965, utilizing more than 1 million tonnes of gravel from the site since that time. The approval of development on Crown land falls under provincial jurisdiction.
“In the last five years, nearly 25 per cent of gravel usage county-wide has been from this gravel pit. Material from the pit has been used to re-gravel roads, repair roads, chip seal hard surface roads and pave roads within the county,” the briefing note states.
“The county is planning to expand the surface lease (at the site) to allow the county to access gravel long into the future. Prior to any expansion the province requires that testing be done to prove the quality and quantity of the gravel. In order to accommodate the testing, some logging needs to occur to clear access for equipment.”
The proposed log clearing is planned to occur in 2019 prior to road bans in March.
“The areas to be logged are within the existing lease that the county has including the pathways for equipment access for testing. No other logging is planned at this time.
“The logging techniques will be the most up to date in the industry and the area will be left to the specifications of the grazing lease holder. The haul route for the logs will be to head north to Rge. Rd. 53, east on Highway 579 and then south to Highway 22 to Cochrane.”
The open house has been scheduled for Jan. 16 in the Chinook Creative Arts Building in Water Valley. The event runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., with a presentation at 7 p.m.
