MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Eagle Valley property owners who are proposing an aggregate extraction operation plan to apply with Mountain View County to redesignate the land as well as amend the area structure plan.
Dylan Jones and his sister Taylor had previously introduced their intentions and presented a preliminary proposal to Mountain View County council earlier this year.
Later in March, some neighbouring landowners organized a couple of information sessions hosted at the Sundre Municipal Library with more than two dozen Eagle Valley landowners attending to express concerns ranging from the impact on the environment to water quality and wells running dry.
More recently, Dylan organized and participated in an open house on Tuesday, April 15 at the Eagle Hill Memorial Community Centre that he said was attended by approximately 50 people.
“Everything went fairly well for what we were anticipating,” he told the Albertan the following day.
“We’re looking to hear what people’s concerns are, and we’re hoping to be able to work through everything together,” he said.
“We’re definitely looking at working with the people to ensure that everyone’s taken care of properly.”
But even if they are granted the opportunity to take the next step, he added the project will ultimately still require the county’s approval.
Responding to some of the concerns that have been raised, he said they intend to drill monitoring wells on the property “so we can be monitoring ourselves and also allow it to be open to the public with notice to see these monitoring wells.
“We’re not here to cut corners. We’re here to do everything 100 per cent properly,” he said, also expressing an understanding about concerns people have with water wells potentially being tapped out.
“If I lost my water well, I would be extremely disappointed. And that’s not what we’re looking to do,” he said.
“We’re not looking at impeding anybody’s water or water wells by any means. And if by any chance we ever were to impede anybody’s water well, I would gladly – out of my own pocket – pay to have them a brand-new water well drilled.”
Dylan also said they’ve hired a professional firm to assist with the process including conducting studies.
“It’s very early stages,” he said.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, which we plan on to do. But we’re not looking at spending all of the money now if the county doesn’t give us the opportunity to redesignate the land and amend the area structure plan,” he elaborated.
“So a lot of questions, unfortunately we were unable to answer, just being as we’re not to that point where we can answer those questions.”
Dylan said there was among those who attended “a lot of support … that meant a lot to us; that was huge.”
There were also many questions, and they endeavoured to answer them as best they could based on what information is currently available, he said.
“There was a lot of positive input too; it was both ways,” he said, expressing appreciation for everyone who attended.
“That was the whole point, right? We need people to bring forward their concerns so we can make sure we address them properly moving forward. That was the whole purpose of this meeting.”
Asked what comes next, Dylan said they plan to fill out their applications for the redesignation as well as the amendment to the area structure plan.
“And then that will be getting submitted to the county and then go in front of council,” he said.
“They will have to do their vote to whether or not they allow us to continue to move forward.”
