Whiskey Jack has applied for a new permit to operate a rock crushing plant at their site in Sparwood.
The golf resort community, currently under construction, applied to the District of Sparwood for the permit to operate the plant and it was approved at a council meeting last week. Although the company has been operating a plant for the last few years, they had not been allowed to use materials off site before.
The new permit allows them to crush additional material to use on municipal roads, such as the Corbin Loop Bridge construction.
“The new permit legitimises the use of material off site, but limits it,” said Danny Dwyer, Director of Planning and Engineering Services. “As well as providing material for the Corbin Loop Bridge, the materials can also be used for municipal works and to provide gravel.”
He said not more than 1,500 cubic metres may be removed from the Whiskey Jack site and sold or traded within one calendar year. He also said the plant can only operate between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Whiskey Jack are also required to cover the trucks that are transporting the materials to limit the dust created, and can only be moved along roads that are watered or treated for the same reason.
Notices were sent to homeowners and tenants within 60m of the site, but council only received one response, from a resident in Lodgepole Trailer Court. In a letter to council, the resident said, “The noise will be unbearable. Already I find the noise throughout the summer a problem.
“Sleeping for nightshift is impossible even with earplugs in, which I should not have to wear. This is not an industrial area, this is town limits.”
But Cllr. McKie pointed out that the resident seems to have a problem with Whiskey Jack as a whole, not just with the rock crushing plant.