Appeal Accepted!!!

On March 16, 2011, the Smoky Lake County Subdivision and Development Appeal Board accepted our Appeal of the earlier Development Authority decision to allow gravel mining in River Lot 2 of Victoria Settlement. We sincerely thank the members of the Development Appeal Board for this wise decision, and are very grateful to the scores of people who wrote letters and e-mails in support of our Appeal. We now need to focus on strengthening County By-Laws to ensure that another permit to allow gravel mining in the historically signficant Victoria Settlement valley will not be approved in the future.

On May 23, 2009, Premier Ed Stelmach (who grew up nearby), Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Gene Zwozdesky, and County Reeve Cory Ollikka congratulated the individuals and groups who had spent years getting National Historic Site designation for Victoria Settlement.

Less than two years later, the County of Smoky Lake has approved gravel mining within the Historic Site, less than a kilometre from the historic buildings and only metres from an historic walking trail.

A Gravel Pit in River Lot 2?!!!

In 2008, the County of Smoky Lake gave A.B.S. a permit to mine gravel on River Lot 2 which it had purchased earlier. Up to 270,000 tonnes of gravel would be removed over a four-year period. Only one 4 acre site would be mined at any one time (environmental impact assessments are not required for sites under 5 acres!). Local residents and other supporters of Victoria Settlement appealed the decision, and it was overturned by an Appeal Board. In January, 2011, the County of Smoky Lake again gave A.B.S. Trucking a permit to mine gravel on the same site, despite the many excellent reasons its own Appeal Board gave three years earlier for not allowing gravel mining in Victoria Settlement.



What's Wrong With This Plan?

Gravel mining will ruin a beautiful historic site, a valley of highly unique “river lots” with a beautiful walking trail dating back to the 1880s. It will disturb a prairie First Nations meeting place that dates back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It will disrupt wildlife in a diverse ecosystem. It will interfere with the quality of life and farming operations of adjacent landowners. It will potentially erode a very fragile river-bank that could easily collapse if the gravel pit filled with water from spring run-off. A walking trail that has existed since at least 1884 would disappear forever.

In the 1880s, Victoria Settlement was surveyed into “river lots” so that every family would have access to the “highway," the North Saskatchewan River.

 Russell, Ralph C. 1971. Carlton Trail. Saskatoon: Prairie Books.

Hurt, Leslie J. 1979. The Victoria Settlement 1862-1922. Alberta Culture Historic Sites Service, Occasional Paper no. 7, p. 90.

Geiger, John Grigsby. 1996. “River Lot Three: Settlement Life on the North Saskatchewan.” Alberta History, 44(1): 15-25. 

What can you do to save Victoria Settlement?

Send a letter stating that you oppose gravel mining in River Lot 2 in Victoria Settlement to the:

Subdivision and Development Appeal Board
Smoky Lake County Office
4612 McDougall Drive
Box 310, Smoky Lake, AB         T0A 3C0

Written submissions to the Appeal Board must be received by March 8, 2011; the Board will be hearing the appeal on March 11, 2011.

Write, phone, or e-mail the following County and Provincial officials and tell them that the Victoria Settlement Valley should be preserved and that gravel mining in a National Historic District and Provincial Historic Site should never be allowed.

Premier Ed Stelmach, Office of the Premier
Room 307, Legislature Building, 10800 - 97th Avenue, Edmonton, AB., T5K 2B7
Phone: (780) 427 -2251  Fax: (780) 427-1349             

Email: premier@gov.ab.ca

Honourable Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs
#423 Legislature Building, 10800-97 Avenue Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
Tel: (780) 427-3744  Fax: (780) 422-9550                        

Email: Minister.MA@gov.ab.ca

Honorable Rob Renner, Minister of the Environment
#425 Legislature Building, 10800-97 Avenue Edmonton, AB  T5K 2B6
Tel:  (780) 427-2391  Fax:  (780) 422-6259            

Email:  rob.renner@assembly.ab.ca

Honourable Jeff Johnson
MLA, Athabasca-Redwater
4807 - 50 Street Athabasca, AB T9S 1C8
Tel: (780) 675-3232 Fax: (780) 675-2396                       

Email: Athabasca.redwater@assembly.ab.ca

Honourable Lindsay Blackett
Minister of Culture and Community Spirit
418 Legislature Building, 10800 97 Avenue, Edmonton, AB, T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 422-3559  

E-mail: calgary.northwest@assembly.ab.ca /  Ccs.minister@ab.ca

Honourable Mel Knight, Minister, Sustainable Resource Development
 #404 Legislature Building, 10800-97 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 415-4815  Fax: (780) 415-4818
E-mail: grandeprairie.smoky@assembly.ab.ca /   SRD.PLAR@gov.ab.ca

Dareld Cholak, Reeve, Smoky Lake County
Box 39 Spedden, Alberta
Ph:(780) 650-5001   Fax:(780) 636-2223
E-mail: dcholak@smokylakecounty.ab.ca

Councillor Rick Cherniwchan, Smoky Lake County / Municipal Planning Commission
 Box 677 Smoky Lake, Alberta
 Ph:(780) 656-0150E
E-mail:  rcherniwchan@smokylakecounty.ab.ca

Councillor Lori Danyluk, Smoky Lake County / Municipal Planning Commission
Box 34 Smoky Lake, Alberta
Ph:(780) 650-5400
E-mail: ldanyluk@smokylakecounty.ab.ca

Media Responses

Sounds of a Gravel Mine and Sounds of a Gravel Truck

Snapshot of noise and worker exposures in sand and gravel operations

Dangerous Decibels