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.