THUNDER BAY — The company trying to open a new gravel pit on private property in Gorham Township says it will do whatever it can to mitigate the concerns of area residents.
Lempiala Sand & Gravel, owned by Bruno's Contracting, wants to haul aggregate from a site near Trout Lake to its processing facility on Dog Lake Road.
The Lakehead Rural Planning Board approved a zoning by-law for the property two years ago.
Last week, however, Ontario's Local Planning Appeal Tribunal quashed the by-law on appeal from the Trout Lake Campers Association and other residents.
The tribunal ruled that the planning board is required to take social and environmental considerations into account, not just planning documents that support aggregate extraction.
Facing the prospect of a new application process, Bruno's spokesperson Silvio Di Gregorio said "Although we're not happy with the outcome, we understand where the decision came from. We will do some more studies, and we'll take it from there."
Di Gregorio said opening the gravel pit is essential because there are limited remaining sources of concrete aggregate.
"We're the only supplier of concrete aggregates for the region, and we only have two or three years supply left in our other sources," he told Tbnewswatch.
He said the company operates at least a dozen gravel pits in the area, but the aggregates – the stone and the sand – aren't necessarily suitable for making concrete.
"It's quite different from what you need for asphalt and other types of aggregates," Di Gregorio said.
"We don't have a choice. I wish we had somewhere else that we could go, but we don't decide where Mother Nature is going to deposit the quality of gravel that we need for concrete aggregate. It's all in that area between there and Dog Lake."
Without a local supply, Di Gregorio said, material would have to be brought in by boat from Manitoulin Island, adding significantly to costs for customers that include all three levels of government, "so it's the taxpayer that is actually bearing the cost of it."
He said Bruno's has looked at "every possible way" to remove material from the Trout Lake site while limiting the disruption to its neighbours, but if there's more that can be done, the company will continue to work with residents of the area.
"Whatever more mitigating factors we can take into consideration, we're prepared to do that," Di Gregorio said.
Tbnewswatch asked Karen Peterson, president of the Trout Lake Campers Association, if she believes it's possible to find a solution that will satisfy the residents.
Peterson replied "It's not about whatever it takes. It's about ensuring the wise use of resources that are compatible with the pre-existing development."
Two other new gravel pits in the Trout Lake, One Island Lake and Hawkeye Lake vicinity are in the planning stages and currently going through the regulatory process.
Bruno's, and Milne Aggregates, have applied to operate pits on Crown land.
Mary Anne Comuzzi, a residents' spokesperson at Hawkeye Lake, has spoken out against the developments.
"We already have 37 gravel pits in the Lappe area...If you ever did a Google map in our area, it looks like a bomb went off," Comuzzi said in an interview earlier this year.
