Our neighbourhood just received a personal letter from Rich Coleman telling us, “If there is any risk identified to wells and drinking water, no gravel will be extracted from Brown Pit.” This is a thinly veiled attempt to stop our concern during the election run up. They go on to say that “a full and complete public process including extensive neighbourhood consultation will take place.”
There is no way to mine Brown Pit without damaging the very sensitive Hopington aquifer. As an aside, the aquifer has a much larger footprint than the government admits to.(It’s politically wise that Langley citizens don’t know how many of them are dependent on it). The percolation rate is so fast that anything spilled travels forever. The steep downgrade to the nearby Coglan Creek and Salmon River dictates that everything will end up in these waterways.
Well drillers tell us gravel mining will change pH and mineral content of the water. The drilling and mining process increases mineral concentration like arsenic.
The project will last 10 years or more. The likely plan is to dump refuse from Willoughby development in the hole and thereby contaminate whatever of it they haven’t ruined by that time.
Look at Stokes Pit if you want to foretell the future here. Contaminated fill, dead horses, dry wall, manure, and animal waste was used. A large area there now has unusable wells. Real estate is affected, farming operations are compromised.
If Rich Coleman’s letter is sincere he would publicly cancel any government plan to mine Brown Pit because every aspect of the mining will not endanger but damage our wells and drinking water.
As it stands it appears that Coleman and bully boy Falcon want to re-establish Langley as the “Brazil of the North”.
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