West Springs gravel pit 'now a health and safety issue,' Calgary councillor says

A city councillor plans to tour the area around a southwest gravel pit on Tuesday after months of complaints from residents in his ward about noise and dust from its operations.

"I think ultimately enough's enough," Coun. Jeff Davison said.

"It's abundantly clear that this is now a health and safety issue."

The pit was recently shut down for a few days because of concerns about dust blowing into the nearby community of West Springs.

Alberta Transportation has said the pit — where gravel will be extracted for the next several years as part of the construction of the southwest ring road — can be operated safely and within existing rules.

The province said the contractor, KGL Constructors, is following guidelines set by Alberta Health, which allow total suspended particulate matter of 100 micrograms per cubic metre over 24 hours.

The gravel pit was shut down on Dec. 9 and Dec. 10 after dust levels exceeded that threshold. Water sprinklers were also put in place to suppress the dust coming off the gravel stockpiles and tarps were placed over the crusher to keep the dust contained.

Davison said he wants to take a look for himself at the operation, as he doesn't think residents are asking for anything unrealistic.

"What they have asked is that we move some of the operations and I think that's a reasonable request to be made," he said.

"I believe the monitoring stations that they have — health quality monitoring — they're not in the appropriate locations and they're not being transparent with what those monitoring stations are reporting," he said.

Davison has sent a letter to the provincial government, asking for those changes to the gravel pit's operations.