Burnco Rock Products has revised some of its plans for a proposed aggregate mine at McNab Creek in Howe Sound.
Among the changes, sent out in a memo last month to referral agencies, the size of the processing area has increased from 25,200 square metres to 40,785 square metres and the loading dock has been moved 125 metres to the east, bringing it closer to the strata development in the area.
The decision to increase the processing area footprint was “due entirely” to detailed engineering designs that have been completed, Burnco regional manager Derek Holmes said Wednesday.
The processing area would include a crushing plant, wash plant and associated network of conveyers for moving material, and a larger footprint was required so that the equipment could perform properly, Holmes said.
The loading dock was moved “to accommodate the process engineering and design and to enable the jetty to be located in sufficiently deep water,” he said.
Another change scales back the maximum amount of aggregate that would be mined annually from 1.6 million tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes.
The average amount is unchanged at one million tonnes per year.
The lifespan of the operation has also been set at 16 years, a change from the previous estimate of 15 to 20 years.
The key revisions were pointed out by Gibsons Coun. Dan Bouman during to his report to council on Sept. 2.
Burnco, he said, “must have a top-of-the-line public communications expert lined up. But they will be reporting to the public on how they intend to resolve all the issues of environmental impact. In the near future we’ll all get a chance to respond to that.”
Holmes said the changes would all be reflected in the project’s environmental assessment.
“These are all incorporated into the environmental impact statement and we’re modeling our noise, dust and visual impacts based on these refinements,” he said.
Burnco will submit the full environmental assessment application in four to six weeks, and after a government review the document will go out to the public for consultation, which will include open houses, he said.
