The Ministry of Forests says it will re-open community feedback for Borrow Enterprises’s application to use Crown land for a quarry, after the government’s technical assessment lagged behind the company’s advertising and staking notices.
Meanwhile, Clearwater resident Peter Louwerse hopes Borrow Enterprises will find another location, because he believes there are better locations to establish a quarry which will not disrupt the recreational activities that people enjoy during the summer.
“We don’t actually want to impede Borrow, but really he should take the operation somewhere else,” Louwerse said. “We don’t want it to become a big issue to divide the town, we just want to say it’s not appropriate and let’s find another area… Nobody wants to get rid of Borrow, he is doing a good job.”
The 6.3 hectare area is located along Clearwater River Road, near Wells Gray Park. The staking notice was signed by Borrow Enterprises owner Doug Borrow last August. Borrow told the Clearwater Times the project will move forward at the current location, but declined to comment any further on his reasons for selecting the site.
The quarry site is an access point to trails and the river for horseback riders and kayakers, along with mountain bikers and fishers. These summer activities could be disrupted for tourists and locals alike, Louwerse said.
“It is also one of the few areas in the town where you can walk your dog and take it off the leash. Basically if you start getting big gravel trucks up and down that road this summer, there will be some people who are very upset.”
Louwerse did not realize that Borrow Enterprises had applied to establish a quarry for lava-rock extraction on Crown land along Clearwater River Road until he stumbled across a staking notice in December while on his skis. He followed up with the ministry to ask about providing comments for the ministry to consider when assessing the Crown Land application.
In correspondence shared with the Clearwater Times the government informed Louwerse that the application’s timeline for community comments ran from June until September through the Applications Comments and Reason for Decision portal. Louwerse was concerned the community was not sufficiently informed about the application to allow for comments during the allocated window.
The government told Louwerse there was still time for residents to submit feedback or questions to authorizations officer Rae Dunphy at the ministry of forests.
The ministry also gave the Clearwater Times a statement about the community comment process. Advertising an application to use Crown land and staking land are standard requirements, which Borrow Enterprises did.
However, there is occasionally a time lag between an applicant’s staking and advertising, and the actual start of the application’s technical assessment, the ministry noted.
“As of this time, the application has been accepted by FrontCounter BC and is now awaiting a technical review by Crown lands. No decision has been made to date.”
In this case, the ministry will ask Borrow Enterprises to advertise and stake, and the Applications Comments and Reason for Decision portal will be re-opened to ensure community members have an opportunity for comment, the ministry said.
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