Twenty concerned south Aldergrove residents met Wednesday night to plan how to fight a proposed fish farm in their neighbourhood that would be financed by gravel extraction.

The neighbourhood meeting also included Langley Township mayor Rick Green, Township engineering director Clive Roberts and a couple who led a successful fight against the re-opening of Brown's Pit, Nick Costantino and Karen Winthers.

Ray and Elaine Halvorson plan to construct the trout farm on their property, 18 acres at 753 - 264 Street. The property has previously been used for poultry farming, but these buildings collapsed since a marijuana grow-op was shut down by RCMP several years ago.

Halvorsons' consultant, Brent Loates, has drawn up plans for four large trout ponds as well as a wetlands area to "naturally" treat the water for recycling in the ponds. The ponds and wetlands would be lined with clay to prevent the pond water from entering the aquifer.

The plan has received approval in principle from the Agricultural Land Commission if several requirements are met. These include authorization from the aquaculture development branch of the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, approval from the provincial Ministry of the Environment and an endorsement from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Halvorsons are also required to host a public information meeting, and will have to post performance bonds with the government should it proceed.

The residents who spoke up Wednesday are dead set against the plan, however.

Resident Michelle Nicholls, who organized the meeting, said she found out about the proposal in February and was immediately concerned about the potential effects on neighbours’ water supplies.

Halvorson’s property is elevated above the neighbouring ones to the south of it, which she said could cause environmental contaminants from a fish farm to affect nearby wells.

Nicholls said the gravel removal laid out in the plan is excessive, which could also impact neighbouring wells. According to her calculations, only 64,000 cubic metres of gravel would need to be removed to make way for the ponds outlined in the fish farm proposal. Halvorson’s proposal calls for the removal of 147,000 cubic metres of gravel.

“This confirms to me that his motive is clearly about gravel sales and not about fish,” Nicholls said.

Nicholls said the residents plan to do all they can to block construction of the fish farm.

“I’m going to fight until I get the answer that I want,” Nicholls said. “We must stop this now.”

Patti Gauvreau, who lives next door to Halvorson, said the fish farm proposal is flawed.

“Anyone in their right mind has to realize it’s impossible,” she said. “You can’t do it.”

She said she’s particularly concerned with the amount of gravel being excavated.

“We have to stop this,” she said. “I don’t want to live next door to a gravel pit.”

Mayor Green said he doesn’t like the gravel extraction proposal either. He promised that Township council would do everything in their power to help the residents.

“We will fight as long as we can fight and we will put every roadblock in the way that we can put in the way,” he said. “My position is no secret. My position is if it’s wrong, it’s wrong, regardless of what the rules are.”

Nicholls also read out a letter from councillor Charlie Fox, stating his "firm" opposition to the proposal due to the "unproven technology of the project... it has no history or track record."

Mayor Green said one of his primary concerns is that not enough research has been done to ensure that neighbours’ water supplies won’t be permanently affected by the fish farm.

“Nobody’s going to come out and say ‘We guarantee there won’t be problems,’” he said. “The science is unproven.”

Mayor Green, who made groundwater concerns one of his main issues in his recent election campaign, said proposed developments such as this fish farm have to be careful that they won’t impact their neighbours’ water supplies.

“To me, it comes back to making a decision that will be irreparable,” he said. “If you lose your water quality, that’s priceless.”

Mayor Green said he and the Township council don’t have the power to stop the farm on their own, which he said is solely up to the ALC or one of the other bodies that has to provide approval. He said it can be difficult to raise those bodies’ awareness of the local issues at stake, though, citing a Metro Vancouver water committee meeting where he mentioned that many Langley residents were on well water.

“They’d never heard of such a thing,” he said. “They thought all of us are on GVRD water.”

Green said fellow committee member Derek Corrigan, the mayor of Burnaby, hadn’t heard of aquifiers before he mentioned them at a meeting.

“He said, ‘Rick, what are these aquifiers? I don’t even know how to spell it!’”

Green said he’s committed to doing what he can to stop the proposal.

“I can’t promise that we will win this fight,” he said. “I can promise that we will put up a hell of a fight.”

Costantino and Winthers said residents should undertake testing of their wells now to establish quality and quantity so that a baseline is known. This documented information can be used in court if the proposal goes ahead and there is a negative impact on the groundwater.

This approach was used by Costantino and Winthers and their neighbours in their successful campaign against the Brown's Pit.

The Brown's Pit opponents were also prepared to hire hydrogeological surveyors to examine the potential risks to the Hopington aquifer, but the province had already hired a firm to do this work and their findings caused the province to withdraw the gravel extraction plans for Brown's Pit earlier this year.

"It's worth the expense because if you don't have this data you won't have a legal leg to stand on," said Winthers.

Resident Janice Hagedorn said her well likely wouldn’t be affected initially as her property is further away, but she’s still very concerned.

“It still affects us,” she said. “If the wells start to go dry like our neighbours are, it affects our property values too.”

Hagedorn said she's been told by hydrogeological experts that the proposed clay lining would not be sufficient to prevent pond water from leaching into the groundwater. She said the fish farm should be stopped due to its potential impact on its neighbours.

“When it affects everyone in the neighbourhood, I’m sorry, it just doesn’t work.”

-By ANDREW BUCHOLTZ and KURT LANGMANN