NDP MLA Michael Sather wants the Liberal government to step in and preserve Sheridan Hill, and area residents are petitioning for the same.

Lafarge Canada wants to blow up part of the hill – an island before Dutch settlers built dikes – and sell off the rubble to nearby municipalities to build roads. Expanding Pitt River Quarries by 15 hectares would extend its life another 10 to 15 years. Expansion would also move the mine to within 15 metres of the eastern property boundary – 100 metres from the nearest houses on Sheridan Hill.

There are a handful of houses on Sheridan Hill, most built in the 1980s and some already that close to the mine, which has been operating along the banks of the Pitt River since the 1960s.

Sather claims that in recent years the mine has grown so much that 2008 satellite photos of it submitted to Pitt Meadows council are no longer accurate.

A municipality cannot regulate mining operations, which are provincial jurisdiction. The province evaluates each mining application individually, but does allow municipalities to submit comments.

Sather claims the provincial government is conveniently hiding behind bureaucrats and wants it to override any decision to blast further into Sheridan Hill.

Plans are to tier part of the expansion, which the Pitt Polder Preservation Society fears will pave the way for more residential development in the area.

The polder society formed in 1997 to fight against proposed residential expansion around the Swan-e-set golf courses, and won a court case to quash rezoning bylaws that would have allowed such.

The proposed excavation would be seen from Harris, McNeil and Richardson roads. But Lafarge assures that a buffer of trees will be kept to block the view and that expansion will not encroach further into the Sheridan Hill subdivision.

Concerns about the proposal are largely aesthetic, although fears exist about the displacement of bears, deer, owls, eagles and sandhill cranes.

And Katzie lore is that a treasure is buried within the hill.

No doubt, the Pitt Polder is as picturesque as any place on earth. But gravel is needed, as it was for the new Pitt River Bridge. It has to come from somewhere. Why not an existing mine? Having it close by or shipping it by barge also means fewer trucks on our roads.

Mining has been ongoing in the polder, out of sight if not out of mind, for almost 50 years.

There’s a reason mining decisions are supposed to be free from political interference.

– The News