Gravel removal from Chilliwack-Vedder River put on hold

I'll admit I know little about this particular gravel site but as a general observation it boggles my mind to think that given today's serious conservation concerns around salmon, steelhead and sturgeon that any potentially significant spawning/rearing/habitat along the Fraser would be allowed to be excavated for gravel. I remember a few years back speaking with the director of the sturgeon conservation society about a gravel extraction proposed project that was in 1 of the 2 most important known sturgeon spawning locations on the Fraser. She literally could not think of a worse place to extract gravel from a sturgeon's perspective yet this project was (at the time) green-lighted in part b/c it had FN backing. All this talk about re-vamping the environmental assessments better start happening sooner than later as there are currently far too many prime habitats being destroyed and once destroyed they take a long, long time to come back.
 
It has always been about the money. Nice clean construction aggregate that does not have to be hauled far for building Vancouver office towers and sidewalks. Why would the developers want to loose a tiny percent of their profits to save some stupid Salmon, Steelhead or Trout.
 
I always thought that watershed-rounded rocks/cobble/sand were subprime for building materials - esp. concrete. Seems sketchy to me - the market for river aggregates...
 
I always thought that watershed-rounded rocks/cobble/sand were subprime for building materials - esp. concrete. Seems sketchy to me - the market for river aggregates...

Okay so here is the deal AA, Washed sand is pivotal in concrete and asphalt production. In concrete you need to have some round rocks in your mix design so it pumps easier. In asphalt production it helps create air voids (sand bump) and with work ability. In asphalt if your mix is 100% made of fractured rocks its hard to compact in the field. Your right though fractured rocks (freshly fractured faces) create an interlocking system that give the structure its strength.

The reason why the exacted river rock is not used in asphalt and concrete material is that it typically has a high concentration of deleterious materials (mainly small pieces of wood). Even if you put them through a screen with a blower on it there still ends up being to much wood in it.

So getting back to Rockfish point is yes their is a shortage of good clean sand in the lower main land that does end up driving up the price of all the sand/gravel products. They typical do more extraction in years when gravel prices are higher and this is not limited to the C/V this is done in the name of "Fraser River flood protection."

Its a joke and its something DFO has been fighting against for a long time will little to no success. They also do it along the Fraser in sturgeon spawning grounds as well.

https://www.vancouverobserver.com/n...ng-endangering-last-truly-wild-sturgeon-world
 
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