Lappe-area homeowners concerned with nighttime gravel pit crushing

Lorne Taylor was surprised to be woken up in the middle of the night late last week, to what he thought sounded like trains moving through his neighbourhood.

He said one of his neighbours even drove to the gates of the nearby pit, owned by Taranis Construction, to confirm the source of the noise.

"We have to have more of a working relationship with them. We're certainly living on a gravel pit, so the gravel trucks are not an issue," Taylor said.

Taylor said the pit has been causing noise and dust issues since 2013. However, there seemed to be a reprieve in night operations, when the province and gravel pit operators met in 2014 to discuss noise issues.

He said when the crusher was once again being operated throughout the night, he wrote MPP Michael Gravelle, who then sent a letter to Taranis Construction.  Since then, Taylor said, the crusher has not operated after dark.

"We worked over the years with our local MPPs and we were able to get the Aggregate Resources Act in, and we thought that we would have more rules to go by. In that way, we'd be able to have hours of operations, and I thought there was an understanding that there would be no noise at night."

"We want to some sort of working arrangement here," Taylor said, noting the pit is there to stay. The creation of the pit has led to legal battles between camp owners in the area, and the contractor.

Taylor said in 2013, he was speaking to one of the owners of Taranis, who told him "to get used to it."

"We're not used to it. We are going to continue."

Taranis Contracting did not respond to CBC's request for comment.