what’s happening with the scott pit fight?

Thank you to everyone who attended the Heidelberg open house last month and/or sent them emails voicing your objections and concerns. The strong attendance and the broad demonstration of opposition to the Scott Pit at the open house sends an important message to Heidelberg and the NRCB.

Coalition steering committee members received many questions from attendees at the open house. The rest of this email attempts to answer these questions.

Where are we in the process?

Heidelberg is completing the technical studies needed to support its application to the NRCB. Exactly when Heidelberg will complete this stage is not known, but the expectation is that it will file its formal application in the fall. As soon as we hear anything more definite, we will be sure to let you know.

What happens next?

Once the NRCB receives Heidelberg’s formal application, it reviews the application for completeness. When the NRCB concludes the application is complete, the NRCB schedules a public hearing. Before the formal public hearing occurs, if needed, the NRCB schedules a pre-hearing conference where the Coalition will provide input on technical review timelines and request intervenor funding. The NRCB’s public hearing is a quasi-judicial hearing where Heidelberg, the Coalition, and any other intervenors will present their evidence in support or opposition to the application. At the close of the public hearing, the NRCB has 4 months (80 business days) to issue its decision on whether the project is in the public interest.

What is the Coalition working on?

The steering committee is focusing on three workstreams currently:

Legal: We have retained an experienced and respected regulatory lawyer, Richard Secord of Ackroyd LLP, to represent the Coalition before and during the NRCB public hearing. Richard has appeared in over 125 energy, utility and environmental hearings, including with the NRCB.

Technical: We are engaging independent experts in the areas of hydrogeology, surface water, air quality and health impacts, noise, economics, and cumulative effects. These experts will technically review the studies submitted by Heidelberg in support of their application. Our independent experts may also be called upon to testify on behalf of the Bearspaw Community Coalition at the public hearing.

As we noted in an earlier email, the Coalition submitted a detailed information request to the company in May. You can find it here, and it has also been posted on the NRCB website.

Community Engagement: We are working hard to generate awareness within the community, arrange media coverage of the issue through the Calgary Herald and CTV News. We are also continuing to reach out to individuals in the community to obtain consent forms. These are critical for demonstrating the Coalition’s level of support prior to the public hearing. We have signed consent forms from over 300 households and counting!

What are donations being used for?

Funding is needed primarily for the independent technical experts whose work will form the basis of our submission to NRCB. These requirements are considerable given the wide range of technical disciplines, the level of detail required from their analysis, and the need for the experts to provide testimony at the public hearing. The Coalition is also incurring costs for legal services, advocacy work, communications, and research.

To prepare for the pre-hearing conference, we expect to need more than $150,000 to cover retainers and required preliminary work for at least seven technical experts.

We will apply for intervener funding at the pre-hearing conference but the amount that the NRCB will allocate to the Coalition is not known and is not likely to fully cover the costs to most effectively present the community’s evidence at the public hearing.

To date, Bearspaw residents have donated $51,400 (thank you contributors!). This provides a solid start to move forward with the technical work needed. Additional donations can be made through secure e-transfer to noscottpit@gmail.com. The steering committee is committed to transparency and will provide quarterly financial reports to those funding the Coalition’s work. The Coalition steering committee members are all volunteering innumerable hours with no compensation.

What can I do? How can I get involved and support the Coalition?

The most important thing you can do is share this information with your neighbours. There are still many people who are unaware of the threat Heidelberg poses to our beloved community. Encourage them to sign up to our mailing list using the form on our website or by emailing us directly at noscottpit@gmail.com.

As we emphasized above, if you haven’t already done so, please send a secure e-transfer to noscottpit@gmail.com. If you prefer to donate by cheque, contact us and we’ll arrange details.

What if I have more questions?

We are hosting a Community Information Session at the Bearspaw Lifestyle Centre on September 15th. Be sure to save the date and attend. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible then. In the interim, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please let us know.

As a closing note, we want to let everyone know that as the community’s fight against the Scott pit is gaining momentum, we are moving to a more robust system for distributing our email updates. We will now be sending the Coalition updates from our new email address – info@noscottpit.com. On a going forward basis, we will be maintaining and monitoring both this new email as well as our original email – noscottpit@gmail.com. Emails sent to either email address will be responded to as quickly as possible.