| Some people just won’t quit. Like the Abraham Glacier Wellness Resort developers and, thankfully, the defenders seeking to ensure the developers’ proposal to build a resort near the environmentally friendly Bighorn wildland is again rejected on appeal, after a local municipality turned it down in late March.
The upscale resort developers continue to covet two square kilometres of rare montane habitat on the Rocky Mountains’ eastern slopes near Rocky Mountain House. Although the developer isn’t letting the initial rejection stop it, Martha Kostuch, president of ALERT (Alberta League for Environmentally Responsible Development), which opposes the proposal, says she’s confident the development will never come to fruition.
"It won’t happen," she assured ALERT members at their April 20th meeting. "They can’t meet existing regulations and bylaws."
Alan Ernst, participating in ALERT and the proprietor of Canada’s only true eco-lodge, Aurum Lodge, situated next door to the proposed site, is concerned the developers aren’t ready to quit and go away quietly.
"If a developer, in his development permit application, ignores basic regulations regarding building heights, road grades, setbacks from unstable escarpments and sewage treatment facilities, it scares me to think what that developer will do once he has the development permit approved."
Alberta Wilderness Association’s Conservation Biologist Lara Smandych states: "In no way is the resort compatible with the area’s natural value. If it does go ahead, an ecological travesty will have occurred, leaving nothing more than a wilderness eyesore."
Dan McCargar, spokesperson for a numbered Alberta company that is behind the proposal, could not be reached for comment, but in his submission to the municipality, he said the project would be environmentally sound and bring economic benefits to the region.
Norm McCallum, the Band Administrator for the nearby Bighorn Reserve, however, rejects the idea that the resort will be an economic boon for the area’s First Nations.
"I was told we could sell our beads, do janitorial work and drive the employee transportation bus," McCallum says.
Margaret Coutts, representing Red Deer River Naturalists and Federation of Alberta Naturalists participating in ALERT’s struggle, points out, "The environmental impact spreads much further than two square kilometres. Clearing a large area for Abraham Glacier Wellness Resort will fragment and damage area ecology.
"A portion of the Bighorn feeds Red Deer River’s watershed."
The proposal would see the resort dump sewage into Abraham Lake, after a year in a holding tank, another aspect of the resort environmentalists oppose.
"Even if Abraham Glacier Wellness Resort holds biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste in their lagoon for one year, sewage should never be deposited in surface water," Ernst pointed out. "People downstream have to drink that water. I’m concerned about water safety. People need to know what’s happening to their drinking water."
Together Ernst and McCallum estimate the resort could bring in 225,000 guests a year.
"That’s a lot of trips to the toilet," McCallum protests. "That can’t be ignored so close to the Kootenay Plains." |
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