Pickets at Pittman

By 250 News

Half a dozen  residents from   the  north side of the Nechako River  blocked access to Pittman Asphalt on Ottway Road this morning.

The residents say Pittman has been operating overnight, and the sound has been tremendous, and they have  had enough.  "I was jolted out of my bed at 3a.m." says one resident, Tony Romeyn  who says he then took a tape recorder out to his balcony and recorded the sound.  How does he know it was Pittman?  "It was obvious it was coming from here,  from Pittman, not from Columbia because Columbia is quite a ways down the road, and we (people on Riverview) don’t normally get noise from Columbia, the people on Tombes do." 

The  Pittman site backs on to a gravel ridge, creating what one resident calls  "an amphi theatre"  she says the noise levels have been worse of late because of the loss of the  lodgepole pine to mountain pine beetle, and the  deciduous trees are now bare.   Resident Kathleen Haines says noise should have been a factor when the City thought of selling the land "Vancouver Airport did a noise assessment before they placed an asphalt plant at that airport,.  This was City land, they sold it to Pittman Asphalt without consulting us and without doing a noise assessment study before they placed it here."

With  access to his business blocked, Pittman Regional Manager Jean Brunet says this activity by his neighbours is illegal. "The plant has been shutting down at 7:30 every night" says Brunet who is convinced the neighbours have a case of mistaken identity.  He  says his company  hasn’t received a call from anyone complaining of anything in the last  couple of days and says his company is in compliance now.  As for this latest round of noise  concerns, "No one has come to me and said there was a need to discuss anything" says Brunet  who  adds he has not received a call from any of the neighbours, or the City’s bylaw enforcement people about noise issues. 

He is aware the residents will soon look at the report from the City’s environment  department, but again,  he has not been  asked to review that report "They have their own thing going" he says, "I should be a part of that but no one has called."

Brunet  says he had nothing to say to the people who had lined up outside his building, "I am here legally all the way",   and he concluded by saying what the neighbours had done "Was not very constructive."

The neighbours complaints may be  too late.  Today was Pittman’s last day of paving operations.  The company will start winding down for the winter as of Tuesday of next week.

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