Quarry quarrels prompts privatization talk

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This article was published 09/09/2022 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’ve ever spent time at Reynolds Ponds, it’s likely because someone took you there the first time.

The path inwards is not for the faint of heart. A sudden turn off the Trans-Canada Highway is met with sharp corners along Forestry Road 13, a gravel-packed route lined with deciduous trees and ATV trails leading to other parts of the wooded area.

Then, as one drives down the long, winding road outgoing vehicles travelling at high speeds leave clouds of dust in their wake, leaving incoming drivers suddenly blind to what may be around the next bend.

There are no markers or admission for Reynolds Ponds, they merely exist through word of mouth, a pin on Google Maps and a small, handmade sign hidden in thick brush.

If found, explorers are rewarded with decommissioned quarries with clear water to spend the day in on one side, smaller pits on the other side, and quiet camping in the wild and trails aplenty for off-road activities in between – a prairie paradise among some.

On the heels of the September long weekend the ponds are quiet save for a few fishers on the shores, their voices carrying across the defunct north quarry.

It’s a staunch difference from what Greg Hall experienced just days before when he and his family spent the weekend camping at the pits.

“I didn’t know they had raves there,” he said over the phone with a laugh.

Most of the tunes were good, he mused, but the gig got old in the wee hours of the morning when his two-year-old daughter was fast asleep yet Hall and his wife could still hear the lyrics to the electronic music ring clear.

Hall came to know Reynolds Ponds seven years ago as an ATV enthusiast and certified scuba diver. The rural area gave the Starbuck-turned-Winnipeg resident a bit of everything: trails to ride on and deep water to dive in.

Recently, his trips involve picking up garbage left on the shores and in the bushes by weekend warriors and diving for items tossed into the water by visitors hoping the turquoise water will conceal any evidence they were brought in.

While he’s found lawn chairs, giant stuffed animals and faux gold jewelry his bucket list item is a car, for he knows the ponds are a dumping ground for them.

“People think if they throw stuff in the water it disappears, but it doesn’t. It’s now become part of that ecosystem,” he said.

In recent years Hall says the culture of Reynolds Ponds has changed. What was once a family-friendly area to come fishing and hunting has turned into a de facto party spot which sees heaps of trash left behind, leaving a bad taste in his mouth and his safety at risk when boaters disregard his diving flags.

The amateur diver and four-by-four enthusiast wants to see the area return to its intended use, but that time may have come and gone with the area’s popularization.

“There’s the guys that drink and drive and throw beer cans out the windows, which we don’t like because it puts everyone else’s lives at risk,” he said.

“They think they’re privileged.”

Trudy Turchyn, reeve for the RM of Reynolds, is calling on the government to privatize the ponds, which sit on Crown land, or, at the least turn the area into a provincial park to minimize incidents which see the RM’s fire department responding to calls for service and costing taxpayers unnecessary dollars.

“It’s the wild west out there,” she told The Carillon.

Since January 2020 the Reynolds Fire Department has responded to six calls for service while neighbouring Richer Fire Department has responded to a half-dozen calls in the same period. Turchyn said the lack of regulation leads to the belief anything goes out there; she estimates 500-1,000 people visit the area on any given weekend.

In recent years that sheer number of people has resulted in a handful of casualties. During the fire ban imposed on Reynolds Ponds in June 2021 24-year-old Sandeep Bandaru drowned while swimming with friends. Attempting to make it to an island 100 yards from the shore Bandaru went under and didn’t resurface. His body was found the next day.

In 2020 a woman died in a head-on collision with a concrete barrier while riding an ATV. Weeks later multiple assaults, one involving a firearm, were reported.

Former Reynolds fire chief Tom Nixon said the calls for response may seem low in the grand scheme of things, but the issue is much larger.

“It’s lawless,” he said.

In his 18 years serving with the fire department Nixon said he’s surprised the ponds and neighbouring quarry pits, licensed by French concrete dealers La Farge, haven’t been shut down yet.

In his early days Nixon said the area was quiet with few calls, but in the last decade activity has ramped up.

“The RCMP can’t handle all the calls, there’s no supervision and it’s dangerous,” he said. “They should have tried to close them down a long time ago.”

Steinbach RCMP have responded to the area 93 times since the beginning of 2020. Staff Sgt. Harold Laninga noted the data includes summer 2021 when the ponds were largely inaccessible to the public due to fire and travel bans implemented by the province as wildfires burned steady.

During the municipality’s second-annual meeting with various stakeholders, RCMP and delegates from the provincial government to discuss what could be done with the area, NDP MLA and opposition environment critic Lisa Naylor said privatization of the area is an option.

Turchyn and Nixon agree they don’t want to see the area go unused as it’s vastness and natural beauty is hard to find in the southeast area of the province, but if the area is privatized or turned into a park it would regulate visitors and, perhaps, instill a sense of responsibility.

“If there are rules, you get a little bit more responsible attitude from the people,” Turchyn said. Nixon called the idea an opportunity for the government to invest in the area.

The province did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

Hall, however, doesn’t want to give Reynolds Ponds up. He merely wants visitors to smarten up.

“There’s totally different rules out there…and if you’re not equipped for it, don’t go.”