JIGS HOLLOW GRAVEL PIT

Acoustical studies, dust studies, hydrogeological studies, traffic studies the list of hoops and loops continues on unabated. The problem of course is that all these studies are paid for by the proponent and it's all a game. Do you want to be a scrupulously accurate, minutely detailed unemployed scientific consultant or would you rather be a little more flexible and realize who exactly has hired you? You aren't being hired to find problems you are being hired if not to ignore them then at least to find very inexpensive ways around them. This is most easily achieved if the "problems" whether noise, dust, traffic, groundwater etc. are determined to be no more than minor at worst.

To date I've looked at only two of the studies that are on the Woolwich Township website. On the right hand side of the home page is "Ongoing Planning Items". Click on that and then you will find the Kuntz Topsoil, Sand & Gravel- Jigs Hollow Pit. Click on that and you will get a long list of studies and reports. The first I looked at was at the bottom of the list namely Environmental Site Assessment - February 8, 2008. The second was Hydrogeological Study - September 3, 2008.

In my not so humble opinion neither of these reports is as advertised. I do not feel that the first one mentioned, the ESA - Feb. 2008, comes even close to being an environmental assessment. The second also is one heck of a limited HydroG study. A grand total of four monitoring wells appear to have been sampled once for groundwater levels. O.K. I mean really we already probably had a pretty good idea that the shallow groundwater was discharging into the Grand River at this location. These two reports at least are neither comprehensive nor are they much more than lip service to conditions imposed probably by Woolwich Township or by the Ministry of Environment.

The more one looks into contoversial projects with both human and environmental negative aspects the more one begins to understand how the system and process are all rigged in favour of the proponent. Afterall isn't that what we pay our politicians for and why developers and proponents lobby and donate to them in the first place?