Friday, September 15, 2017

"STOP HIDDEN QUARRY"



My wife came back from a minor expedition to Eden Mills the other day with a pamphlet titled "Stop Hidden Quarry". This pamphlet may well be a year old as it mentions an upcoming September 2016 OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) hearing. Our OMB is currently under review and for good reason. Their decisions have long been extremely helpful to developers of all kinds and not so helpful to the rest of us or the environment.

Hidden Quarry is located beside Highway #7 and 6th Eramosa Line, approximately 1000 metres from homes in Rockwood, Ontario. It involves mining with explosives to 23 metres below the water table. The applicant (James Dick Construction Ltd.-JDCL) projects an annual extraction of 700,000 tonnes of gravel and rock.

There will be issues with noise, dust, blasting vibration, fly rock landing on neighbouring properties and Hwy # 7, both surface and groundwater contamination, traffic, residential well contamination, brook trout habitat and other wildlife and environmental impacts. Quarries under the best of circumstances are not neighbour or environment friendly. This quarry definitely is not under the best of circumstances.

Two websites mentioned in the pamphlet are www.crcrockwood.org and www.hiddenquarry.ca . A contact given is lsword@crcrockwood.org
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1 comment:

  1. Linda Sword CRCSeptember 30, 2017 at 1:10 PM

    Hi Alan,

    I just saw your post and want to update you. The HQ application went to the OMB last September. The Hearing was adjourned because the company, JDCL, had failed to amend the application to a zoning bylaw put in place since the original application in 2013. The company has now re-applied and the first OMB Pre-Hearing Conference takes place on November 2, 2017. The date of the Hearing itself is yet tbd. The case will be adjudicated under the 'old' OMB system. Given that the proposed site is in the Paris Galt Moraine and has a direct impact on a water recharge area which provides water to hundreds of private wells, the hearing is timely with protecting drinking water high on the list of public priorities. There is a petition on the CRC site which people can print and sign and return to us. Signatures must be original. Thanks for your interest and for sharing it with others. I am happy to answer questions through my contact e-mail above.

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