LETTER TO THE EDITOR - GRAVEL PITS

The author of the recent Letter To The Editor of the Waterloo Region Record is well known. His name is Emil Frind and he has been involved with the University of Waterloo and hydrogeology for a very long time. He knows of what he speaks.

Mr. Frind takes Norm Cheesman of the aggregate producers lobby to task for his recent written claims that new provincial changes to aggregate extraction will cause no harm. Mr. Frind concurs that we need aggregate however he states that we need clean water more. Excavating below the water table exposes aquifers to surface contaminants that otherwise are filtered by soils, sands and gravels above them. Clays also protect underground aquifers by greatly slowing any surface liquids from penetrating into the water bearing aquifers below.

The suggestion from the aggregate industry or anyone else that remediation can restore aquifers once they are contaminated is not adequate. Much contamination is never cleaned up simply based upon economic considerations. Or it's done by so called "natural attenuation" which means that over decades the contamination is slowly diluted as it spreads down gradient.

Below the water table extraction such as is proposed outside Winterbourne at the Jigs Hollow Pit is going to result in a permanent lake left behind. This will provide a permanent open pathway to surface contaminants.

Mr. Frind strongly believes that the Region of Waterloo have the expertise and the commitment to determine the safe depth of excavtion above an aquifer. Renoving that authority is a major environmental setback.