WOOLWICH OBSERVER SERVES THE PUBLIC INTEREST REGARDING GRAVEL PITS

Today's Observer has both an article titled "Residents' group takes aim at Maryhill pit" written by Steve Kannon as well as an Editor's Point of View titled "Ford's word aside, gravel pit process has gone against public's will" also written by Steve Kannon. In my opinion both are excellent. The article mentions the Hopewell Creek Residents Association (HCRA) and their efforts to stop the proposed gravel pit (Capitol Paving) just outside the village of Maryhill. Former Woolwich Councillor and mayoralty candidate Bonnie Bryant, an HCRA member, suggested that overwhelming local opposition to a gravel pit should win the day and that this indeed was the recent message from Premier Doug Ford. ..................................................................................................... In the Editor's Point of View, Mr. Kannon lays out the sordid history of the province, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Ontario Minicipal Board (OMB) etc. running roughshod over the public's wishes. This public are of course the local victims of all the well known and documented abuses, failures and negative consequences of living next to a gravel pit. It includes a failure of the owners and operators to follow the legislated rules concerning gravel pit operation and rehabillatation as well as a failure by our authorities (MNR) to enforce their own rules. ............................................................................................................... I highly reccommend reading both articles in their entirety. That said there is one only semi-related criticism that I have. Mr. Kannon states in his Editor's Point of View in regards to the province distancing itself from unpopular decisions that "Of course, this is done to allow the few to benefit at the expense of the many, the overriding reason for our political and economic system." Now while this claim about the overriding reason for our political and economic system might be contoversial especially with those on the right, I do not take umbrage with that. What I would simply like to do is remind Mr. Kannon and the Woolwich Observer that this point about allowing "...the few to benefit at the expense of the many..." also applies right here in Elmira. Mr. Kannon has highlighted the reality and the drawbacks of our political and economic systems. They certainly do benefit the few often at the expense of the many. How many Elmira residents have sufferred or died from air or water chemical exposures from Uniroyal Chemical and successors over the decades? How many shareholders of that chemical company have benefited financially from the contemptible waste disposal decisions of the past as well as of the contemptible minimal cleanup decisions of the present? Finally how many citizens and residents downstream, not just in Elmira itself, continue to suffer health effects from contaminated sediments and soils in and around the Canagagigue Creek?