Opponents of gravel pit take fight to NVCA
Friday’s Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) board of directors meeting includes a scheduled delegation by Fred Somerville, Somerville Nurseries, and Janet Budgell, Concerned Citizens in Adjala-Tosorontio (CCAT) to speak against the Township council’s approval to rezone 5556 and 5670 County Road 13 at 5 Sideroad, that would permit development of an aggregate operation that could extract up to one million tonnes of sand and gravel annually.
Donnelly (Nelson Aggregates) has applied for a Class ‘A’ License (Category 1 – pit extraction below the water table) under the Aggregate Resources Act to permit aggregate extraction on the subject property. The Township’s and County’s Official Plans, recognize that the subject lands contain significant aggregate resources.
The area to be licensed is approximately 72.8ha (180ac) with approximately 51.5ha (128ac) included within the extraction area. The pit will operate to approximately 3m below the water table.
“This will allow Nelson/Lafarge Aggregate to extract gravel in a known flood plain and with the potential of implementing an asphalt or concrete batching plant. This property also gives Nelson/Lafarge access to a shallow and vulnerable water aquifer, the Boyne River and Tosorontio Creek which could result in irreversible damage to waterways, affecting the future of Ontario through the negative impact on waterways,” according to the presentation included on the NVCA’s agenda, signed by the CCAT dated December 2015.
Other concerns listed include:
-Questions regarding the legality of the application which have not been answered;
-The operation of this pit and future development will affect the aquifers and wells both in quantity and quality;
-Evaluation reports from the County of Simcoe and The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry have not been submitted to date;
-The tonnage fee (paid to the Township) would be at most $25,000 per year. According to Gravel Watch Ontario, damage to our roads and bridges can result in hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year;
Devastating floods will occur if the banks of the Boyne River collapse. Who will be liable?; and
-There is immediate concern regarding the anticipated five hundred extra trucks per day on the roads. The resultant air, noise, soil dust leakage and water pollution is an environmental debacle.
For its part, the recommendation attached to this presentation calls for the NVCA to continuing commenting on the proposal.
The township should collect between 40 and 50 cents per tonne to recover the costs of road maintenance. The current 2.5 cents per tonne will have the taxpayers subsiding the costs. This is about a huge corporation, Lafarge, making larger profits on the backs of the local taxpayers.