Destroying the Waverley Uplands

Open letter from Ann Truyens, Oro-Medonte to Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry

I find it extremely unconscionable that your ministry has recently informed the Township of Tiny in a letter that it had consented to eight amendments to the site plan of the Beamish gravel pit. These included:

· An increase in the depth of extraction

· Allowing the importation into the pit of asphalt, concrete, aggregate and topsoil/fill for transfer or processing, and

· Permitting a wash plant and wash pond on-site

The owners of the pit, who have failed to rehabilitate their original site, asked for a significant northward expansion of the area for aggregate extraction. The land in question is directly east of what was known as Site 41.

The current owners intend to remove gravel to a depth of 10 metres at the shallowest and 41.2 meters at the deepest point, virtually eliminating French’s Hill – the Hill whose power of filtration produces some of the cleanest water on the planet according to Dr. William Shotyk, Professor and Bocock Chair for Agriculture and the Environment at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Shotyk appeared before Tiny Township Council on May 8 to talk about the Alliston Aquifer that, for decades, was threatened by Simcoe County’s plan for Dump Site 41, until it was stopped by huge public pressure.

“The Cleanest Water on Earth – is it worth protecting?” is the title of Shotyk’s presentation:

Monday May 8: Scientist addresses Tiny on the Cleanest Water on Earth

“Gold standard” groundwater is area’s most precious natural resource, scientist tells Tiny

Contact info for Dr. Shotyk:
shotyk@ualberta.ca http://www.ualberta.ca

Now, concerns are being raised about the potential effect of a proposed expansion of the quarry below the water table on the nearby Waverley Uplands which are a component of the still-to-be-determined unique combination of natural mechanisms that provide the filtration that results in such a clean aquifer. The water from this aquifer is cleaner than ancient arctic ice before there was any pollution on the earth, and is now used by Shotyk’s SWAMP laboratory and elsewhere as the reference against which other waters are measured.

The water table is to be protected from the extraction of gravel, the importation of asphalt, and the creation of dirty wash water (as much as 6 million litres a day!) by a buffer of only a meter and a half if this plan is approved.

Recently Beamish sold its company and gravel pits to Dufferin Aggregates, owned by CRH. CRH is a foreign company based in Dublin, Ireland.

Please do everything in your power to stop the destruction of French’s Hill in the Waverley Uplands and preserve this precious treasure of clean water for future generations.