• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

IMPORTANT NOTICE: LPAT Hearing being held on Friday July 23, 2021 at 10:00 AM

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In Council Watch
Jul 11th, 2021
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Teedon Pit – Community Liaison Tour 2019

A Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) Hearing is being held this month on Friday July 23, 2021 at 10:00 AM on the proposed expansion of the Teedon Pit by CRH Canada Inc. on French’s Hill in Tiny Township.

They intend to remove gravel to a depth of 10 meters at the shallowest and 41.2 meters at the deepest point, virtually eliminating French’s Hill – the Hill whose power of filtration produces 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.

A 10-year Permit To Take Water (PTTW) is a separate issue but also part of the LPAT process that ignores concerns about the potential impact of this activity on the world’s purest water and lead to increased exploitation of this amazing resource.

– Direct link to Dr. Shotyk’s presentation to Tiny Township Council in 2017: The archived presentation runs from ~ 37:00 to ~1:18:00 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtGD0vFKiuA

This is the water that so many of us fought to defend at Dump Site 41, ending in victory more than a decade ago. Wells in the area have been tested for more than 25 years by Dr. William Shotyk and found to produce the cleanest water on record, cleaner than 5,000-year-old ancient Arctic ice before there was any pollution on the earth.

This groundwater is so pure because it has been perfectly filtered by the unique combination of sands, gravels, soils and plants of the Waverley Uplands, part of the recharge area for the aquifer.

There is a team of high-level scientists, headed by internationally acclaimed hydrogeologist Dr. John Cherry, who have started their study of this water and the unique filtration system of the Waverley Uplands to find out what makes it so exceptional.

But this priceless treasure is under threat because the same sand and gravel that keeps the water so pure is worth a few dollars per tonne in profits to the aggregate industry.

The Sarjeant Company has also applied for a permit that will allow them to extract billions of litres of groundwater from this aquifer over the next decade, for use in two new gravel pits in the Waverley Uplands. They want to use the world’s purest groundwater to wash and separate the very sand and gravel layers that made the water so pure to begin with.

These new gravel pits are a stone’s throw from the Teedon Pit. Sarjeant sold this pit to the multinational CRH Corporation.

The Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations (FoTTSA) – which was part of the coalition of First Nations, farmers, residents and cottagers that defeated the plan to build a landfill site on top of the water – is leading the legal battle at the LPAT, represented by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA). FoTTSA is also planning to appeal the PTTW.

AWARE Simcoe is also taking part in the LPAT Hearing as a Participant hoping to prevent the destruction or impairment of the unique filtration system of the Waverley Uplands before the Cherry study is completed, and suitable protection for the water can be put in place.

We strongly urge that you watch the meeting online. Just open this link https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/468514341 and tell them that you’re joining the meeting as an “Observer”, and you will be required to shut off your camera and mute your speaker so that you can watch and listen to the whole proceeding.

If we get a lot of people watching and showing support for protecting and saving the water, it could make a big impact on the final outcome of this court case.

Clean drinking water is much more important than aggregate, so French’s Hill must be left intact and protected from aggregate expansion.

We saved this precious water once before, and we can do it again!

For more info: https://saveourwatertiny.wordpress.com/

If possible, please make a donation to FoTTSA to help with the significant financial cost.
Donate
Interac e-transfer: fottsadonation@gmail.com
Cheque made out to FoTTSA and mailed to: Treasurer, 42 Haslemere Road Toronto, Ontario M4N 1X6

Any questions contact lindajanea@sympatico.ca

Thank you, from the AWARE Simcoe team

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

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