For Immediate Release - May 17, 2019
The Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT) is hearing the appeal submitted by James Dick Construction Limited (JDCL) in December 2016. The Hearing is expected to run for 6 – 8 weeks, 4 days a week from Monday through Thursday. The Hearing will take place in the Council Chamber at the offices of Guelph Eramosa Township, 8348 Wellington Road 124, just west of Brucedale.
The Hearing will address the request by JDCL to change the proposed site zoning from agricultural to extractive industrial, applying to both the host township Guelph Eramosa’s zoning bylaw and Wellington County’s Official Plan. It will also address the company’s aggregate licence application to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
JDCL will be a Party at the Hearing to present the case for the Hidden Quarry proposal. Three other Parties will present evidence which will address the potential negative impacts of the quarry proposal – Halton Region (for Milton and Halton Hills), Wellington County, and the Concerned Residents Coalition (CRC). Guelph Eramosa Township (GET) will state its opposition to the proposal. The quarry is in Guelph Eramosa Township/Wellington County, but borders on Milton in Halton Region.
Background:
The Concerned Residents Coalition (CRC), a non-profit organization founded in 2013, is a citizens group of more than 1400 from all three affected municipalities – Guelph Eramosa Township (GET), Milton and Halton Hills. CRC has studied the proposal in detail, bringing 8 expert witnesses to the Hearing addressing blasting, hydrogeology, the natural environment and species at risk, aquatic habitat and planning.
The proposed quarry site is at Hwy. 7 and 6th Line Eramosa, just east of the town of Rockwood and west of the town of Halton Hills/Acton. Hwy. 7 marks the boundary between Guelph Eramosa Township and the Town of Milton, in the Regional Municipality of Halton. This area of Milton, known by its former township name, Nassagaweya, is in the Green Belt.
The proposal requires an amendment to the Wellington County Official Plan, re-zoning from agricultural to industrial/extractive by Guelph Eramosa Township, and an aggregate licence from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
JDCL proposes to mine 700,000 tonnes/year of dolomite rock over a projected 20 years. The open-pit mine will be excavated by blasting into a water-filled pit up to 23 metres below the water table.
To the best of CRC’s knowledge, below water blasting for aggregate extraction has not been successfully carried out in Ontario, and quite possibly anywhere else in Canada. The site geology is dolomite characterized by karst weathering.
The quarry location is within 1000 metres of Rockwood, immediately surrounded by more than 250 residents, hundreds of private wells and one municipal well. It is on the north side of Hwy. 7, in an agricultural area with horse, cattle, sheep and cash crop farms. There are also several 18th century heritage buildings in dangerous proximity to the site.
The quarry is located in the Paris Galt Moraine in close proximity to sensitive environmental features, upstream from the brook trout spawning grounds in Brydson Creek and the cold water Blue Springs corridor. A tributary of Brydson Creek crosses the quarry site between the two projected pits. Haul routes carrying up to 48 trucks an hour are destined for downtown Acton, Georgetown and Norval, Guelph Line, Brookville and potentially Rockwood.
CRC has been unable to conceive of conditions that would adequately mitigate negative impacts from the proposed operation.
JDCL originally appealed the case to the OMB in June 2015 citing the large number of objectors and absence of a decision by Guelph Eramosa Township. That first Hearing in October 2016 was postponed indefinitely because the application had been filed under a GET bylaw which had since been repealed and replaced.
JDCL subsequently appealed again in late 2016 by which time Wellington County’s new Official Plan required County approval as well. In the meantime, the OMB had been replaced by LPAT. However, the Hidden Quarry application was grandfathered and will be heard according to the former OMB rules.
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