OMB Denies Rockfort Quarry Application: CCC Applauds
November 16th 2010Here is an important statement in response to the news that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has denied the Rockfort Quarry application:
The Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Caledon applauds the OMB decision having to do with the James Dick Construction Limited Rockfort Quarry application for an open pit dolostone mine at Winston Churchill and Olde Baseline in the Town of Caledon.
The Coalition, which has mounted a determined 13-year campaign against the designation and development of this inappropriate mineral aggregate proposal, includes thousands of supporters from Caledon, Erin, Wellington, Halton and Peel, as well as cycling, skiing, fishing, archery, equestrian and hiking enthusiasts from far and wide.
The proposed quarry, which would have involved the extraction of dolostone up to 100 feet below the water table, involved a water mitigation system never before used in a similar scale, manner and setting. It could also have created negative impacts on local roadways, the Niagara Escarpment ecosystem and the Paris Moraine.
The Board in its conclusion found:”The balance among competing interests mandated by the PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) and the OP (Official Plan) has been thoroughly considered by the Board. It is apparent, that with respect to these particular applications, the interest in protecting the natural heritage and cultural heritage resources of the subject lands and those surrounding them outweighs the interest in making the aggregate resource on the subject property available to supply mineral aggregate needs. Too much of enormous value to the Province, the Region and the Town could be lost if the proposed quarry went forward. A failure in the mitigation measures proposed for the quarry, as set out in the AMP (Adaptive Management Plan), would have a catastrophic impact on the natural environment or the natural features and functions of the area. Such an impact cannot be countenanced by the Board. In addition, the fundamental change to the character of the area attendant upon the proposed quarry would not be acceptable. The loss of views of rural lands, the loss of a cultural heritage landscape and cultural heritage resources and the conversion of a rural area into an urban area centered on a heavy industrial operation cannot be permitted in the interest of the production of more aggregate for infrastructure development. It is time for alternatives to aggregate for infrastructure construction to be found. Too much of what is essential to the character of this Province would be lost if aggregate extraction were to be permitted on lands like the subject property. Lands situated in a significant cultural landscape, surrounded by significant natural heritage features and functions, are not lands on which extraction should be permitted in the absence of demonstration of no negative impacts. No such demonstration has been completed in this case. Having regard to the provisions of the PPS, the ROP (Region of Peel Official Plan) and the OP, the Board finds that the requested OPA (Official Plan Amendment) and ZBLA (Zoning By-Law Amendment) do not represent good planning. Having regard to the ARA (Aggregate Resources Act), particularly section 12(1), the Board finds that the requested licence should not be issued.”
“On behalf of the people of Caledon and all the Coalition supporters, we applaud the OMB’s decision to uphold good land use and environmental planning,” said Coalition President Penny Richardson. “We would like to thank all our supporters who devoted their time, energy, money and skill, as well as our legal and expert advisers. We also commend the Town of Caledon, the Region of Peel and Credit Valley Conservation for their opposition to this proposal. Time and again, they argued that this particular application did not meet an acceptable standard for protecting our water resources, sensitive natural heritage and local endangered species.”
“While we are pleased with the decision, we will wait for the 30 day OMB appeal period to close before opening the champagne,” Richardson said.
The OMB decision is available on the CCC website.
The next question is, is this a one-time decision, or a new precedent for the future of the Niagara Escarpment and its neighbouring areas?
Proposed Keppel Quarry Expansion: Alarming Issues
October 18th 2010This is a guest posting by Dennis Shouldice, a Georgian Bluffs ratepayer with a local concern that seems to be repeated all along the Niagara Escarpment. At Escarpment Views, we let citizens and community groups express their concerns and issues. Please add your comments after you’ve read Dennis’s opinion.
The Niagara Escarpment is a valuable asset that accommodates many wonderful species worth protecting. The Keppel Quarry is located within the Niagara Escarpment Plan (NEP) area in the Township of Georgian Bluffs just northwest of Owen Sound. The operator of the proposed Keppel Quarry expansion has an application before the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) to rezone the site of the proposed expansion from NEP Rural to NEP Mining. The file is known as PG167 07. There are many reasons why the application to expand the existing near-depleted Keppel Quarry should be denied.
In 1994 an inventory of the species within the wetland adjacent to the proposed Keppel Quarry Expansion identified “a total of 89 breeding bird species recorded at the site, including the provincially recognized species of concern, the Red Shouldered Hawk, the Black-crowned Night-Heron and the Great Egret. There are an outstanding 30 forest interior birds and a Heron rockery containing over 50 nests.”
Since the existing Keppel Quarry began excavating in 1988, neighbours to the wetland nearby the quarry have reported substantial declines of heron, ducks, and the frogs on which they feed. There is great concern that the proposed expansion of the Keppel Quarry will do further damage to the rare species that once flourished within this Provincially Significant Wetland, an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest and a World Biosphere Reserve.
See the slideshow at:
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6000046_zj4H8#686660343_W6xHf
Research of the files obtained from the Ministry of Environment (MoE)and Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) under the Freedom of Information Act have uncovered numerous disturbing issues related to the Keppel Quarry operator’s compliance with its Certificates of Approval, the Acts and Regulations.
During 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 the operator pumped exceedances of Unionized Ammonia (NH3) that were in excess of its Certificate of Approval. The MoE was unsuccessful at working with the operator to maintain NH3 levels within the operator’s permitted levels. Waste water is pumped from the quarry as the operator blasts and extracts the fractured rock below the water table. NH3 is a byproduct of the explosive materials used by the quarry operator to fracture the Escarpment. NH3 is known to have devastating impact on the breathing mechanisms of fish and thin skinned amphibians.
“Experiments have shown that exposure to un-ionized ammonia concentrations as low as 0.002 mg/l for six weeks causes hyperplasia of gill lining in salmon fingerlings and may lead to bacterial gill disease.” See more at: http://www.water-research.net/Watershed/ammonia.htm.
In August 2006, the month the MoE completed its Closure Report and released the operator for its breaches of its Certificate of Approval, the operator was pumping industrial waste sewage water with concentrations of .03 mg/L, a level that is 15 times greater than levels found by independent experiments to have caused damage to fish breathing mechanisms.
The February 9, 2009 MoE Inspection Report for the Keppel Quarry indicates that during 2006 the quarry pumped on average four hours per day for 160 days of the year with an average of 1,222,543 litres of waste water pumped from the quarry per day . The total pumped from the quarry in 2006 was in excess of 195 million litres of waste water.
The MoE has confirmed that the wastewater has been flowing towards the pond that feeds the headwaters of the Park Head Creek within the Provincially Significant Wetland.
Discussions with the ministries responsible for protecting the species with the wetland found that the ministries were not communicating with each other about the polluting events nor were they enforcing the regulations and acts that were designed to protect the valued species. Letters of objection were sent to the MoE, MNR, NEC, Grey Sauble Conservation Authority and Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Read some of these letters and comments from objectors that are posted at this site:
http://cid-3078cca55a3c6a79.office.live.com/browse.aspx/.Documents?sa=980538771
On August 16, 2010 the NEC staff report recommended that the application to permit the rezoning of the proposed Keppel Quarry site be approved to permit the mining operations within the NEP area. On September 16, 2010, the NEC wisely decided to set aside the recommendations of the NEC staff report when it decided to postpone its decision on the proposed rezoning application, pending an independent peer review of the water flow studies conducted by the consultants who were paid by the quarry operator as part of its application per the Aggregate Resources Act. NEC gave direction that the First Nations people would be involved in the peer review process.
This is a landmark decision. Yet, the outcome of the application to expand the Keppel Quarry is still unknown.
Many believe that a new independent inventory of the valued species in the wetland adjacent to the proposed site of the Keppel Quarry expansion should be conducted. A confirmation of the decline of the valued species would mean that the Keppel Quarry should not be permitted to expand. Other sites that are less ecologically sensitive and further away from the source water of this headland should be considered as alternate sites. It is an opinion that is shared by others: Blast extracted rock quarries should not be permitted within the NEPlan area.
If you share a concern about the expansion of the Keppel Quarry, please make your feelings known to:
Honorable Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources, Ontario
ljeffrey.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Honorable John Wilkinson, Minister of Environment, MOE, Ontario
Minister.moe@ontario.ca
Honorable Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario,
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Dave Gibson, Environmental Impact, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
dave.gibson@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Andrew Sorensen, Environmental Planner, Grey Sauble Conservation Authority
a.sorensen@admin.greysauble.on.ca
Members of the NEC, (c/o Kathryn Pounder(MNR) kathryn.pounder@ontario.ca
Honorable James Bradley, MPP, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing,
jbradley.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Honorable Carol Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs,
cmitchell.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Lorraine Land, Legal Counsel, Saugeen Ojibway Nation,
LLand@oktlaw.com
Owen Sound Suntimes:
www.owensoundsuntimes.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
The Niagara Escarpment is a valuable asset that needs to be protected from damaging impacts. What are your comments?
Chile’s Rescue of Miners a Lesson for the World
October 14th 2010I can’t let the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile pass without comment. It seems that so much could so easily have gone so very wrong. Instead, it’s been called by some reporters, a case study in correct disaster response.
Last night I was channel hopping to find as much news as I could, and watched ABC’s 20/20. It was the first report I saw on the whole rescue, not just of the men coming out of the rescue cage.
Aspects that fascinate me include the first time estimate of rescue taking until Christmas. Was this a deliberate overestimate to prevent despair if an early target couldn’t be reached? Then there’s the support of the miners while they were underground. Water bottles, food, the famous toothbrushes were sent down through a tiny shaft, but 20/20 revealed that they were also given a phone, camera, clothing, and even a projection screen and cots! How did they get so much through so little?
NASA’s involvement in advising on living in close quarters and isolation will be interesting to learn. The miners’ resolve to survive co-operatively will give another lesson. 20/20 reported that at first there were arguments and fist fights among them, until the shift foreman took command and organized the men into teams with responsibilities. How did he manage this in such terrifying, desperate conditions?
I’ve also been awed by the under-reported service of four soldiers who went down the rescue shaft to help each miner put on the equipment in the cage for the journey to the surface. What a heroic effort for that first man who voluntarily went down the shaft to the miners, with no one knowing for certain if the cage would work and not get stuck. Furthermore, those four unnamed soldiers remained underground until every miner was out. At any time there could have been a failure or collapse that would have trapped them permanently. Here is unsung courage of the highest order.
The fact that Chile welcomed international offers of help from world experts is likely an enormously significant factor in the flawless success of the rescue. The best managers know what they don’t know, and seek assistance in these areas. Chile and the miners themselves, managed this perfectly and can now teach the world.
Mike would like to add how different this was, from the tragic rescue attempt of Floyd Collins, a caver who got stuck underground when a rock fell on his foot, trapping him in a narrow passage. Rescuers drilled down to free him, but he died of exposure and starvation after 14 days, only three days before they reached him. This happened in 1925 and Mike says that now, with current rescue techniques, Collins would likely have been saved.
To have a look under the ground of the Niagara Escarpment, see our feature “Beginner Caves on the Escarpment.” Nowhere near as deep as the safe room in the Chilean mine, it still shows you what it’s like to have tons of rock over your head. Anyone want to go caving? And what has impressed you about the Chilean rescue success?
Using Up Nature
August 10th 2010The following is an opinion piece by Arlene Kennedy of Tobermory. We’re pleased to post it in full here.
True confession…I am beginning to suspect that I am a megalomaniac. I like big ideas, overarching theories and the “big picture,” both figuratively and literally, since as an art collector I own several rather large paintings, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now.
A friend just lent me A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright, a 2004 Massey Lecturer. Talk about “big picture” – this vast sweep at the tenure of mankind on the planet is a gallop through where we’ve been, how we got here and where we might be heading. It’s not pretty.
Today’s preoccupation with the debt crisis and how many of us appear to be living beyond our means truly pales in contrast with the debt humanity is taking on with our use and abuse of the earth. The author believes that “If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.” We are using nature up at a rate far faster than it can regenerate itself.
So I’m thinking about my home here in the Bruce Peninsula in terms of a sustainable community. So are a lot of other people, as evidenced by last fall’s creation of The Meeting Place, the regular occurrence of Transition Communities get-togethers, the educational initiatives at the Lion’s Head school, the numerous grass-roots organizations including the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory and lately, some relatively independent efforts to generate local “clean” energy. Solar power is a focus that seems to be in favour over giant turbine wind farm power.
What can I do to contribute to securing in the future a quality of life and standard of living I am now privileged to enjoy? How do we conserve and preserve the balance between development and preservation of this unique gem of a Biosphere?
I am hoping that the knowledge generated by residents and researchers in this area will be part of the solution. Which brings me to another initiative worthy of attention and support: the Sources of Knowledge Forum presented at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre this May. Researchers presented brief sessions on their impressive work carried on in this region.
Applied research is the latest buzz that attracts government funding, and although I admire the utilitarian bent of this trend, there is also room in my view for less directed research out of which may grow future but as yet unforeseen applications.
There is some interest in the community to attract an outreach “campus” of sorts, perhaps affiliated with a university or other institute of higher learning that already has access to external funding and has the infrastructure to establish and support a “Bruce Peninsula Research Centre.” A wealth of learning occurs here now. How might it best be maximised?
There’s no place like it in the world. There are instructive parallels and contrasting locals, but we are a one-and-only. So is the earth. How do we avoid bankrupting nature and watching humanity become extinct in the process?
That’s the “big picture.”
Do you have more information about some of the initiatives and ideas that Arlene mentions? Is anything like this going on in your community? Feel free to add a comment. Or write your own opinion piece and send it to us. We may be able to print it in the magazine or post it here as a blog comment. We’re happy to be a forum for discussion!
