The expansion of a sand and gravel pit “will decimate the environment” says a local resident – one of many protesting a planned expansion in Gibraltar.
At a committee of the whole meeting this week, the application for expansion was rejected even though town staff recommended its approval. The rejection came in after elected officials heard several deputations in opposition to the expansion. The matter will be before regular council on April 16.
Ian Sinclair, a resident of The Blue Mountains, lives near the existing pit and says he is strongly against the expansion.
“This ... has hit a nerve in our community,” said Sinclair. “The application will decimate the environment.”
The existing pit is across the road from another sand and gravel pit; the application was to expand to slightly under double the footprint of the existing one. However, the expansion puts the pit adjacent to Pretty River Provincial Park, which is a year-round, day use facility.
The expansion would give the existing pit operators access to another 2.7 million tonnes of aggregate. The licence currently permits the company to ship a maximum of 150,000 tonnes of aggregate per year. The expansion would not increase that amount, as it would still apply to the total weight of aggregate allowed to be shipped out of the entire site (including the expansion).
Since the application was made in 2016, a group of residents, Friends of the Pretty River Valley, formed and put together a petition to protest the expansion. To date, the petition bears 1,085 signatures.
“Our focus should be preservation, not devastation,” Sinclair told the Committee of the Whole meeting of April 4.
Another presenter, Donald Avery, called for “sustainable, ecological development in the Pretty River Valley.”
The committee heard several deputations protesting the pit expansion over concerns such as increased traffic, noise, risk to the natural environment, potential contamination of groundwater that feeds residential wells in the area, and close proximity to protected lands.
Brian Zemen, president of MHBC Planning, also made a deputation on behalf of the applicant - 2223117 Ontario Inc.
Zemen said he wanted to clarify some information circulating about the pit, including the comparisons to the Duntroon Quarry.
“This is not a quarry,” said Zemen. “It is not located within the Niagara Escarpment plan, and it is not located in the park. A small portion of the site is adjacent to the park.”
In the case of a sand and gravel pit versus a quarry, the groundwater does not have to be pumped out to access the aggregate, said Zemen in his presentation.
He said traffic would not change because output of the quarry wouldn’t change, though that claim was met with skepticism from the residents present at the meeting.
Zemen said part of the reason his client wanted to open the expansion soon was to be able to mix together aggregate from above ground water with aggregate from below water (from the existing pit). He said the mix of sources creates a higher quality product.
He told committee and the group of residents the pit’s main function is to supply aggregate for local projects in Collingwood and The Blue Mountains.
Hours of operation at the pit are currently set at 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, with no extraction permitted until 7 a.m. On Saturdays, the pit is permitted to load and ship aggregate between the hours of 7 a.m. and noon, but there is no extraction or processing permitted on Saturdays. There is no operation at the pit on Sundays.
The application was before committee of the whole and will be before council because the lands where the expansion is proposed are currently zoned “rural” and would have to be rezoned as lands designated for mineral resource extraction in order to expand the pit operations.
A town staff report submitted by planner Denise Whaley details the timeline of the application and the studies submitted by the applicant related to the expansion. Read it here.
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