Letter to the Editor – Donna Baylis Concerns Over Cornwall Gravel Quarry Request in South Stormont Ontario

Dear Editor,
In my fight to stop a proposed mega-quarry northwest of Toronto, I have made it a hobby to check the Government of Ontario’s Environmental Registry on a regular basis. 
Your readers may be interested to know that Cornwall Gravel Company Limited has applied for a new 25 hectare / 62 acre below-the-water-table pit and quarry operation with unlimited tonnage in the Township of South Stormont (www.ebr.gov.on.ca / #011-6881).  The registry is allowing for public comments regarding this application until September 17, 2012. 
These aggregate proposals have a tendency to sneak up on people and communities.  The sooner the community can get involved in the application approval process, the greater the chance of having a voice in the outcome.  Note that commenting via the EBR online is not an official objection.  An objector must contact the Ministry of Natural Resources directly.  See the EBR for details.

There are many reasons to pay attention to this licence application.  Broad concerns are:  loss of water quality, loss of prime farmland, food security, community impact, health impact, loss of long-term jobs, blasting impact, explosives transportation and storage, additional heavy traffic, dust, loss of air quality, noise pollution, environmental impact, potential to take water, water ownership, potential to export, rehabilitation and site after-use.

Remember in today’s society Silence Means Consent.
Donna Baylis – Creemore Ontario

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4 Comments

  1. Would make a good swimming hole when they are done. Clorinate and circulatew/filtering processers and presto.
    Repatriation or road building or other structures have to come from somewhere. Your concerns have a measure of validity however, the greater good of having the contents of the qurry repatriate other areas out weigh your concerns.
    If the rock site is not drawn from here then from where else and your same arguements may also apply there. Heck if they drew rock from the bottom of the St. Lawerence someone would complain about the fish habitat.
    With your arguement you MUST provide a viable soluton. To shut down the economy because of it makes for frivolous reasoning, though full of heart.

  2. Thank you Cornwall free news for printing this letter as this is certainly a local issue.

    Cornwall gravel company and its McLeod Quarry (cornwall) on southbranch is where the new section of quarry Is.

    Many locals around the area of the quarry -(neighbors) have indicated their displeasure as well as present problems with Quarry at the open meeting.

    At this open meeting it was brought up that their Greely quarry -(south of Ottawa ) several years ago -the neighbors of 15 households ran dry of water.

    The ministry of natural resources had enforced Cornwall Gravel to provide water trucks to these households after much effort from the locals .

    There are at least 135 households that may be affected .
    many at the meeting had discussed about e-coli bacteria in one well as well as the many structural problems with their foundation as well as the blasting affect (turning their water black with sediment)and the need to buy expensive water treatment systems.

    Additional concerns was the ash-fault plant and its environmental impact on the neighbors with regards to breathing conditions .

    Cornwall gravel has another pit at gravel hill approx 15 km away .Mc Leod Quarry already sits on the city limits -its truly unknown as to how many the gravel pit effects on the city side.

    South stormont plans on an open meeting with council and allow the locals to speak of their concerns -thank you Mayor Bryan McGillis .

    Cornwall Gravel has been known not to play nice with neighbors ,
    Lets hope the neighbors recognize this and stand up against the neighborly bully!

  3. Dukers1,
    Thank you for your comments!

    Chris,
    It seems that someone has misinformed you. Cornwall Gravel was NOT forced to supply temporary water to our neighbours at Greely. It was done voluntarily, even though most of them were out of water due to the drought.
    Furthermore, we agreed to re-drill them new wells to prevent any chance of their water supply being interrupted by our future quarry activities. Again, this was of our own volition. All of this was studied by a profession hydrogeologist and reported back to the appropriate governement representatives.
    We will have experts present at the next public meeting to field and questions on hydrogeology or blasting. All of our blasts at the MacLeod quarry are monitored by at least two seismographs.
    If anyone has any specific concerns that haven’t been addressed by the technical reports, please send them to:

    Tracy Zander, M.Pl., MCIP, RPP
    Planning Consultant
    ZanderPlan Inc.
    P.O. Box 20148
    Perth, Ontario
    K7H 3M6

    and a copy to our office:
    Peter Grant
    390 Eleventh St. W.
    Cornwall, Ont.
    K6K 1V8

    We will investigate the concern and try to come to a resolution.

    Sincerely,

    Peter Grant
    Cornwall Gravel Co. Ltd.

  4. As your people have told me on several occasions.

    It’s just business!! ……with the impact of 130 + households.

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