[All] article on Growth Gravel and Groundwater

[Norah & Richard]

Good coverage on the meeting we help in Guelph a couple of weeks ago. 
This paper is very receptive to water articles and letters to the editor 
on the GR watershed . and thanks John for presenting! . Norah

Growth, Gravel, and Groundwater proved to be a very political topic

by David Meyer, Wellington Advertiser

GUELPH

In the middle of Canadian Environment Week, the city’s branch of the 
Council of Canadians presented Grow­th, Gravel and Ground­water to an 
audience of about 100 at Har­court Memorial United Church on June 3.

The panel consisted of Rick Holt, of GravelWatchOntario, John Jackson, 
of the Grand River Environmental Network, and Rob Uffen, of the North 
Duf­ferin Agriculture and Com­mu­nity Taskforce.

Holt announced another pit proposed in his area, plus an­other five 
coming to Woolwich Township. He said he had read about trucks “taking 
down the [Niagara] escarpment. They use the gravel to build roads and 
then they help wreck the roads.”

He said the gravel industry is “very powerful, and very hard to stop. 
The gravel in­dustry extracts 170 million tons of gravel every year in 
Ontario, and five per cent of all man made carbon dioxide comes from the 
making of cement.

Holt showed slides of the Big Lake project in Puslinch, and noted 
Highway 401 runs right through that project. He said the water there 
used to be underground and was protec­ted, but a spill now of any type 
of chemical on Highway 401 near there would go right into the water supply.

“Do we need gravel? Yes, but how much?” he asked, adding, “How do we 
live with this mess?”

But, he said, gravel owners are getting scared because of all of the new 
legislation, such as the Green Belt, acts to protect the Oak Ridges 
Morraine and the Niagara Escarpment and the Clean Water Act.

“We are getting greener,” he said. “It’s going to be tougher to get a pit.”

He noted there have been some constructive steps and people such as 
himself and his organization are now “sitting down with the industry.” 
He said he is working with the Ministry of Natural Resources, and 
“trying to figure out ... how to decrease the amount [of gravel] we use.”

He cited two recent victo­ries over pit owners, in Pus­linch with the 
Cranberry Area Ratepayers Association and one big pit in Flamborough.

During the question period, the University of Guelph took flak because 
it owns a 300-acre pit in Guelph that some people allege has caused 
problems with Mill Creek, and because experts say it should have been 
shut down years ago. The speaker noted the uni­versity teaches 
environmental science and then causes envi­ron­mental problems, which is 
“wrong.”

As for Puslinch’s Big Lake, one audience member said the gravel industry 
is expecting Can­adian taxpayers to pay the costs for rehabilitating old 
pits.

But Holt noted that some pits have suffered setbacks, and “The industry 
has been put on notice it’s not a free game any more. U of G will be 
embar­rassed if you keep at them,” he said.

Big pipe project

John Jackson of the Grand River Environment Network talked about the 
idea for a water pipeline from Lake Erie to the Region of Waterloo.

The 100km pipeline would cost $1.2-billion, so the region is hoping to 
get others involved in between for their own water supply. But, Jackson 
said, Lake Erie is a poor candidate for such a scheme. It is the 
shal­lowest of the Great Lakes, it has pollution problems, algae blooms, 
red, blue, and green algae that is a microtoxin, plus all kinds of 
invasive species such as zebra mussels. Those species, he said, are 
bringing to the water some long-bur­ied PCBs. He also mentioned botulism 
and neuro toxins that may cause health problems.

Jackson said it will take 40 years to build the pipeline, and by then 
the lake could be in even worse condition.

He said there are better ways to ensure a good water supply, and one is 
conserva­tion. He noted that Guelph and the Region of Waterloo are 
already doing a better job of conservation than most of the province.

He said it is time to build homes with cisterns, and to use better 
technology to conserve water.

And, he said, “We act as if everything has to be drinking water quality. 
It’s an incredible waste of money.”

He said homes should be built with tanks that allow shower water to be 
collected for flushing toilets, and filtered rain water in cisterns 
could be used for washing clothes.

During the question period, one audience member noted Guelph has taken 
its partici­pation in the big pipe “off the table.”

The speaker asked what citi­zens can do to conserve water.

Jackson many water conser­vation ideas can no longer re­main voluntary, 
and govern­ment is going to have to en­force many of them by laws.

He said there is technology to allow different water uses safely.

He noted other places are already doing some of the things he had 
mentioned, and he said Canadians “consume three times the water of other 
countries.”

Big pits and more

Rob Uffen, of the North Dufferin Agriculture and Com­mu­nity Taskforce, 
said his area is under major threat.

The jazz musician said most of his work is in activism and telling 
people who is behind some of the major proposals there. One company came 
to Melancthon and Mono Town­ships ostensibly to buy farms for potatoes, 
and it now plans to turn it into an 8,500 acre pit.

He said it has reached the point where governments are subordinate to 
multi-nationals, and he expects the pit, at the head of the watershed, 
could easily create water problems in the future.

Uffen said there are other major problems in Dufferin County, including 
Orica plan­ning an explosives storage area near Grand Valley, wind 
tur­bines everywhere, and Shel­burne now considering a plas­tics 
operation in that commu­nity. Melancthon also has the largest wind 
turbine project in Canada. He said the shift is from agriculture to a 
huge industrial base.

Uffen outlined the lobby groups, their ties to such people as Premier 
Dalton McGuinty’s former staff, and “all sorts of initiatives being 
taken in Melancthon.” One of the people he named was in the audience and 
said there were no secret plots, and he was there to hear people’s 
opinions.

Uffen replied, to applause, “I do not condone one portion of the scheme 
you represent.”

A former Eramosa resident asked what a farmer can do when he wants to 
retire and someone offers a huge amount of month.

Uffen said farmers can answer that, but he noted in his area, companies 
had used “strong-arm tactics on small farmers.”

There were several more questions to end the meeting. One person who 
claimed to be under the $5-million law suit by the City of Guelph and 
Belmont Equity Holdings Ltd. for occupying the Hanlon Creek Business 
Park lands last year, asked why the group didn’t recommend more 
“phy­si­cal” action to stop pro­jects.

Most of the panel argued photo opportunities for news­papers and 
television are more likely to generate good pub­licity than physical 
methods of protests, such as blockades.

Holt said, “We have to follow the rules” and said good behaviour will 
achieve much more than lawbreaking.

He said every time there is a newspaper article, it gets clipped and 
save, and when the pile gets big enough to fall over, government will 
start to react.