[All] Fwd: This mega quarry is really, really big

[Carole Clinch]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lake Ontario Waterkeeper <news at waterkeeper.ca>
Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1:32 PM
Subject: This mega quarry is really, really big
To:



<http://www.waterkeeper.ca>
Waterkeeper.ca Weekly:
May 4th, 2011

<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/>
www.waterkeeper.ca

 This mega quarry is really, really big


*When Lake Ontario Waterkeeper heard about the proposal for a new
mega-quarry in Melancthon Township, just outside of Orangeville, we weren’t
sure if we had the numbers right. As proposed, the quarry would occupy 937.1
hectares of prime agricultural land and extract water below the water table
at depths of 60 metres (200 feet). Picture a 20-storey hole in downtown
Toronto stretching from the Don Valley Parkway to Dufferin Street spanning
from the Gardiner Expressway to Dundas Street.*

We know a little something about quarries. Since 2005, Waterkeeper has been
an active intervenor<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/11/17/live-dispatches-from-nelson-quarry-hearing/>in
the hearing for the proposed Nelson Aggregate quarry in Burlington,
Ontario. Through Nelson, as well as other quarry licencing processes, we
have had a chance to study the impacts of aggregate extraction on the
environment. These include impacts on underground water flows, aquatic life,
ecology and threatened species.

In the case of the Nelson quarry expansion, we see many impacts to water:


   - Wetlands, headwaters, and creeks are drained, buried, or cut-off from
   their flow source;
   - Habitats are destroyed or encroached upon by development; and
   - Fish populations cannot reproduce as their breeding grounds are
   eliminated or blocked.

The Melancthon quarry is likely to have many of the same kinds of impacts.
Like Burlington, Melancthon is part of the Amabel
Formation<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/12/02/amabel-formation/>,
a layer of dolostone that constitutes a valuable
aquifer<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/12/03/aquifer/>.
The bedrock includes karst
<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/11/18/karst/>features, which are
formed when groundwater moves through limestone or
dolostone bedrock, slowly dissolving the rock and increasing its
permeability.

Waterkeeper submitted our formal
objection<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2011/04/19/waterkeeper-objects-to-melancthon-mega-quarry/>regarding
the Melancthon quarry under the
*Aggregate Resources Act* to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the
proponent (Highland Companies) on April 19th, 2011. This deadline for
objections under the *Aggregate Resources Act* has passed. Though you can no
longer formally object, the Ministry of Natural Resources extended the
Environmental Registry comment period 76 days to July 11, 2011 where you can
still make a submission. Visit the registry <http://bit.ly/eg8m8i> for more
information about the project and how to submit your own comments.

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