[All] Fw: Jig's Hollow and how we can still stop it.

Tue Jan 1 10:34:15 EST 2013

Hi folks

Happy New Years! 

Eleanor dropped me a quick note this morning about Jigg's Hallow and how the OMB approved it.  I sent her an email on how the public can still have a say on this issue. 

We've helped killed Melancthon, but we can help put the pressure on Kuntz and Preston Gravel to help stop Jigg's Hallow as they seek their water permit,  we can help folks in West Montrose with Capital Paving's request by the Kissing Bridge and lend a hand to the folks in Paris Ontario to stop that outdated Dufferin quarry pit. Strategies on how we can help are below for your reference. 

Pay particular regard to the report written by Gord Miller. That report states:  the Grand River watershed has over 700 active PTTWs, (Permits to Take Water) with permits constantly being issued, renewed and expiring, including significant municipal water takings. It is hard to envision how MOE could have evaluated cumulative impacts in such watersheds prior to the development of water budgets.

That single phrase can inspire the policy shifts we need to see. Clearly the need is there for Ontario to create a more reasonable and predictable model. Is this something that GREN would like to champion in the days ahead?  

Also, quick reminder, Maude Barlow is coming to Paris Ontario on January 12th to lend support for the folks in Paris working to stop the Duffern Quarry Pit. More details on time and place will follow soon. 

Below is the note I sent to Eleanor on ways we can help save the Grand and Waterloo Moraine from harmful pits. 

Lulu :0)

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
To: Eleanor Grant <eleanor7000 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 10:09:07 AM
Subject: Re: Jig's Hollow

Hi Eleanor

OMB approved a gravel pit by Jiggs Hallow and residents are still fighting this below water table pit. 
http://observerxtra.com/2/news/residents-call-on-council-to-reverse-jigs-hollow-pit/

(The one near the Kissing Bridge is an application by Capital Paving. Jiggs Hallow is one regarding a below water pit application by Kuntz and Preston Sand and Gravel.) 

Generally, pit applications are tough to stop because the MNR has never once declined a pit application in their history and with the current laws, any pit owner can put one anywhere in Southern Ontario. Doesn't matter if it's on A1 farmland, or in our Region's ESL areas technically speaking because the province has no regard for local environmental protection constraints. The ESL is not protected from pits unless we attach some sort of provincial law on top to protect them like, basically we could use the Greenbelt Act.

This doesn't mean the Jiggs Hallow project is game over yet. They still must take a water permit application using the Environmental Bill of Rights. That means, the public will have the chance to give feedback and if they can't take that water, it could kill that project! They have yet to list this project in the EBR registry but we have to monitor this site for when that takes place. It's online here: http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/searchNotice0.jsp?clearForm=true&menuIndex=1_1&language=en

Last year we did almost have a stage 3 drought this summer and we qualified for it but the process to get there is unreasonably difficult and long to get to. Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller wrote a special report about this matter here: 
http://www.ecoissues.ca/index.php/Water-Taking:_Leave_Something_for_the_Fish 

In the attachments is a document specific to Waterloo Region's pit issues created by MPP Leeanna Pendergast. That's a handy doc to reference. This is the presentation that launched the move to revise the Province's Aggregate Act. 

I created a power point for the Aggregate Act revision with info that could be used as well. http://www.slideshare.net/Waterloomoriane/ara-submission-lanteigne-aggregate-risks-gdp-impacts

Climate Change has brought us to the point we can reasonably use the rocks vs. food argument because workable farmlands with a water supply are in dramatic decline globally speaking.  Food means more jobs, more money and greater economic prosperity than aggregates. I used this slide to help stop a racetrack project but the food issues are based on the most current available data. It's the same info we can use to help stop pits: http://www.slideshare.net/Waterloomoriane/raceway

If there are enough public comments on the EBR website submitted, the company might back out. That is in part, how they killed Melancthon. Thousands wrote in for both air and water discharge permits and the company is by law, supposed to address each concern before getting the permit. In the end, the company simply quit the project. We could do the same for Jiggs Hallow.

Feel free to circulate this!

Lulu :0)

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