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<span class="td_page_author">Scott Tracey, Mercury staff for Tuesday
June 21st Guelph Mercury. <br>
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<h1> City will ask province to closely scrutinize quarry proposal </h1>
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<p>GUELPH — It may not have a direct impact on Guelph’s water, but
city officials still want the province to scrutinize a proposal
for a massive quarry in Dufferin County.</p>
<p>Members of the planning and building, engineering and
environment committee voted unanimously Monday to ask the
province to subject the proposal to an examination under the
Environmental Assessment Act.</p>
<p>City resident Karen Balcom, who has been vocal in her concerns
about the proposed 2,300-acre open pit mine in Melancthon
Township, asked officials to put some pressure on the province.</p>
<p>“Such a designation would trigger a far wider scientific
investigation of the proposal leveraging public resources and
requiring more study funded by the proponent,” Balcom said.</p>
<p>The proposal by The Highland Companies — which would result in
one of the largest open-pit quarries in North America — has
drawn wide attention, largely because the site is near the
headwaters of several major rivers.</p>
<p>A staff report presented to the committee this week makes clear
the proposed operation falls outside the Speed River
subwatershed “and is not considered to be a concern with respect
to either the quality or sustainability of Guelph’s water
supply.”</p>
<p>However, the staff report suggests “thorough reviews” of the
proposal by regulatory agencies and affected municipalities “to
ensure that adverse impacts on municipal water supply systems
and on the environment are eliminated or minimized.”</p>
<p>Last week, Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong, spoke out
against the quarry proposal in the House of Commons, calling for
a federal review of the application and suggesting it could be
“an environmental disaster in the making.”</p>
<p><i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:stracey@guelphmercury.com">stracey@guelphmercury.com</a></i></p>
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