[GREN-Exec] Fw: Forget Paving Paradise --- Make Malancthon into a big hole

[Randy B. McLean]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: holt 
To: karrenwallace at sympatico.ca >> Karren Wallace 
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 9:58 AM
Subject: Forget Paving Paradise --- Make Malancthon into a big hole


To Gravel Watch Ontario members:

Megaquarry in the works ---

There is quite a good and interesting article and discussion on the proposed megaquarry in Malancthon (Dufferin county, near Shelbourne).  A multinational, Highland Companies seems set to make this farming area into a big hole, a multi-thousand acre hole.  Will the Province of Ontario, with its policy that gravel trumps all, help Highland carry this out?

       Ric Holt
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See the article:  http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php 
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Forget Paving Paradise, Let's Just Dig a Giant Hole in It



The farmland of Dufferin County looks exactly the way you'd imagine: softly rolling hillsides, the landscape dotted with old clapboard barns and quaint country houses, wooden fences neatly marking off the lots. Nestled in this terrain, about an hour and half northwest of Toronto, is the township of Melancthon (population 2,895), a small community that has been an agricultural centre for many generations' worth of farmers. The soil in this region-Honeywood silt loam-is said by local farmers to be unique in southern Ontario, and is particularly, ideally well-suited for growing potatoes. 

This soil, which both holds water very well and drains very well, happens to sit on top of another valuable commodity-limestone. Under the farmland of Melancthon is a rich deposit of Amabel dolomitic limestone, which is prized for its strength and durability. Limestone is what's called an aggregate resource; according to Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), aggregate resources "include any combination of sand, gravel, or crushed stone in a natural or processed state. Aggregates are used in the construction of highways, dams, and airports, as well as residential, industrial and institutional buildings." The limestone in Melancthon is, by all accounts, both plentiful and of excellent quality, and would be in high demand if brought to market. 

Since 2006 a corporate entity called The Highland Companies, which describes itself as "the operating and investment vehicle for a group of private investors based in Canada and the United States," has been buying up parcels of land in Melancthon, purchasing it from local farmers and putting together a consolidated potato farming operation. The company's intentions, however, are more complicated. Sometime in the next few months The Highland Companies will be filing an application to open a 2,400 acre limestone quarry in Melancthon, hoping to turn a significant portion of its farmland (it owns approximately 7,500 acres in Melancthon) over to aggregate extraction.


etc etc etc  See the article:  http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php 

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