Residents are fighting to protect what tests have shown is some of the more pure water in the world. The threat? Aggregate mining.
On January 14, 2021, a permit to take water (PTTW) was granted allowing CRH Canada, and more specifically its subsidiary, Dufferin Aggregates, to take nearly 1.5 million litres of water per day to wash aggregate extracted from their mining operation.
On January 27th Tiny Township Council unanimously voted to appeal the PTTW to the Environmental Review Tribunal.
There has been a long fight to protect what some tests have shown to be some of the most pure water anywhere in the world. The primary threat to this water is aggregate mining.
An application to expand the pit was submitted in 2012. You can see the area proposed for expansion, outlined in yellow, on the image below.
Expansion of the quarry would cause an increase in traffic to and from the mine, with an estimated 40 trucks an hour passing through the area. This is nearly one large truck per minute.
The aggregate industry has a terrible record of rehabilitation.
This is something they are required by law to do, but, for the most part, they don’t, and they get away with it.
In their 2006/2007 report, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario noted that 100 out of 121 operations surveyed had not done the rehabilitation activities required under the Aggregate Resources Act.
We’ve been dealing with losing our natural spaces and farmland to sprawl in this region for a long time. It’s been the main way we’ve grown our communities for decades, and we continue to do so, even though it’s outdated and extremely wasteful, today.
Many people know the Greenbelt as a place that protects farmland and preserves green spaces. To many it is seen as a last refuge of vast tracts of land that allow for recreational activities and local food production.
However, the Greenbelt, by preserving those lands, provides services to our communities essentially without charge.
We can no longer treat land use as its own issue, nor can we always assume that growth is always a net benefit to our communities. This is simply not true. We can grow our communities in ways that provide affordable housing, protect our natural spaces and water and aspire to create healthy, vibrant centres where people can live and work.
York Region is planning to increase its capacity for wastewater treatment. The rationale is that this is required to meeting a projected increase of roughly 150,000 in population by 2031.
A key aspect of this project that is important to recognize that it is more than the sum of its parts. The EA for the project, on its own, does not capture the impacts the wastewater treatment facility will have on the region.
The provincial government is proposing a highway that would connect the 404 with the 400. The proposed route passes along the northern edge of Bradford, and through portions of the Holland Marsh.
The Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition and allies across the region and province have strongly advocated for the expansion of the Greenbelt since 2017. In fact, over 90 groups including prominent individuals such as David Crombie released a report earlier today which outlines five requirements the provincial government must follow to ensure that Greenbelt expansion improves the environmental and financial health of Ontarians…
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