Compromises reached in pit dispute
By Valerie MacDonald
Local News - Thursday, November 16, 2006 @ 09:00
A fight by a local citizens group to reduce the impact of a proposed gravel pit operation near Grafton is meeting with success in the midst of an ongoing Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing.
"There is an agreement in principle," Valley Voices' solicitor, Virginia MacLean, told OMB chair Jason Chee-Hing yesterday.
"We just have details to work out."
There is also a separate agreement in the works with adjacent property owners, Margaret and Hank Jensen, Shelter Valley Aggregates' lawyer Stan Stein added during the session in the council chambers of the Grafton municipal building. The hall was filled with witnesses, residents and neighbours.
Because these agreements can still go off the rails, Mr. Stein asked Mr. Chee-Hing to hear evidence about what details had been worked out so far. With that proviso, planner Dan Parken was asked to identify concessions made by the proponent of the gravel pit at the request of Valley Voices' lawyer during his testimony.
Short of the aggregate operation not being established at all between Shelter Valley and Turk roads, there is an impressive list of changes won by Shelter Valley Voices in order to protect the natural area.
This detailed list is to become part of the conditions of approval for the pit under the Aggregate Resources Act.
It includes monitoring area water supplies, reducing noise and dust for nearby homeowners, improving the visual imposition of the operation on the wooded, hilly area, lessening the impact of truck traffic, and even cleaning up long-buried barrels of DDT which are on the proposed site.
Referring to an updated site plan and series of maps with accompanying notes dated Nov. 14, Mr. Parken outlined how aggregate will be taken from less of the 56-acre site which lies south of Shelter Valley Road and west of County Road 25, than previously proposed. There are to be wider set backs, more buffers and extensive areas in both the north east and south east corners where no extraction will take place at all to protect existing woods in the south and the vistas in the north, the hearing heard. As a result, the "maximum area to be (subject to) extraction is about 34.4 hectares," the hearing was told.
Work on the site will begin near the newly agreed upon entrance/exit site to be located in a lower elevation than proposed. This is to muffle noise and camouflage the road on the eastern boundary of the proposed pit. The most southerly quadrant will be developed first and the shielding berms removed as extraction moves northward, Mr. Chee-Hing heard. The berm at the northwest corner will remain after the pit is closed in order to protect the Jensens' asparagus fields north of that location. There will also be a berm on the western boundary of the property adjacent to the Jensens' pond.
Part of the reason for the adjournment of the OMB hearing over a week ago was to survey and establish the level of the ground water table. The gravel operation will not dig down any closer to it than 1.5 metres. Valley Voices wanted this water table information updated, the hearing was told.
In addition, the pit licence will establish four, instead of the proposed two, groundwater monitors to establish a base line in the south west and south east corners of the operation.
"Water levels will be monitored when the pit is in operation in order to confirm the established water table over the duration of the operation and ensure that no extraction occurs within 1.5-metres of the established groundwater table," the site plan notes state.
Dust will be controlled in various ways including the planting of vegetation. In addition, 6,000 seedlings will be planted.
While there is no Ministry of Environment order to dig up barrels of DDT buried on the proposed gravel pit site, this must be undertaken as soon as possible, the OMB hearing participants were informed. This is historical waste - quite separate and apart from the closed, municipal dump site near Turk Road West. Contamination anywhere in the pit must be cleaned up before extraction takes place, the site notes state.
In addition, the unmaintained Turk Road East road allowance must be constructed by the proponent, to municipal standards. This will be the route for hauling the aggregate from the site.
There is to be a evening session of the OMB hearing on Thursday night starting at 7 p.m. to allow participants and the public to make submissions. Mr. Chee-Hing said the meeting will go ahead as planned, even with the pending agreements.
