Nelson Aggregate moves forward with plan to blast Niagara Escarpment
Nuclear expert to speak in Port Hope
Jim Harding, author of the recently published book, Canada's Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System, will speak at the Port Hope High School at 1 PM, Saturday, March 29, 2008. Dr. Harding's presentation “Uranium: Anything But Clean and Green†will discuss the nuclear industry in a local, national, and global context.
The event is co-sponsored by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee. A fundraiser for the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee immediately follows the presentation.
Saturday March 29, 2008, 1:00pm Port Hope High School 130 Highland Drive
Contact: Mark Mattson, President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Tel: (416) 861-1237 Email: Mark@waterkeeper.ca
Faye More, Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee Tel: (905) 885-7991 E-mail: more_faye@yahoo.com
On Tuesday, March 11, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper received a letter from Norm Elmhirst, President of Nelson Aggregate. The letter informed us the company is ready to proceed with its quarry expansion.
Nelson – a partnership between Lafarge and Steed and Evans Holdings – has been operating a quarry near Burlington for close to 60 years, producing 2-million tonnes of aggregate annually. Today's quarry is nearly exhausted, and it is slated to be converted to greenspace. Now that Nelson has asked the province to licence a new quarry right next door, restoration is on hold and we could see yet another hole gouged into the Escarpment.
Citizens' groups led by Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL), including Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, filed objections to the quarry expansion in June 2006. In the last two years, we have asked that scientific and technical studies on the rock, water and wildlife found in the proposed quarry area be completed; we have recommended that the Niagara Escarpment Plan not be changed to make room for a new quarry; and, we have suggested that a public hearing only begin once the science is in. Again, under the leadership of Sarah Harmer and PERL, residents and nonprofit groups have commissioned scientific studies, including key reviews of Mount Nemo's significant wetlands and hydrogeology.
We have been given twenty days to submit any unresolved objections. Our original objection is based on concerns that Nelson is asking to open a quarry in an environmentally sensitive area without enough study or scrutiny. In 1990, UNESCO designated the Escarpment as World Biosphere Reserve. The site is home to many valuable natural features, including woodlands and wetlands that are home to at least two threatened species (e.g., Jefferson Salamander, Butternut tree), 60,000 trees planted to purify the region's air, and tributaries of six different watersheds.
Waterkeeper will be working on our comment this week, due by April 4th 2008. We will offer our best advice to government decision-makers, in the hopes of protecting the Escarpment's waters and wetlands. In the meantime, you can learn more about the issue or comment on the proposal here:
Listen to this week's Living at the Barricades Podcast with Sarah Harmer and environmental lawyer David Donnelly. Listen to a September 2007 Living at the Barricades interview with Sarah Harmer and learn more about threats to the Niagara Escarpment. Visit the PERL website. Visit the Nelson Aggregate website.