As a Burlington resident…

As a Burlington resident living close to Associated Paving for more than 10 years, I am sick and tired of frequently being driven indoors by the asphalt odours originating at AP. It's a common occurrence during the warmer months for my wife and me to have to go inside to avoid a stench that is beyond unpleasant to the point of being physically irritating and worse. (Please note that this also discourages us from opening our windows - we rely on air conditioning more than we would otherwise). I often experience a burning sensation in my nose or throat, and on several occasions the smell has made my wife literally nauseated. On some mornings when she's leaving the house she has to put on a mask and hurry the short distance from our front door to the car so she doesn't get sick.

I'm also bothered by the backup alarms of the vehicles unloading and/or moving the aggregate. This frequently happens in the night-time hours, often between midnight and 6AM. It's not enough to wake me up, but if I wake up to go to the bathroom the noise makes it hard to get back to sleep.

Our quality of life is already much the worse as a result of Associate Paving - I don't even want to think about how much worse it must be for our neighbours who live closer to the plant. We want Associated's operations decreased, NOT increased, so we can enjoy our back yards and go for a walk in the summer without fear of being made ill. So an increase in production is simply unacceptable to us. I think we would all tolerate the occasional whiff of asphalt; but even at current production capacity, the smell is sometimes a problem for hours at a time.

If Associated's application is approved, then increased emissions from the plant proper are only part of the picture. Increased odours from the process of loading the asphalt into delivery trucks are also inevitable - and AP personnel themselves have noted that a significant portion of what we put up with occurs during that loading process. So an increase in production will, beyond any reasonable doubt, have further negative impacts on our health and well-being.

But the outlook for us, the residents, is even worse than that. The application specifies a conversion from "batch mix" to "drum mix". I'll let this quote speak for me:

"Drum mix plants are convenient for transportation because of their compact structure and where the project is of a smaller size. Here, quality protection from environmental contamination is not mandatory. If the grade requirement is low, the drum mix plant is suitable. As far as environmental protection and performance are considered, the asphalt batch mix plant is found to be a superior choice to the asphalt drum mix plant."

The above quote can be found at "https://www.ashitech.com/how-to-choose-between-a-drum-mix-asphalt-batch…;. Ashitec is a manufacturer of asphalt drum mix plants. Presumably they know what they're talking about, so I don't think I need to add anything to that summary. I'll just say that at this point, Associated seems to be prioritizing their profits over our health and our environment.

It just occurred to me that any expansion has yet another downside for local residents. If the emissions problems get even worse - and it seems very likely that they will - then our homes may go down in value, perhaps significantly. Additionally, a bigger emissions problem will likely mean that even more residents will be affected, so property values over an even larger area might go down.

We urge the ERO to deny this application. Blocking the expansion of the asphalt plant will save local residents from harms both physical and, possibly, financial. It will also send a message to Associated Paving that they need to have greater consideration for the safety and well-being of local residents, and for the environment in general. Increases in their profit cannot come at the expense of the people and the environment.