We have not received any…

We have not received any supporting documentation from the Ministry so our comments do not take this potentially available information into consideration. Having said this, we do have several concerns with this ECA request ERO 019-7705 submitted by Galibier Materials. The first issue is that the ECA request is for an INDUSTRIAL SEWAGE system at the Lewis Pit. What kind of industrial sewage are we talking about, and will this be running constantly? We are already getting significant dust (with potentially higher than acceptable silica levels) from the existing pit lot, the contamination that will occur with a new industrial sewage system is just not acceptable given all the protected species of wildlife and flora in the immediate area. Furthermore, the submission indicates that there will be a source water pond and 3 settling basins located on the pit floor, which is a mere 1.5 metres from the water table. This facility is directly on top of a recognized Significant pure water recharge area for Simcoe County and the natural filtering abilities provided by layers of rock and stone has already been severely compromised by the pit mining over the years. The contaminated water in these settling basins will easily, quickly and regularly eek into this significant pure water recharge area. It will also naturally run downhill into the Significant Minesing Wetlands given that the existing pit is located near the top of a hill. How will Galibier guarantee there is no leaching of contaminants into the ground and how will this be monitored to ensure this does not happen?