I am the owner of a cattle…

I am the owner of a cattle operation in Rockwood Ontario and having been involved with a proposed quarry application called the Hidden Quarry, I am opposed to filling spent pits and quarries with excess soil no matter how high a quality the soil is to be used. Usually these spent pits and quarries have some contact with groundwater especially quarries that go into the bedrock close to the deep aquifers that supply our groundwater. All gravel and rock layers that remain in these spent pits/quarries that act as aquitards have cracks and fractures that allow penetration of surface water into the aquifer. In the absence of the filtering capacity of overburden and gravel excess soil may contain contaminants that may leach into the aquifer. One only has to remember the Walkerton E.coli O157 outbreak to see how contaminated soil can lead to significant health impacts to our communities.

I also agree with the points that Gravel Watch Ontario has submitted to the Ministry:

1. The timeline is too short to address the ERO and the implications for communities if excess soil is dumped in pits and quarries. An extension of at least another 45 days would provide and opportunity to properly analyze the proposed regulations.

2. Municipalities require funds and testing tools to develop, monitor and enforce excess soil regulations. Testing of soil samples needs to be at the expense of the companies profiting from soil dumping, not at a cost to municipal taxpayers.

3. There is no justification for placing soil into groundwater. Pits often have groundwater present in excavation sites. Placing soil into groundwater has the potential for disastrous results on the surrounding community.

4. No extensive testing of the impact of dumping potentially contaminated excess soils in pits and quarries has been completed by the Ministry. Dumping of excess soil into pits could pose new and long-lasting threats to ground and surface water. Drinking water as well as farmlands and forests may be contaminated with these soils. There also could be concerns about the cumulative impact of these contaminants.

5. There should be municipal oversight of the importation of soil for rehabilitation through site alteration and/or commercial fill by-laws and this oversight provides for consideration of local impacts. Restore trust with the public by providing an exemption to ARA Sec 66 to allow Municipal bylaws to enforce standards on incoming fill/soil when a license is in force.

6. There should be no self-filing by industry. These regulations allow any company that dumps under 10,000 cubic metres of excess soil to self-file (not require a public consultation) under this new regulation. This amount of soil is equivalent to a hockey rink filled with 6 metres deep of soil.

7. The use of excess soil in pits and quarries does not include regulations concerning returning the landscape to former grade levels, which means a reduction in total lands available to agriculture.

Quarries and Pits are not the place for excess soil! It is just another money grab by the aggregate industry to make rehabilitation more cost effective!

8. There should not be one qualified person (QP) determining the outcome of the impacts of excess soil dumping. An inter-disciplinary group of experts should be created to evaluate the excess soil dumping proposal.