I am a citizen of Cambridge…

I am a citizen of Cambridge living in the western limits of the City. I experience first hand the adverse effects of the 40 plus gravel pit operations to the west, in North Dumfries (dust, noise, traffic, etc.) Residents of the Town of Caledon, likewise are exposed to many, very large gravel operations and similar adverse impacts. As the 2023 Auditor General’s audit of aggregate resources concluded, the cumulative impact of colocated gravel operations is not understood and should be assessed as a priority.

The current proposal is for the importation of over 11 million cubic meters of excess soil to fill the Caledon Pit (Licence 6506) to the pre-extraction grade. There are several problems with this:

1) The pit has been extracted to below the water table and the proposal would involve depositing imported soil directly into established lakes, creating the possibility of serious contamination of groundwater.

2) As well, filling the Caledon Pit to grade would be a major change to the Site Plan for the pit requiring approval, surrender of the Licence and rezoning of the land to allow importation of fill. (Note that the property is zone MX by the Town of Caledon; this allows gravel removal only, not fill dumping.)

3) The importation of excess soil would require surrendering the licence, obtaining a zoning change approval and submitting a detailed plan for the filling operation for review and approval by the Ministry of Environment and any other jurisdictions having authority. Specifically, the effects of: a) the excess soil fill on the Caledon Outwash Channel (a vulnerable area for Caledon Village Well 3/38) that is entirely located within the pit, and b) the haul route and traffic analysis, need to be done.

4) Formal review and approval of the above plan would require the standard process of consulting stakeholders, listening to input received and addressing relevant and significant issues regarding potential adverse effects as defined in the Environmental Protection Act (EPA).

5) The proposed fill operation would likely go on for decades and potential adverse effects (e.g. impairment of the underlying potable aquifer) might take many years beyond that. Projects of this kind require strict quality controls on the imported fill, by Qualified Persons (see Ontario Reg. 406/19 under the EPA), backed up by financial securities guaranteeing that resources will be available should any adverse effects manifest themselves. Citizens of Caledon or the rest of Ontario should not be saddled with covering such contingencies.

Until those steps are executed successfully, it is too soon to proceed with this proposal.