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Quarry expansion plan pits residents against company

Dec, 17 2004

Quarry expansion plan pits residents against company People at a crowded public meeting in Waverley (Halifax)on Wednesday night heard two very different takes on the proposed expansion of a nearby quarry. An official from Sovereign Resources said access to more rock would be a boon to the company, the community and different levels of government for decades to come, while vocal opponents argued it would ruin sightlines, change watercourses and perhaps even poison local lakes. The company, a subsidiary of Municipal Enterprises Ltd., operates a 19-hectare quarry on the east side of Rocky Lake Road. It is in the early stages of an environmental assessment of a plan to greatly expand the area it uses to quarry. The proposed new "footprint" could reduce the height of a hill that blocks the existing quarry from view from Waverley. A small army of officials from the company and environmental consulting firm Jacques Whitford standing by glossy diagrams outnumbered citizens at the Waverley fire hall shortly after 6 p.m., halfway through a scheduled four-hour open house. But an influx of area residents, organized by the group Concerned Citizens of Waverley, filled the room at about 6:30. Spokesman Jerry Wilkins wasted no time cornering local Tory MLA Gary Hines and a Jacques Whitford employee with his concerns. He argued the diagrams showing the expected impact on viewplanes were little comfort to people who live even partway up the incline from Portobello Road to Highway 118. Mr. Hines told Mr. Wilkins unless the environmental assessment turned up problems, the company had every right to enlarge the quarry. "Are you saying we as a community can't do anything about this?" Mr. Wilkins asked. "Not within the law, you can't," Mr. Hines replied. Earlier in the day, Mr. Hines sent out a glowing news release praising Sovereign Resources' unexpected purchase Tuesday of 119 hectares between the quarry and Lake William as a green buffer zone. In an interview, Mr. Wilkins said the community's concerns go beyond the possibility of having to look into a large quarry. He said the expansion would stir up dangerous chemicals left over from years of gold mining in the area. "There's arsenic and mercury and God knows what other kinds of toxins in the soil," he said. "They've finally settled into somewhere where they're not doing any harm right now. I guarantee if they lop the top off of that hill, we're going to see a whole lot more poisons in our lake." Mr. Wilkins was surrounded by a crowd of neighbours voicing their agreement. Taking a break from fielding questions, Sean O'Connor, Sovereign Resources' vice-president of business development, said if the proposal succeeds, residents won't see a hugely expanded quarry any time soon. "This is about looking down the road 30, 40, 50 years," he said. The plan would reduce traffic, dust and noise by crushing rocks and routing trucks in a nearby Municipal Enterprises quarry on an adjacent property, he said. While having access to resources is obviously important to the company, Mr. O'Connor said it should be important to governments and citizens too. "I know people don't necessarily like quarries but you need them to build roads and make concrete and stuff like that," he said. "If you have a quarry or two anywhere near metro, you should keep it, otherwise you're going to pay a lot more for every road you want to build." He said he was confident the environmental assessment would address concerns about viewplanes and the material left over from gold mining.

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