www.youtube.com/watch

PRESERVE PRIME FARMLAND, PROTECT OUR WATER, STOP THE MEGA QUARRY .  By: Donna Tranqada
 

About 90 minutes northwest of Toronto, in Dufferin County, is an area known as the Hills of Headwaters. It is the highest point of southern Ontario, rising 1700 feet above sea level, and is famous for its fertile land, great bounty of fruit, veggies etc. and natural beauty. It's also home to the Niagara Escarpment and is the headwaters for four major watersheds. But the Hills of Headwaters has also attracted the attention of a $22-billion Boston hedge fund known as the Baupost Group.

   A few years ago, Baupost set up the Highland Companies and, with the help of a Canadian frontman, it started buying up the richest farmland in Ontario. The land sits on a 15,000 acre plateau of soil known as Honeywood silt loam. It's the rarest vegetable soil in the province and is perfect for growing veggies, mainly potatoes, because of a huge limestone aquifer beneath the fields. The limestone is a natural drainage system for the crops. It's estimated that 50 percent of the potatoes consumed in the GTA come from this area. Highland has purchased half of the plateau - 7,500 acres -- and, at first, said it was in Ontario to grow potatoes.
 
   But soon there were rumours that Highland was far more interested in the limestone aquifer beneath the fields. Farmers noticed some well-drilling taking place. Then the company bulldozed and razed about 30 farmhouses, barns and woodlots, erasing any trace of the local pioneering heritage. Some of the homesteads dated back to the 1800s. (Erasing heritage or cultural features rules out one obstacle for Highland should its application end up before the OMB. The Board quashed a quarry application in Caledon last year for several reasons, including the loss of heritage or cultural features. Highland has now destroyed the heritage farms that would've played a role in a future hearing.)
 
   The suspicions of the local farmers turned out to be true when Highland filed a 3,000-page application with the province in March to rip up the fields and excavate the largest quarry in the country. It would be massive...spanning 2,300 acres in size , deeper than Niagara Falls and plunging 200 feet below the water table.
 
   In order to keep the pit from turning into a lake and draining the vital watersheds, Highland says it will have to pump 600-million-litres of water a day from the mega quarry -- forever. Forever! That's the same amount of water used by 2.7 million Ontarians each day. It also says it intends to farm the bottom of the pit once the limestone is extracted, but admits only 'suitable' land will be rehabilitated in the decades to come. There's also the issue of traffic -- up to 7,200 gravel trucks a day on local roads and Highways 400/401 as the limestone is trucked to aggregate markets. Plus, the mega quarry would be adjacent to the Niagara Escarpment -- a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. The Florida Everglades and Galapagos Islands are also World Biosphere Reserves. The threat to the neighbouring environment is staggering.
 
  There are deep concerns about the permanent loss of the richest farmland in the province at a time when local and secure food supplies are critical. Dozens of Toronto restaurants, grocers and farmers' markets rely on this supply of nutritious, accessible local food for their appreciative customers. As well, the aquifer is the source of four major watersheds including the Grand, Credit and Nottawsaga rivers. Blasting through that aquifer would be catastrophic for fresh water supplies. Relying on pumps to run forever is foolhardy. Frankly, it is a disaster in the making.
 
 In addition to filing objections with the provincial government by July 11th, Ontarians are also being urged to ask the province for a special Environmental Assessment of the mega quarry. Under current legislation, no quarry of any size is subject to an EA in Ontario. Unbelievable. This is the current major thrust of our campaign.
Please visit the farmers' website www.ndact.com   and the local citizens' group  www.citizensalliance.ca  It was the farmers who notified the city weekenders that Highland was up to something and they needed help.

Here is the link for registering your comments before July 11th and addresses of those we are sending emails to:

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTEyNTY2&statusId=MTY4ODI5&language=en
 
dmcguinty.mpp@liberal.ola.org  Premier Dalton McGuinty
 
sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org  Dufferin MPP
jwilkinson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org   John Wilkinson, Minister of the Enviroment
ljeffrey.mpp@liberal.ola.org   Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources