May 2006 Meeting

Halton Public Meeting

Lowndes Holdings Corp Quarry Application

May 3rd, 2006 Milton District High School

 

One hundred and fifty disgruntled citizens from Halton and Flamborough filled the cafeteria of the Milton District High School on Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 to attend a meeting called by Helma Geerts, Senior Planner, Planning & Transportation Services, Halton Region. The topic for discussion was the proposal by Lowndes Holdings Corp. to construct a quarry on the 11th concession of Flamborough directly across from the Halton / Hamilton border.

The meeting contained presentations from:

• Helma Geerts, Halton Senior Planner
• Steven Rowe, the Aggregate Resources Specialist (City of Hamilton) who chairs the application review committee charged with examining the quarry proposal
• Bob Long, the environmental engineer and consultant to Lowndes Holdings, and
• Graham Flint, chairperson of FORCE.

Delegations were heard from fifteen citizens who articulated concerns that included:

• worries about truck traffic and personal safety,
• threats to emergency services,
• interference with water quantity,
• risk to water quality,
• harm to the endangered butternut tree, and the at risk redside dace (fish)
• questions about the depth and breadth of experience within Lowndes Holdings Corp to operate the 8th largest quarry in Canada,
• questions about the financial ability of Lowndes Holdings Corp. to compensate citizens should the worst events happen leaving them without adequate or potable water.

Mr. David Lowndes, the proponent, sat in the audience for the meeting and did not speak even when questions were directed to him. Mr. Long answered questions on his behalf. Despite having promised 3 weeks earlier to provide the City of Hamilton with details on the water mitigation strategy that is present in the application, Mr. Long was still not ready to provide a full comment on groundwater re-circulation. Nor was he prepared to answer any question about the financial status of Lowndes Holdings.

Meeting Agenda:

Region of Halton - Lowndes Flamborough Quarry Public Meeting Agenda (49 KB)

Lowndes Holdings Corp. Presentation Slides:

Information Meeting Summary - Robert J. Long, Senior Environmental Engineer & Planner (586 KB)

(note: this link will take you to Lowndes Holdings Corp. presentation from the Hamilton meeting on April 6th. The Halton meeting was held to specifically address issues that would potentially impact Halton residents such as haul routes and local water quality. Lowndes Holdings Corp. chose to make the same presentation used at the Hamilton Public Information Meeting.)

FORCE Presentation Slides:

Adobe Acrobat Format (379 KB)

Power Point Slides (1.72 MB)

Delgation Presentations:

A session for pre-registered delegates followed the formal presentations made by the Region of Halton, the City of Hamilton and the proponents agent. Each individual delegate was given up to 5 minutes to deliver some prepared remarks.

Thank you to our neighbours for making the effort and taking the time to step up and speak up! They have helped to continue to advance our case.

Delegates:

1. FORCE - Graham Flint (10 minutes presentation)
2. Margaret McCarthy, Councillor, Flamborough
3. Kevin Friesen, Milton
4. Mark Simone, Hamilton
5. Jim Harding
6. Tom Weinstein
7. Bonnie Lendrum
8. Esau Lewin
9. Kevin Brackley, Campbellville
10. James Van Hees, Burlington
11. Bob Beyette, Campbellville
12. Tom Reid, Waterdown
13. Keith Hincks, Milton
14. Halton Federation of Agriculture
15. Joseph Bloom

Press Articles:

Flamborough Review - Hamilton, Halton politicians urged to nix quarry bid (177 KB)- May 12, 2006

Halton Compass - Quarry opponents out in FORCE - May 11, 2006

Canadian Champion - Citizens urge officials to turn down quarry (172 KB)- May 9, 2006