City of Hamilton Meeting

City of Hamilton April 6th, 2006 Open House and Information Meeting:
We Came, We Saw, and We will Conquer!

The City of Hamilton's Open House and Information Meeting on Thursday April 6th, 2006 was a milestone evening for all of us opposing the Lowndes Holdings Corp. application to develop the 8th largest quarry in Canada. The meeting was a long time coming but we were there - by the hundreds - communities standing united - with standing room only. We stayed until the end, hours later that night, and we'll be there until the bitter end of this battle.

Some may call us NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard. Well, this proposal is in our back yard! And when you Think Globally, Act Locally, you protect your back yard first! Our opposition has consistently been factual, science driven, and sensitive to our communities' collective concerns. The evening of April 6th proved no different as the community was ably represented through formal presentations and the individual efforts of our neighbours who took the time to prepare themselves as delegates. We care about the water we drink and use for our homes, schools, farms and businesses. We care about our wetlands and woodlands, the species that they support, and their role as part of an interconnected Greenbelt. We care about our existing, active agricultural operations. We care about the roads we travel for work, school and play. This application puts all of these community priorities, and more, at risk. It must be stopped!

We were reassured when the independent Peer Reviewers examining the Lowndes Holdings Corp. application identified the same concerns we had initially raised in 2004 and that we have subsequently documented in our expert submissions. These deficiencies, inconsistencies, gaps and omissions were highlighted during the meeting. We were pleased to see that the concerns of the Mayor and the City - as read from a letter that night - remain in alignment with our own - impacts on hydrogeology, on transportation, and on our community and neighbouring jurisdictions. Our Councillor, Margaret McCarthy, continues to be a vocal champion.

It is noteworthy that the Lowndes Holdings Corp. booklet dated April 6th, 2006, and handed to us as we entered the meeting does not reference any of the serious deficiencies. Instead, Lowndes Holdings Corp.'s written and stated stance is that its application is a "work in progress", moving forward with the intent of improving with the next series of submissions, or maybe the ones after that. The proponent's comments that "we were disappointed in our studies too" and that "we hope the next ones will be better" do not inspire confidence nor demonstrate competence. We do not agree that an application with a failing grade should be given chance after chance to improve. That doesn't happen at school or in any other facet of daily life!

The proponent's presentation, in both written format and delivery, continued to fall short that night. Through the proponent's own presentation slides and responses to questions from our neighbours, we learned that:

• After two years and expert documentation to the contrary, the proponent still claims that there will be no impact on private and communal rural wells nor on the Carlisle municipal wells, with mitigation.
• Despite claiming a proven mitigation system, which is still largely undocumented in its technical reports, that night, the proponent still could not name where else in the world such a system was operating, let alone one with the same hydrogeological conditions.
• Assertions that fly in the face of common sense are still being made. Despite growing markets to the southwest and southeast, it is claimed that all trucks will travel to the GTA via the 401. And, we shouldn't be concerned about the impact on our schools because no trucks will travel directly past them - forget about the impact of thousands of truck trips on the school bus routes. Lest we have any haul route concerns, all the truck drivers will be bound by and follow a haul route agreement. A Milton Councillor, Jan Mowbray, experienced with active aggregate operations, spoke up to let us know just how ineffectively those agreements are. She spoke about the impacts of trucks queuing up at the quarry gate, and the tax-payer funded police complaints system.
• For better or worse, the proponent continues to confirm their business independence - the application is privately funded by "just Dad and me" and they indicated that proposed business agreements from other companies have been turned down.
• And even though the proponent claims to be "working with the community", nothing much has changed. A longstanding request for notification about work and heavy machinery on the site was met with the misrepresentation that this is already happening through the City. Funny, how when we called the City, they never seemed to know what was happening on site and would have to call the proponent. Next, even though City, CART, and Peer Review representatives have been allowed on site, a request to allow access to the site by the community's experts was met with further non committal words: "Access will be granted at the appropriate time, but not immediately." This contradicts the proponent's own legal counsel who deemed the request reasonable when appearing before a City Committee late last year. It also defies explicit written and oral requests from the City that FORCE and its experts be granted access now. If this is what "working with the community" means when the proponent is trying to impress us, imagine what things will be like if this proposal were ever to be approved?

We invite you to read more about the meeting through the material provided on this page.

Know this - we will protect our back yard. We came to the meeting. We saw the proponent and their team again. And, we will conquer - as communities united, pooling our resources, professionally and expertly documenting our case.

Meeting Agenda:

City of Hamilton - Lowndes Flamborough Quarry Public Meeting Agenda (69 KB)

City of Hamilton Presentation Slides:

Meeting Slides - Steven Rowe, Environmental Planner (697 KB)

Lowndes Holdings Corp. Presentation Slides:

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

FORCE Presentation Slides:

Adobe Acrobat Format (1.1 MB)

Power Point Slides (11.7 MB)

Delgation Presentations:

A session for pre-registered delegates followed the formal presentations made by the City of Hamilton, the proponent and its agent, Councillor McCarthy, and Graham Flint, Chair and Spokesperson of FORCE. Each individual delegate was given up to 5 minutes to deliver some prepared remarks.

Through the efforts of these delegates, the community continued to officially register some of the many substantive concerns that exist with the application. They re-enforced the message that this community has sound reasons for its opposition to the proposed aggregate development, that we are professional, and that we are well organized. The individual issues that the delegates raised, especially with the addition of their own personal anecdotes and passions, struck a chord and resonated with many in the room.

Thank you to our neighbours for making the effort and taking the time to step up and speak up on our behalf! They have helped to continue to advance our case. Please refer to the City's Notes for the details of their comments.

Michele Ryan - Community Liaison
Karen Gourlay - School Issues
Robert Pasuta - Agriculture Issues
Gintas Kamaitis - Natural Environment Issues
Rick Rigby - Sustainable Water Supply Issues
Darcie Pytel - Cycling and Haul Route Issues
Susan Lawson - Aggregate Need
Gwen Todd - Mitigation Method Issues
David Januczkowski - Sustainable Communities
Tom Reid - The Application is Denied
Nora Curran-Blaney - Expansion Lands and Process Issues
Greg Kochuk - Financing and Operations Issues

City of Hamilton Comments Summary and Meeting Notes:

City of Hamilton Meeting Notes (191 KB)

City of Hamilton Comment Summary from April 6 Public Meeting (113 KB)

Press Articles:

Post Meeting Articles

Canadian Champion - Residents come out in droves to oppose quarry (175 KB)- April 18, 2006

Flamborough Review - Meeting digs up concerns about quarry (181 KB) - April 14, 2006

Flamborough Review (Column) - Digging for answers (175 KB)- April 14, 2006

Halton Compass - Lowndes in the hot seat over quarry (247 KB) - April 14, 2006

Hamilton Spectator - Carlisle quarry fight could last five years (321 KB)- April 7, 2006

Pre Meeting Articles

Flamborough Review - Groundwater key issue in quarry debate (177 KB)- Friday, March 31, 2006

Canadian Champion - City of Hamilton to hold meeting about quarry (169 KB)- Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Halton Compass - Lowndes Quarry Threatens Campbellville's Water (107 KB)- Friday, March 24, 2006

Hamilton Spectator - Quarry Proposal Threatens Carlisle Water (90 KB)- Friday, March 15, 2006

Newsletter:

FORCE Thank You Message