Nelson Aggregates' Quarry Expansion

Background

In October 2004, Nelson Aggregate Company filed applications to re-designate approximately 82.3 ha in the Niagara Escarpment Plan Area from "Escarpment Rural Area" to "Mineral Resource Extraction Area" for the purposes of extending the existing Burlington Limestone Quarry operation near Mount Nemo.

The proposed extraction area consists of residences, an agricultural nursery, cultivated lands, woodland areas and hedgerows, a regionally significant wetland complex and a tributary of the Grindstone creek. In CONE's view the proposed expansion offends the objective of the Niagara Escarpment Plan that seeks "to maintain and enhance the open landscape character of the Niagara Escarpment…". About 90 per cent of the aggregate in the proposed extension area is below the water table and the proposed expansion would involve quarrying for about 20 years. Together these two facts mean that natural habitats and farmlands - the "open landscape" of the Escarpment countryside - would be destroyed for a lengthy period of time and cannot necessarily be re-created through site rehabilitation after extraction.

Nelson Aggregates' Quarry

CONE's Position

CONE's opposition to Nelson Aggregates' quarry expansion is based on the following arguments:

• The proposed Niagara Escarpment Plan Amendment is inconsistent with the purpose and objective of the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act (NEPDA) and the Niagara Escarpment Plan (NEP).
• Nelson Aggregate Company takes the position that the proposed quarry expansion is an "interim land use". A quarry expansion that involves 20 years of extraction and many decades of site rehabilitation is not an interim land use.
• A regionally significant wetland complex lies in the proposed expansion area. Aggregate extraction would destroy that portion of the wetland complex and negatively affect the portions of the wetland complex on the adjacent property.
• The endangered Butternut trees found in the southwesterly portion of the expansion area would be destroyed by the proposed quarrying. The Ministry of Natural Resources has confirmed that the nationally threatened Jefferson salamander has been located in the forests and wetlands directly south of the proposed extraction area.

CONE's member group Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL) is also actively monitoring Nelson Aggregates' application for a quarry expansion. Visit PERL's website.

Current Situation

In the Region of Halton, aggregate applications are reviewed by a Joint Agency Review Team (JART) composed of all public agencies with approval status on an application (Niagara Escarpment Commission, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources, Conservation Authority, Municipalities etc.).

In March 2006, during a site visit by the JART team, it was observed that a wetland on the property had been dredged and channels established to drain the feature. Also, several butternut trees (a national endangered species) had been transplanted to the border of the property. The NEC sent a contravention letter in April, as did Conservation Halton. Nelson is claiming that the work was agriculturally related or is forest management, which may be exempt from an NEC Development Permit. However, Conservation Halton is pursuing charges.