A rezoning application to allow CBM Aggregates to expand a gravel mining pit to within 200 feet of homes on the west side of Cambridge drew dozens of delegates to a public meeting in North Dumfries township on Tuesday.
The meeting, which comes in advance of a staff report and recommendation on the Dance Pit, was held in hybrid format with some attending in person and some calling in, including Cambridge councillor Pam Wolf, who spoke on behalf of the city and constituents in her ward.
Wolf said the application, which has been several years in the making already, has added to the stress and anxiety felt by many in the St. Andrews neighbourhood near Southwood Secondary School.
“This expansion will greatly affect the health and quality of life for my constituents,” she said, adding many of the residents living near the pit for the last 25 years complain about noise and dust on a weekly basis.
“Having the pit moved that much closer to their homes is going to make this situation worse.”
She reminded North Dumfries councillors that the City of Cambridge has already passed two motions opposing the pit expansion and its disregard for a clause in the original land deed that ensures pit owners maintain an agricultural buffer between the extraction site and homes.
The city also called on the province to enact a temporary moratorium on all new aggregate pits, a move that followed the same resolution adopted by North Dumfries and other councils across Ontario earlier this year.
“We understand that the MNRF (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) needs stronger regulations to protect our citizens from the adverse effects of the aggregate extraction industry,” Wolf said.
The township says it has received more than 60 letters objecting to the expansion so far.
Responding to some of those concerns during the meeting, Melanie Horton, a planner hired by the company to advance the application, assured everyone watching that there will be no below water extraction and the area will be rehabilitated back to agricultural use
She reminded council that 200 feet from the property boundary is double the province's regulatory requirement and added that she’s been in the field for close to 30 years and, this is probably "the most extensive pre consultation and consultation with the public" that she’s seen an applicant undertake.
“So I think that it’s a good indication that CBM’s serious about hearing the concerns of the community and trying to revise the application to ensure that they can address concerns as best possible,” she said.
Main concerns raised include impacts to health from reduced air quality and dust, noise, hours of operation, traffic and safety, wildlife, property values and rehabilitation.
Horton said she and the company are in the midst of looking at what neighbours have said and will be turning efforts to their response over the coming months.
CBM Aggregates has already provided a study for peer review showing how berms and tree screening planned for the east perimeter of the pit would mitigate concerns raised about dust emissions and noise, she added.
“The site will maintain the regulatory limits set by the province,” she said.
David Hanratty, of CBM Aggregates, part of St. Marys Cement Inc., reassured councillors that the Dance Pit is not a “blasting quarry” and vibration measurements taken as part of a study demonstrated that vibrations from a crusher that would remain where it is on site dissipated within metres of the plant.
But according to Cambridge resident Sheri Roberts, vibration and noise from the pit is already affecting the quality of life of many in her neighbourhood. She lives a reasonable distance from the pit at three blocks but can hear it every morning “grinding away.”
With nearby schools, nursing homes and dozens of family homes, she “can’t think of a worse place to put a gravel pit.”
And like many of her neighbours, she believes a study needs to be done on the cumulative impacts on human health from the 15 pits within a few kilometres of homes.
“We already deal with an incredible amount of dust from the pits that operate nearby and the amount that we would have to contend with if this new pit is allowed to open would be literally unbearable,” she said.
In addition, she’s worried about the increase in gravel trucks on Cedar Creek Road and wonders how many windshields will be smashed by flying gravel because of it. With that comment, several people in the packed room at the Ayr Community Centre raised their hands as having had to contend with damage from stones flying off a gravel truck.
Former North Dumfries councillor Kim Denouden called in from the UK to voice her opposition to the rezoning, saying she doesn’t understand why it’s even being considered knowing the Dance Pit's history.
She was a member of council when the application for the pit came through in 1996. It eventually landed at the Ontario Municipal Board when the City of Cambridge opposed the pit on behalf of residents, she said.
“I remember sitting there, listening to the constituents from the city saying that they didn’t want a pit,” she said.
The resulting compromise from that 1998 OMB hearing made it clear the 79 hectare agricultural buffer was not to be mined.
"That it was the buffer to the constituents in the city of Cambridge," she said. “I don’t understand why we’re here discussing this. There was an agreement. I don’t understand how anything that was at the OMB is not upheld today.”
Longtime St. Andrews resident George Vandermey recalled the public meeting at Southwood Secondary School when the original pit was put in.
“The gymnasium was full and the company listened to all of the concerns and came back a few months later and said we have listened to the concerns of the public and we are putting in a buffer zone. We are going to build berms. We’re going to put in tree lines and the community will never know that gravel pit is there,” he said, a comment that elicited laughter from the crowd.
“And now they’re asking us to trust them again? It’s like Groundhog Day. I know what we’re going to hear.”
Vandermey said he can only draw one conclusion 25 years later and it's that the company was either incompetent and gave misleading information or “they lied to us.”
“And I don’t know why this council or the community would trust them again.”
Several members of a group opposed to aggregate expansion in the township said council needs to uphold its mandate to protect agricultural land.
Showing a map of existing pits throughout the township, the North Dumfries Conservation Alliance said aggregate extraction is currently taking up 5,000 acres of prime agricultural land in North Dumfries alone. Applications for new or expanded pits would add about 400 acres to that total.
The practice not only threatens land for food crops, but also threatens drinking water, the group said.
Representing the National Farmers Union, Anne Ehrlich reiterated the risks the gravel industry poses to the local and global sustainable food systems.
She said 175 acres of farmland is lost every day in Ontario to non-agricultural land uses like urban development and aggregate extraction.
Saying it can be rehabilitated back to original food production capacity is a false narrative, she said. “There is no evidence of this and if you talk to many farmers and you speak to the industry, the evidence is not there,” she said.
Township staff have been asked to return to council with a report and recommendation at a later date.
In the meantime, more information about the application has been made available for residents at www.cbmdancepit.ca
