The OLT (Ontario Land Tribunal) meets on September 15, 2024, to consider an appeal by Lippa Quarry and Miller Paving regarding their proposed quarry. Please read the following to understand a few of the dire consequences should this appeal be approved.
Bill 185, introduced to the Ontario legislature on April 10, 2024, along with the proposed Provincial Planning statement, erodes local democracy by making OTL a developers’ only tribunal, and handing the future planning of our communities over to the development sector and the non- elected. The public will have no say over projects that effect our lives and the environment such as harmful and unnecessary gravel pits and quarries. The OLT should also be held responsible for verifying the accuracy of the reports submitted.
In December 2023, the Auditor General’s report stated that “the management of the aggregate resources is in crisis, and the province is failing to protect the public from the negative impacts of gravel mining.”
Muskoka Lakes developed an Official Plan that would protect the environment. That is being challenged by the Lippa Quarry owners and Miller Paving. If the OLT allows The Lippa Quarry to proceed, it will have a devastating effect on our communities forever. Lippa Quarry will be a MEGA quarry NOT a gravel pit. It covers 130 acres within the Skeleton Lake watershed. Blasting, & drilling below the water table, crushing and hauling rock. It will have an on-site screening plant, which will produce toxic silicon dust, which will escape into the air, resulting in serious health effects. It will use up to 250,000 litres of water a day drawn from local creeks to wash the extracted rocks, and this will be “kept contained behind dams”. When these dams break the run-off will reach Skeleton Lake via the many small streams. OOPS! Just doesn’t cut it! The holes blasted out will be filled with discarded material trucked in from the south. This work will continue 6 am to 9 pm,7 days a week, for the next 80 years. They estimate that ten huge trucks an hour will be leaving the pit and travelling east 21 km to Hwy 11 or west 34 km to Hwy 400 through Rosseau, returning with discarded material.
Muskoka Road is classed as a scenic east to west corridor with many curves and small hills, it is 3 .7 metres wide with slopping gravel shoulders, it was built over 20 swamps and wetlands. Trucks tend to travel on the centre line. The solid yellow line goes from Huntsville to Rosseau except for two short stretches of dotted passing spots.
In the report, (drawn up by Skelton & Bromwell for Lippa), it states that the trucks could travel average speed of 90-100km. No mention that the current posted speed limit is 80km with signs for 60/70 around the many curves.
In their report, ( actually they call it uninhabited) there is little mention of the many people who live along Muskoka Rd 3 trying to exit their driveways, the school busses picking up children, the garbage trucks, the cyclists who use the road from Rosseau to Huntsville, the pedestrians walking on the shoulders, the animals who live in the bush on either side of the road, the number of small creeks that go from the proposed quarry to Skeleton lake.
There are at least seven sources of gravel around this area, no quarry needed.
Skeleton Lake is listed as an ANSI lake (Area of Natural Interest). It is pre-glacial, formed by a meteor hundreds of thousands of years ago. It is the only lake in Muskoka which is mercury free. The force of the strong vibrations from the blasting of the granite will crack and shatter the protective shell of the lake and let the mercury from the earth’s crust leach back into the lake water.
If that doesn’t do it, the thousands of tons of material being removed from the area will probably cause a shifting of the plates underground. (An earthquake happened in Wappingers Falls, New York in June 1974. Cause was determined to be the removal of tons of rock from a quarry nearby).
Not to worry! If this quarry is approved, Muskoka Lakes will be compensated by $12,000 and the District by $3000. Sorry! Huntsville, you get $0 and lots of trucks coming your way. But you do get to help pay for road repair that is inevitable, added to your taxes.
Muskoka depends on Tourism. If Skeleton Lake is polluted, so will the rest of the lakes from here to Georgian Bay. Let’s hope the OLT does not let the greed of a few people today affect the future and health of tomorrow,
Concerned property owners Ted & Irene Turner
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Neighbours joining together with a petition citing the reasons this is a ridiculous idea is powerful community input. How many homes have wells, current # of trucks already booming thru Muskoka, the current # of watersheds affected…..rise up all those who love Muskoka and the beautiful solace it provides in this busy world.
Well said, Mr. Tapley!
We are supposed to be stewards of the Earth. People, please don’t disregard this. We need to have principles and the courage to stand behind our responsibility to act for the good of the Earth and all living beings.
Funny (in a sad way) that the “tribunal” is actually made up of ONE PERSON now. At one time it was 3, hence the “tri” in the name. More efficient to have a committee of 1.
Also, interesting how nowadays we get all in a lather about things like a rock quarry or pit expansion. When they rolled the Ontario Aggregate Act across this part of Ontario some years back we already had Municipally defined mineral extraction zoning areas. When I asked the Municipality, just prior to the Aggregate act being applied, if their zoning would be respected and followed I was assured that, Yes, this would not be changed by the aggregate act. Any significant changes would require a zoning approval.
Well, guess what? The aggregate act paid little to no attention to the existing zoning and approved vast expansions of some pits with no hearing or zoning requirements whatsoever. No access approvals and 1000% extraction area increase and a change from digging only to drill, blast, crush etc. And we have not even started to cover how somehow “disposal” of waste material in a “pit” is fine but look out if any other location is considered.
Truly a rather incredible feat of abdication of municipal responsibility to Ontario and the MNR, with little or no responsibility being in evidence from either.
Am I impressed? NO. Am I surprised? NO. Am I happy about how it was done? NO Do I expect better? NO.
Hey….. this is Ontario…. land of the free… If your Doug’s friend.