• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Huntsville Doppler

Huntsville Doppler

Read Local

  • Home
    • All Stories
    • Community Guidelines
  • COVID-19
  • News
  • Community
  • Commentary
    • Letters
  • Business
    • Real Estate
    • Professionally Speaking
  • Sports
  • Obituaries
  • Lifestyle
    • Contests and Deals
    • Entertainment
    • Extraordinary People
    • Feature
    • This is Huntsville | Videos
    • Wayback Wednesday
    • Our Town with Grant Nickalls | Archive
  • Events
    • Event Listings
    • Add Your Event
  • It’s All Good
  • Speak Up, Huntsville!
  • Subscribe
  • Support
You are here: Home / Commentary / Stop Muskoka Pit group wants your support at council meeting on Friday – Opinion
Location of proposed pit and quarry on Butler Mill Road
Location of proposed pit and quarry on Butler Mill Road

Stop Muskoka Pit group wants your support at council meeting on Friday – Opinion

By Doppler Submitted On June 14, 2017 Commentary

Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Email this to someone
email
Print this page
Print
 

This post is more than one year old and may no longer be relevant. Please view this content with its age in mind.


By Sparky Smith
Aspdin Road
Resident and Business Owner

People in the area may not know that our tourism and Skeleton Lake, Lake Rosseau and Lake Joseph are under threat.

The Township of Muskoka Lakes is considering a rezoning application which would allow the establishment of a rock/gravel quarry and pit at 1089 Butler Mill Road. Butler Mill Road is a dead-end road located between Huntsville and Rosseau, close to Skeleton Lake.

The proposed Pit and Quarry operation would be allowed to take out 200,000 tonnes of sand, gravel and bedrock annually.

According to a traffic study dated January 2017 the average number of truck trips in and out of the road would be seven an hour, with 14 an hour at maximum production. Obviously, all of those trucks will head either east to Huntsville, or west to Rosseau.That’s a huge amount of heavy-truck traffic for Aspdin Road to handle.

In addition to the disruption due to the increase in noise and traffic there is an ecological issue as well. At 100 metres deep in its centre, our ‘Impact Crater’ Lake is very unique. It is spring fed and uniquely clear. The damage of blasting could forever remove this amazing lake, which runs into Lake Rosseau and Lake Joseph

Our experience with quarries is specific. We lived in Washago with a quarry several miles away. It is not as large as the one being proposed yet every day the ground shook the house when they blasted. However, that was nothing compared to the damage to the road, which could not be maintained because of poor planning on the town’s part. When the road developed potholes because of the heavy trucks the noise became unbearable. The trucks would rattle so loud it was impossible to ignore, like a shotgun by your ear as the back-end loaders banged against their mounting. In the summer, Aspdin is a very busy road with tourist traffic travelling within the region. If this quarry is approved, the serene drive may look like Toronto during rush hour.

For more information and links to the Township of Muskoka Lakes rezoning application please visit STOP MUSKOKA PIT.

To sign the petition – Stop the Lippa Pit and Quarry – which presently has 497 signatures, click here.

Please attend the Township meeting where the application will be discussed.

Township of Muskoka Lakes Council Meeting
For Consideration of the Lippa Pit & Quarry Application

When: Friday June 16, 2017 at 9:00am
Where: Council Chambers, Municipal Office
1 Bailey Street, Port Carling
(intersection of Bailey St. and Joseph St.)

Follow STOP MUSKOKA PIT on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.

Reader Interactions

2 Comments

  1. Valerie McCormick says

    June 14, 2017 at 10:17 pm

    This is an environmental disaster!!

  2. Brian Tapley says

    June 17, 2017 at 9:10 am

    Sadly, if my experience is anything to go by, you are wasting your time talking to Municipal planning about this pit.
    In Lake of Bays they did nothing at all to ensure consideration of concerns raised by long time businesses and residents when local pits expanded exponentially with the overlaying of the Pits and Quarries Act from the Ontario Government about 10 years ago. The local municipality just “vanished” from the scene, no comment and no action.
    District was no more visible and their road gets pounded to death by the heavy trucks that it was not built to withstand.
    The truckers themselves are generally very courteous and as helpful as they can be but there is only so much one can do with a 30 ton truck on a road with no shoulders. These things are not built to be quiet.

    This Aggregate act is there, not to protect existing people and land uses that may have existed for over 100 years, no it is there to insure that the gravel flows and the gravel lobbyists objectives are met and they do a great job of this.
    A minor secondary objective is to collect fees for the government too, but then that objective seems to be general to all parts of government these days.

Join the discussion: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments are moderated. Please ensure you include both your first and last name and abide by our community guidelines. Submissions that do not include the commenter's full name or that do not abide by our community guidelines will not be published.

Primary Sidebar

Latest Commentary Pieces

Energy, population trends, and climate change | Commentary

February 24, 2021 1 Comment

Listen Up! Breaking up is hard to do | Commentary

February 21, 2021 8 Comments

She Speaks: Workers lose trillions, billionaires gain it | Commentary

February 18, 2021 7 Comments

Recent Stories

Eligible residents can now book COVID vaccine online

February 25, 2021

COVID-19 in Huntsville: the latest updates

February 25, 2021

Cortney LeGros wants the community to know that HPL's annual tax clinic is still available (supplied)

Library’s annual free income tax clinic available by phone this year

February 25, 2021

Footer

About Doppler

Established in 2015 by a bunch of local news hounds, Doppler strives to be the go-to source for people wanting to know more about what is going on in Huntsville and the surrounding community.

We strive to provide local news that is relevant and timely. We also look to tell local stories that inspire, inform and engage.

Notice the persistent use of the word local? Our mantra is local. From features on local people doing extraordinary things, to local business spotlights, news and sports coverage, all supplemented by provocative opinion pieces on topics near and far, we are working hard for you.

Feel free to drop us a line at huntsville@doppleronline.ca and tell us how we are doing, what you would like to see more of, or to just say ‘Hi’.

Thank you for reading Doppler.

Huntsville Doppler – READ LOCAL

Recent Comments

  • Emely Cousintine on Former Huntsville resident urges people to be kind to those who contract COVID-19
  • Gayle Allison Singer on Property left in disrepair for more than 30 years back before planning committee
  • Pat Lightfoot on Health unit to start opening COVID vaccine clinics next week, including two in Muskoka
  • Brenda Begg on Simcoe Muskoka may soon be moved back into lockdown
  • Phil Beacock on Here’s what your local councillors made last year
  • Jonathan Baker on Council directs staff to investigate stronger enforcement, limits on short-term rental accommodations
  • Anna-Lise Kear on Health unit to start opening COVID vaccine clinics next week, including two in Muskoka
  • Kim Burnside on Health unit to start opening COVID vaccine clinics next week, including two in Muskoka

Copyright © 2021 ·Doppler · Log in
  • About
  • Support Local News
  • Community Guidelines
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • Subscribe