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l t st weekender april 25 1992 p3 aggregate companies putting green first pit operators making strong effort to keep industry ecofriendly john andrews correspondent earth ii vek man has had a history of struggling with planet earth and on the oak ridges moraine the struggle will con tinue as long as the need for gravel is around the oak ridges moraine is perhaps the single largest deposit of natural aggregate in the province and it is also one of the most heavily populated areas in all of canada this raises the prob lem of people living on good deposits and as urban sprawl slowly rolls onto torontos hinterland this will become more of a problem however environmentally aggregate mining has little effect on surrounding areas despite the pits being an eyesore drew young from the ministry of environment said the effect is minimal each mine has site specific problems but actual environmental damage is negligible and mining companies are under extremely strict guidelines laid down by both the government and the industry run aggregate producers association of ontario young said a company can go to an aggregate rich area mine to a depth of 200 ft and have no impact on the envi ronment he said all a company will do environmentally is lower the surface level ray pichette oversees all mining on the moraine for the ministry of the environment he said each mining operation on the moraine has to prac tice what is called progressive rehabili tation this means that as an area is mined the company has to rehabilitate the land that has already been mined so only a certain amount of land is being left open to the elements the rehabil itated land must be brought back to what the municipality zoned it for originally pichette said in the niagara region over 90 per cent of the land mined for aggregates has been returned to prosperous fruitland atimbers brothers sand and gravel ltd is a local mining company that has pits on the westney road and near mosport coowner mary timbers said to rehabilitate the land atimbers bros uses the top soil that was origi nally removed to cover over the pit she said they then seed the area and turn it back to meadow standard aggregates has two pits in the stouffvilleuxbridge area totalling- 880 acres dana hewson is the property manager for the company and he said standard aggregates meets or exceeds government requirements to rehabili tate land he said they transplant trees and even won a showcase award for their uxbridge rehabilitation in 1990 this award is only handed out to 10 pits throughout north america he said they have also returned two pits in goodwood back to arable farmland perhaps the biggest problem facing aggregate mining on the moraine is the fact that aggregate is like petroleum because the amount is finite young said because of this the min istry has put quotas on how much aggregate can be mined on a per hectare basis while experts say the amount mined per hectare depends on demand and that they are no where near the maximum amount pichette said during the 1980s and 1988 partic ularly the mining companies couldnt keep up with demand he said the pits in niagara will likely be empty within 50 years and timbers estimated that one pit they have been mining since 1968 will be empty in 10 to 15 years however pichette said the amount of time it takes to get pit approval is three to eight years because of the studies that need to be done to grant approval as well he said there are restrictions as to where a company is allowed to mine pichette said woodlots or what he described as water critical places would be protected and just because a farmers fields are on an aggregate source doesnt mean the farmer has to let it be mined its up to the land owner pichette said the ministry is there to regulate and ration the amount of aggregate available one alternative to mining fine aggre gate is to mine larger rocks and stones and then have them crushed while this is expensive it does have a purpose in that it will extend the life of the aggregate businesses and fill a void if new aggregate sources are not allowed to be mined the only environmental effects from crushingare that crushing can be noisy and dusty but mining companies can keep both to a minimum by watering dust piles and building sound barriers pichette said the ministry of the environment is concerned with protect ing the oak ridges moraine and is very careful about issuing licences he said they try to forecast demand with supply to effectively come to grips with the problems that arise note this week standard aggre gates is planting 3000 seedlings and 20 mature trees in the stouffvilleuxbridge area this isjn conjunction with their land rehabilita tion program grass and trees are established after gravel extraction to enhance rehabilitation of a local aggregate pit charged with impaired pholothacy kibble a 49yearold stouffville man was charged with impaired driving wednesday durham regional police said the man was eastbound on uxbridge pickering townline by the stouffville christian school at 1145 am when he lost control crossed the road hit the shoulder traversed a 15 foot ravine where his car stopped after hitting a tree no one was injured in the accident officials must pay own seminar costs mayor you cant have it both ways thats what mayor fran sainsbury told officials this week after ward 1 councillor ivanka bradley and ward 2 councillor stephen bellerby requested to attend a conference next month councillors cannot expect to use taxpayers money to attend semi nars when a zero increase budget has alloted no funding for council perks sainsbury said she told officials they would have to pay for conferences them selves if they wanted to attend both bradley and bellerby agreed to pay for the seminar however ward5 councillor bob ancheril said hes sick and tired of spending his own money to go to confer ences that bring education back to the town he said he refused to spend his own money to attend conferences in the future jwe knew we would have to make some tough decisions with a zero budget increase but we have to be prepared to decide to lose a few conven tions or increase taxes next year sainsbury said and ward 3 councillor nick tatone echoed the mayors comments this year we have to be committed to spending no money any where no travelling no courses no frills anything tatone said town threatens to drop recycling whitchurchstouffville will pull out of the recycling pro gram if the province discontin ues funding officials decided this week mayor fran sainsbury told council that york region and other municipalities will bail out of tte prpjgram becmthe environment ministry moe which pays twothirds of recy cling costs may halt funding sainsbury said there are many companies who dont con tribute to the recycling pro gram which leaves recycled products unmarketable if funding is awn we should get out of it we dont have the money or storage facil ities for products that have no end market sainsbury said she added the moe has taken municipalities down the garden path by offering initial funding for the program start- upbusines holdbmeettng vrjrjufctvt orchard park home school association is holding its annual general meeting this coming tues april 28 at 730 pm at orchard park public school horary a new executive will be voted rhfcbabystiting is available w m w wmmrjjim mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm kids earn extra money become a carrier today call 6402100 stouffville attention flyer advertisers we can deliver your flyers tor as little aa if a piece so far this i year we have delivered 9286878 flyers doortodoor in i markham unionville milliken stouffville uxbridge claremont dickson hill locust hill gormley goodwood i victoria square brougham haeerman corners box grove i cedar grove buttonville sandford goodwood leaskdale i greenbank udora sunderland zephyr aihbum cannington and all adjacent rural route areas 1 we can deliver your flyers on the day you want to the area you i want 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