As someone who has grown up in Dufferin County, and works there now, I have seen a great many changes happen to agriculture and the environment in the area.
I understand the dilemma of attracting new industry to the area, to build Dufferin County economically, and to provide feasible income strategies to the population already living there. However, I have also seen the Dufferin’s agricultural land get swallowed up by mega-farms who are producing food for consumption on a global scale, sacrificing nutrition and health to increase production. Increasing truck traffic to move food on this level to the Greater Toronto Area has diminished the integrity of our food, and this is obvious in every aspect of statistics in the health of Canadians. Yet, to take away the very land that provides the GTA with food sources, doesn’t make sense either.
It is common knowledge that a quarry decimates the land it uses, but the Melancthon area also houses numerous watersheds for water that feeds the areas beyond the township. The watersheds are our greatest indicator to our environmental health and already we have seen them suffer with the industrialization around them. A quarry doesn’t simply tap resources and then move quietly away. It decimates the area. The transportation alone needed to export the stone out of the quarry will have a major impact on the roads, and the environment. Even land that is near the quarry will suffer as a result. After the quarry is depleted nothing but an ugly hole will remain. Can the quarrying company be held accountable for a solution that has that much foresight?
I urge you to move cautiously forward on any plan to use valuable agricultural land for something as environmentally damaging as a quarry. The 3 biggest impact areas are food, water and the environment. Can the mega-quarry’s economic impact be worth so much?
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