STRADA

On the June 3 agenda of Melancthon Council is a letter from Bluewater Geoscience, the consultants hired by Council. The letter is dated May 17, 2010 and is titled, Re: review of 2008 and 2009 Strada Melancthon/Shelburne Pit groundwater compliance monitoring reports, Strada Aggregates (wow, that is a mouthful)

The letter advises that there was an "exceedence of permitted water taking allowances by 3,000-7,000 litres per day on several days in 2009. That's a lot of water lost a pump calibration error....The detection of petroleum hydrocarbons present in the well in 2008 is noted as anomalous as they were not detected in the 2009 readings....Does the level detected in 2008 indicate a past spill....."

There is more, read it for yourself at http://melancthontownship.ca/10council/corr.june3.pdf

The June 3, 2010 minutes show that Strada was to be invited to the June 17, 2010 meeting to answer some questions.

However, guess who wasn't at the June 17 meeting or at the July 8 meeting either?

If Council can't properly monitor a 300 acre gravel pit and protect our water sources, how in the hell do they have the expertise to monitor a 2,400 acre, 200 foot below the water table, open pit mine?

The Bluewater letter goes on to state that "We have raised these issues yearly with Strada and no action has been taken to remedy these deficiencies...Despite this situation, Strada's consultants continue to make assumptions based on the inadequate monitoring network."

It closes by stating "We understand that Strada has an application for another pit in Melancthon Township in the planning stages. Melancthon township should consider whether, given Strada's track record of inadequate compliance monitoring, they have shown themselves to be good corporate citizens and have treated the concerns of citizens and the Council with the rigour they deserve." (note: MNR hasn't deemed the application complete, which is why it doesn't appear as yet, on the Environmental Registry-keep checking)

I guess my question is, why hasn't Council moved LONG before now, to protect their ratepayers by having the MOE revoke Strada's permit to take water?

Of course, Jordan is on the case, having met with them in January and still, no compliance from Strada and still not one single member of Council has gone to the press to force the issue or raise the alarm.


In fact read the minutes. Your mouth will drop open, because apparently Council has dealt with this before and there have never been any "grave concerns". http://melancthontownship.ca/10council/minutes.june3.pdf


WTF does it take? Somebody, please, light a fire under these people.