Why I do believe it is the smell of desperation.
Mickey D. did NOT look happy at the Legion meeting wherein his shortcomings, I mean the shortcomings of his bosses DVD were simply pointed out.
He looked even worse at Mulmur's Council meeting, all twitchy and shakey.
And then, a mass mailing to everyone in the world to "set the record straight on the proposed quarry".
All well and good except it doesn't set anything straight. Here we go....continued from yesterdays post:
"WATER QUALITY WILL BE MAINTAINED" Well isn't that a nice promise to make? Why in the hell wouldn't it be maintained? And listen to their promise that "limited exposure to the atmosphere....oil and grit separators..." So there is the admission that drinking water will be reinjecting into the acquifer WILL be exposed to the air, and oil and grit (SALT from the trucks). So for them to make gazillions of $$$ for their ridiculously weathly investors WE get to drink water that has had limited exposure to the atmosphere? Right now mother earth gives us NO exposure to the atmosphere and yet Highlands assures us they ensure that they will clean up the water that they have contaiminated. In fact maybe Seth and Beth, to show us how safe their system is, will for the next five years agree for them and their family to drink NOTHING but water from an underground acquifer that has been exposed to the air for a couple of days, then put through a separator to get rid of the oil, grit and salt.
'FINANCIAL ASSURANCES WILL ENSURE LONG TERM OPERATION OF THE WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN" further they state "the company would offer agreements...to establish appropriate financial assurances". Lets see, a 150 acre quarry approximately 150 feet deep in Caledon was turned down at the OMB. This wasn't even one of the issues the parties couldn't agree on. BOTH parties agreed that the financial assurance required for that pit would be $90 million. So compared to size, depth, amount of aggregate, carry the 1 by the square root of bullshit, means nothing less than 1.44 BILLION could be even considered (not accepted, but considered) as a starting point.
"COUNTY ROAD 124 CAN ACCOMODATE TRUCK TRAFFIC" -yes indeedy it can accomodate truck traffic. Anyone in their right mind knows it can NOT accomodate 7,200 trucks a day in traffic. Notice they do NOT deny claims that it WILL be 7,200 trucks a day?
'ESTIMATES OF POSSIBLE RAIL USE ARE PURE SPECULATION" excuse me? The rail use, if the County is stupid enough to sell it, is NOT speculation. Highlands goes on to say "if rail becomes available its use will be examed as a means of reducing reliance on trucks". Read that again: if rail becomes available its use will be examed as a means of reducing reliance on trucks" Up until now their messaging has been it WILL reduce greenhouse gas emissions by taking trucks off the road. Now they are saying it will be examined. I can tell you right now their examination will conclude is it better to ship it out as fast a possible, which includes 7,200 trucks a day AND maximum number of trains, fully loaded per day. And when I say per day I mean day like in 24/7.
"LAND WILL BE REHABILITATED TO AGRCIULTURAL USES" They go on to state, and Daniher is always very careful to state, "all the extracted land that is suitable for rehabilitation to agriculture will be rehabilitated...." The key word here is "suitable for rehabiltiation". Do you know how much land will be suitable for rehabilitation -NONE, NADA, NOT a FREAKING ACRE.
"THE QUARRY WILL CREATE LOCAL JOBS" 300 trucking jobs, NOT local and they will NOT spend income on the local economy. The result will be in their estimation 150 jobs, but they don't show how many of those jobs will be replacement jobs for the farming ones that will be lost. Nor is there an economic impact study being provided to show all the other local jobs that will be lost-golf course, Fines, all other farming jobs, etc. etc.
'BLASTING WILL COMPY WITH ALL APPLICABLE RULES" Which means exactly what? Nothing.
If only Wes Keller would research Highland's press releases before he endorses them with his name, as if he was actually reporting on something, there might be a chance of getting Orangeville and Shelburne residents involved. The Citizen has become one big ad for the Highland Companies. It is such an obvious sell out. Grandpa Claridge must be turning over in his grave.
ReplyDeleteI guess the hire local only comes AFTER the hole is in the ground, because a good majority of the people hired there now are not only NOT local, they are not even from this Country. South of the border, I would guess. And I mean south of the border south of OUR border.
ReplyDeleteMany of the employees come from Mexico!! It really disturbs me that this "set the record straight" letter doesn't set the record straight at all. It also blows me away that they think they can come into our own back yards then call us liers by saying that we have "resorted to falsehoods and outrageous claims". We don't know how much it will cost to defend against this multi-billion dollar corporation and we need to be prepared regardless, this is thier attempt to cause a fallout amongst neighbours and locals. Is this all they got?
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