BY THE NUMBERS

Tim Shuff wrote an astounding article in the summer issue of In the Hills.  (See post dated July 24, 2011)

Please click on the article and read it in its entirety and be sure to post a comment about the article.  Thank you Tim.
http://www.inthehills.ca/2011/06/current/melancthon-mega-quarry-by-the-numbers/

Here are some astounding facts in his article:

Size of proposed Melancthon quarry, in acres · 2,316

Width, in kilometres · 5

Amount of rock reserve required to meet MNR’s definition of a “mega-quarry,” in tonnes · 150,000,000

Amount of rock reserve in the proposed quarry, in tonnes 1,000,000,000

Length of two-lane highway that could be built with this aggregate, in kilometres · 55,555

Circumference of the earth, in kilometres · 40,075

Approximate depth the quarry will dig below the water table, in feet · 200

Height of Niagara Falls, in feet · 167

Number of major watersheds affected · 2

Amount of water that will have to be pumped each day to divert it from flooding the quarry, in litres · 600,000,000

Number of times this exceeds the combined amount pumped by all quarries in Ontario today · 60

Number of Ontarians’ daily water needs this represents 2,700,000

Rate of aggregate extraction cited in application’s economic studies, in millions of tonnes per year · 10

Number of years it would take to deplete the quarry reserve at this rate · 100

Amount of aggregate extracted at Canada’s largest existing quarry in 2009, in millions of tonnes · 6.6

Maximum combined total aggregate extraction permitted in the country of Sweden, in millions of tonnes per year · 12

Hours per day that the quarry plans to conduct extraction, conveyance, maintenance, processing and shipping · 24

Actual rate of aggregate extraction, supported by the application’s traffic scenario of the 150 trucks that will come and go per hour, in millions of tonnes per year · 52

Amount of residual ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO) explosive that immunologist, Unitarian and antiquarry activist Neil denHollander calculates could be released by quarry blasting into the air, water and soil each day, in tonnes · 1

Fee per tonne that the government levies on virgin aggregates extracted in Ontario · $0.115

Amount of the equivalent fee in the UK · $3.22

Percentage of Ontario aggregate production that comes from recycled material · 7

Percentage of UK aggregate production that comes from recycled material · 21

Value that an MNR-commissioned study gave to “ecosystem services” provided by intact natural heritage features in Southern Ontario · $84,000,000,000

Amount the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce has spent on consultants to help understand and fight the quarry application · $100,000

Amount that NDACT is in debt as a result of this spending · $56,000

Approximate value of assets of the quarry’s U.S.-based backer, the Baupost hedge fund, headed by investment guru Seth Klarman · $20,000,000,000

Approximate amount per acre that Highland Companies paid for its quarry land · $8,000

Estimated value per acre of the aggregate reserve on this land · $3,500,000

Amount per acre the quarry will pay in annual county and township property taxes · $86

Cost on Amazon.ca of a used copy of Klarman’s book, Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor, in which he outlines his philosophy of “always buying at a significant discount to underlying business value” · $1,345

Number of permanent jobs Highland says the quarry will provide · 465

Percentage of these jobs that are local, on-site jobs, other than trucking · 35

Percentage decline in the number of MNR aggregate inspectors since 1994, before the Conservative government replaced annual inspections with industry self-reporting · 52

Percentage of quarries that MNR inspectors now attempt to visit in person each year to verify industry compliance reports · 20

Percentage of surveyed quarries that the MNR found to have compliance problems when it conducted an internal review in 2006-2007 · 83

Ratio of land disturbed for aggregate extraction to land rehabilitated in Ontario, 1995 to 2005 · 2.3:1

Percentage of government aggregate fee that goes to an abandoned pits and quarries fund · 4

Number of significant “built heritage resources and cultural heritage landscapes” identified on the quarry site by the Highland Companies’ Cultural Heritage Study · 0

Number of farmsteads demolished by Highlands on its properties prior to its application · 30

Duration that The Highland Companies’ scientists searched for amphibians or played recorded birdsong at various locations to determine the presence of endangered species at the quarry site, in minutes · 3 to 6

Percentage of Ontario’s stored potato crop located in Melancthon last November · 49

Percentage of Melancthon’s prime potato-growing area – a unique 15,000-acre plateau of Honeywood Loam soil – located on the quarry site · 15

Percentage of Canada’s land area that is rated Class 1 farmland, the highest quality · 0.5

Percentage of proposed quarry land that is Class 1 farmland · 95.8

Percentage of farmland lost in Central Ontario since 1951 · 49

Percentage of proposed quarry area that the application says will be rehabilitated to “prime agricultural land and agriculturally related uses” on the quarry floor, where a “hardy crop…is expected to produce acceptable yields” · 58

Lift that will need to be overcome by the quarry’s dewatering pumps, in feet · 175

Lift of pumps operating in the Holland Marsh, in feet · 8

Annual amount per acre in 2011 dollars that NDACT estimates it will cost to operate these pumps in perpetuity in order to avoid flooding and sustain farming on the quarry floor · $4,500

Annual gross yield from an acre of potatoes in 2007,of which 5 to 10 per cent may be profit · $3,360