Adverse Effects: Thirteen Homeowners Near A Blasting Quarry Bought Out By Quarry Owner
Journal Title: Grassroots Journal of Natural Resources - Year 2023, Vol 6, Issue 1
Abstract
In Ontario, a blasting quarry operation, once established, is allowed to effectively operate indefinitely, as a licence to permit aggregate extraction has no expiry date. Once established, the prospect of terminating a quarry operator’s licence is virtually non-existent, regardless of the nature or number of site plan and quarry violations or adverse impacts (e.g., flyrock, noise, toxic fumes, fugitive dust, vibrations, drain or damage domestic wells), all due to a lack of effective government oversight (e.g., government staff shortage exacerbated by allowing self-reporting of the aggregate industry). Before a blasting or non-blasting quarry operation is permitted, the owner of the quarry should be compelled to purchase potentially impacted properties, provided that in doing so the environmental impact is reduced to a “trivial” level and the surrounding community is not destabilized. Otherwise, once a quarry is operational, the only remedy available to the municipality and impacted property owners is to launch a civil action at considerable time and expense, a process that can drag on for years with no guarantee of success. Sometimes, a quarry operator will voluntarily commit to purchase adversely impacted properties, but sometimes the acquisitions are undertaken surreptitiously, and require the property owner to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This case study pertains to a number of adversely effected homeowners whose homes were bought out by the owners of the Acton Quarry in Halton Hills, Ontario. They concealed their true identity through the use of numbered companies and one with the delightful sounding name (Snowfarm Ltd.) when purchasing the houses and in the process destabilized the community.
Authors and Affiliations
Tony Sevelka
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP735342
- DOI https://doi.org/10.33002/nr2581.6853.060110
- Views 76
- Downloads 0
Debate on Genetic Resources Accessed Ex Situ in the context of the Nagoya Protocol
Recently enacted two international laws – Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing (ABS) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) – deal with the access/utilization of a...
Determining the Legal Relations of Gemological Objects of Natural Origin
Determining the essence, correlation and types of objects of law and objects of legal relations is considered one of the most debatable issues in the theory of law, having significant theoretical and practical significan...
Indigenous Environmental Knowledge of Borana Pastoralists
This paper investigated the indigenous environmental knowledge (IEK) of Borana pastoralists in Dhas district of Borana zone in Southern Ethiopia. To select participants for key informant interview and focus group discuss...
Community Based Forest Management in Nepal: Current Status, Successes and Challenges
Community based forest management in Nepal has been widely acclaimed as the most successful approach for participatory forest management and its governance. So far, about 2,831,707 hectares of forests of Nepal have been...
Non-Timber Forest Products and their Role in the Livelihoods of People of Nepal: A Critical Review
Nepal is a rich source of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in terms of production and trading practices. The altitudinal and climatic variations in various pockets of Nepal have contributed to their diversity. This art...