Erin council green-lights Hillsburgh gravel pit remediation

ERIN  – Despite resident and councillor objections, the Hillsburgh gravel pit on  Sideroad 27 has been approved for remediation.

The pit owner, 1772853 Ontario Inc., originally brought a site alteration permit application to council in October.

At the time, council voted to refer the application back to staff until late November, when the draft Transportation Master Plan (TMP) was to be presented.

The application was brought back to council on Jan. 22 by pit representative Jay Fiege.

Located at 9516 Sideroad 27, the site has operated as a sand and gravel pit for Strada Aggregates since 1999. Below-the-water-table extraction resulted in a pond with a surface area of approximately 9.6 hectares and a depth of four to five metres. 

Gravel and sand are no longer being extracted from the site and the licence will be surrendered to the ministry once the site alteration agreement has been executed.

“One of the TMP recommendations is a proposed truck detour to bypass Main Street in Hillsburgh,” said David Waters, manager of planning and development for Erin.

“The Hillsburgh truck detour introduces a new public road from Sideroad 27 East to 8th Line. The route then continues south on 8th Line to Wellington Road 22.”

Waters noted that due to the magnitude of fill needed to remediate the pit, an amendment to the site alteration bylaw is required.

“The town’s site alteration by law requires works to be completed within 24 months. No further extension is permitted by the bylaw,” said Waters. 

“Seeing that the agreement is for 20 years, an amendment ... is required to enable the proposed fill operation to continue operating beyond two years.”

Fieger objected to the town’s $2 per cubic metre tipping fee in October, but has since agreed to it with a clause limiting the tipping fee collected over the life of the project to $10.72 million, with an additional security deposit of $250,000, separate from the tipping fee, to remedy any breach of the agreement, including the repair of any public road.

“The total amount of clean fill that will be brought into the project over the life of the project is projected to be 5.36 million cubic metres. Therefore at $2 per cubic metre revenue for the town will be $10,719,810,” states a staff report. 

Councillor John Brennan questioned the purpose of the clause, noting, “I just don’t get it.” 

Fieger explained that “because the amount of dirt on a truck can vary depending on the size of the truck and the type of material, whether its a rock or top soil, that’s the exact $2 aggregate for the life of the project rather than a guess.”

Brennan asked what would happen if more fill was used than expected, to which Fieger said “there is no more, the survey is the survey. This is a finite precise number.”

Councillor Bridget Ryan raised the issue of possible contaminated soil being transported to the pit, resulting in contamination to the town’s groundwater. 

“The process of monitoring material before it ever gets to the property is sophisticated,” said Fieger.

“In the possible rare exception that something turns up that shouldn’t, that is reported immediately  and dealt with immediately.”

Ryan also said she doesn’t believe the proposal aligns with the town’s values. 

“We’re looking to put a new park ... just down the road from where 150 trucks per day for 15 to 17 years will pass. That’s a truck every three minutes,” said Ryan.

“I’m not sure that’s sustainable. 

“I don’t think it demonstrates environmental stewardship or community vitality.”

She added, “I don’t think this is keeping within our overall vision for our town.”

Asked what would happen if council decided to reject the proposal, Waters informed council that Fieger would seek approval through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, which could take as little as 12 months for approval and would see just 0.4% of project revenue go to the town.

“This is [the project] a significant amount of revenue for the municipality ... so it does have a positive impact on our finances,” said CAO Rob Adams.

Responding to further comments about traffic and the environment from Ryan, Mayor Michael Dehn said, “Lots of trucks can come through Erin and pay us nothing to go to a fill site north of Erin.”

“Here we are actually getting the same traffic that could be going through Erin, but there is a little bit of an economic benefit,” Dehn continued.

“I love the idea of green vital growth, but we have not seen any of that on our term of council in this community.”

Dehn added, “We’ve seen almost no business growth in our term of council and we are struggling with higher taxes on the residents.

“This is one of the ways we might get a little relief to the taxpayers.”

Ryan told Dehn she “respectfully disagreed,” stating, “We shouldn’t be taking the best of the worst.”

The proposal was passed 3-1, with Ryan opposed and Brennan, councillor Jamie Cheyne and Dehn in favour.  

Councillor Cathy Aylard was absent.