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Food Water FirstAggregate industry still recovering from black eye
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- Published on Saturday, 27 July 2013 10:18
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The Holcim Canada Milton quarry, located in Milton, Ont., is becoming more of a rarity as the Ontario aggregate industry faces challenges in securing and developing new aggregate supplies.
The Ontario aggregate industry faces considerable challenges, from securing and developing new aggregate supplies, to delivering aggregates increasing distances to the markets that consume them. However, if you ask Steve Mader, vice-president of aggregate company Blueland Farms in Wiarton, Ont., he’ll tell you that the industry is healthier than it has been in many years.
Mader has been an aggregate man for about a quarter-century. His company now develops new aggregate sites for other producers.
“I get them through the regulatory hurdles, get them licensed, get the berms and fences up, break ground, move equipment in and operate them for six months to get production rolling,” he says. “At that point I sell them to another producer to operate for the remainder of the licence.”
Mader says that some companies operating in the aggregate business 50 years ago or more gave the industry a black eye that it has still not fully recovered from. Abandoned pits and quarries from long ago still represent a bad advertisement for the industry. On the other hand, current decommissioning practices, which require operators to restore a site to a specific condition, remain largely unnoticed because they blend in with the surrounding terrain.
Blueland Farms specializes in developing aggregate pits and quarries simply because the process of prospecting and seeking local zoning and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) approvals has become so labour-intensive.
“Siting a new quarry has become more of a struggle than it ever was,” he says. “The aggregate under the ground has to satisfy all of the testing criteria and you need to be certain that the deposit is homogeneous and extends enough of a distance to make the pit commercially viable. We excavate and take a core drill into potential properties as deep as we need to in order to satisfy ourselves. Even with the geological work we do beforehand, maybe one of every 10 properties we examine is worth pursuing.”
Mader is currently working to process an application for a 100-acre site in Caledon, Ont. The property is considered scrubland and has only marginal agricultural value.
“That property we’re applying for is so uneven, you could only graze three-legged billy goats there,” he says. “If the aggregate facility is approved, the property can be left in much better shape than what we started with.”
In order to receive approval for the proposal, Mader’s company must meet MNR requirements and adhere to the provincial Aggregate Resources Act and Regulations, Aggregate Resources Regulations, the Planning and Development Act and the Planning Act. The proposal must also conform to the Town of Caledon Official Plan.
Mader says that he understands the need for zoning and MNR oversight. However, he takes issues with what he sees as nuisance objections to site applications.
“We routinely receive letters of objection from people who live 40 to 50 kilometres away from the proposed aggregate facility and they’re saying they’re concerned about the noise of the delivery trucks and don’t want a site rezoned for aggregate,” he says. “We have to answer all of the objections that are registered and have to write letters responding to their noise concerns.”
Despite challenges to establishing new aggregate sources, and a greater emphasis on aggregate recycling, there is no substitute for a fresh supply of quality aggregate
“Those condominium towers in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) aren’t being built out of nothing,” says Mader. “With increased delivery distances, higher fuel costs, and higher equipment costs, the prices for aggregate are only going to go higher. Still, with steady demand, and the safeguards put in place by the industry, the aggregate business is on better footing than it has been in years.”
By Peter Kenter
Posted in the Daily Commercial News, July 25, 2013