Adverse Effects: Thirteen Homeowners Near A Blasting Quarry Bought Out By Quarry Owner

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.