One local group wants the municipality on their side as they work to fight the approval of aggregate extraction operations in the region.
Reform Gravel Mining Coalition representative Doug Tripp shared a presentation to council, which called for a stop to gravel mining applications.
The group says that the mining process for gravel puts the local environment at risk because of greenhouse gas emissions from the industry.
“On a global scale, aggregate extraction and the concrete business in general, if it were a country, would be the eighth-largest polluter in the world in terms of carbon dioxide production.”
Tripp went on to say that gravel mining causes serious negative impacts for communities, including Indigenous communities, as well as the environment throughout Huron County.
“And it’s impacted by the activities of numerous aggregate extraction operations… Fifty pits and quarries in fairly close proximity, that have a cumulative impact on water resources, both the groundwater resources, the aquifers that feed wells, and the Maitland River.”
The RGMC is calling for an immediate moratorium on new aggregate application approvals.
