Landscapes and the Proposed Mega-Quarry

150 million tonnes; the reserve now owned by The Highland Companies in Melancthon Township is estimated at 1 billion tonnes. The quarry’s purpose is the extraction of high-quality limestone deposits, which lie beneath the rich agricultural land. The limestone, once crushed and graded, will form an aggregate sought by the construction industry within our province, and beyond.

The extent of deception surrounding The Highland Companies’ acquisition of land in Melancthon Township is less certain. By some accounts, land was acquired under the guise of a local man and his shell company, misleading farmers and other residents as to the long-term intent of land purchases.

Whether by guise or not, in 2006 the company began buying properties in the area at the inflated price of $8,000 an acre. The company quickly acquired well over 7,500 acres – including the area’s two largest potato farms – and became Ontario’s biggest potato producer. The company also began bulldozing farmhouses and drilling holes in the land, practices not consistent with mere potato farming and raising suspicions among local residents.

The Dufferin County is also known as the ‘headwaters’ of Ontario, as it is the source of five major river systems known as the Credit, Humber, Grand, Saugeen and Nottawasaga. Waters sourced here support an array of aquatic life and supply drinking water to over a million people. Water is central to the debate surrounding the mega-quarry. The Highland Companies, in order to keep the quarry dry, will have to pump 600,000,000 litres of groundwater a day away from its site, every day, in perpetuity.

The environmental impact of blasting and excavating limestone, and dewatering, circulating and recharging, all day, every day, 600 million litres of water, is simply unknown.

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