South Bruce Peninsula Council is echoing concerns about a proposed quarry in the municipality.
A numbered corporation is proposing a 100,000 tonne-per-year aggregate quarry near the hamlet of Clavering, causing red flags from a group of neighbours on North Diagonal Rd., just west of Hwy. 6.
Local resident Bill Klingenberg says the biggest concern of their group is that the quarry is proposed to be largely below the water table.
"It's a below-the-water table quarry application for aggregate purposes, which means drilling, blasting, de-watering of the site, so upwards of 500,000 L of water a day being pumped off-site," says Klingenberg. "Basically, it's the incompatible use with the lifestyle of North Diagonal [Rd.]."
Mayor Janice Jackson says council has the ability to file official comments with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and will include the concerns raised by the residents.
She says council will ask for an additional public meeting regarding the application, as well as additional peer reviews of hydro-geological studies and consultations, given the short 45-day window to review and comment on the application.
Jackson says it would be nice to have more influence over quarry license applications beyond just submitting comments.
"But at least we can weigh in and the town does have weight in the comments that we submit," says Jackson. "But yeah, I sure wish we had more power in turning [quarries] down or approving them."