James Dick Construction wins environmental achievement award

George Hill of James Dick Construction receives the OSSGA Environmental Award at the OSSGA's in Niagara Falls.

James Dick Construction Limited recently was awarded the Ontario Stone Sand and Gravel Association Environmental Achievement Award for their Caledon Sand and Gravel property located on Highway 10. The Environmental Achievement Award recognizes OSSGA members that have developed and successfully implemented industry-leading policies, programs or projects that make positive contributions to the environment.

Specifically, the award recognized the planting of 9,000 trees and moving of 3.5 million tonnes of earth to shape the Hydraulic Buffer around Warnock Lake that the company constructed in Caledon. The kilometer-long hydraulic buffer successfully protects water levels a wetland which is immediately adjacent to the licensed gravel pit.

"The construction of the Warnock Lake Hydraulic Buffer has demonstrated conclusively that with careful and creative management, aggregate resources can be mined very close to a wetland without having an impact on them. It demonstrates that water tables in the vicinity of an aggregate extraction site can be fine tuned and manipulated using barriers to duplicate natural systems. But most of all was that it was a fun project for everyone that worked on it, we enjoy doing things right and seeing our efforts literally blossom right in front of us," said a company spokesperson.

4th Orangeville Boy Scouts helped plant the almost 9,000 trees on the project.

The buffer is in essence an underground dam that holds ground water behind it, allowing water to mound up behind it and feed the wetland. The key to constructing the buffer was in carefully controlling the operational sequence.

Warnock Lake is a bit of an enigma. It may have been created when the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway bed was constructed back in the 1920s. Heavy agricultural use in the 1940s and '50s resulted in a dyke being constructed that blocked water from entering the lake and it was dry for approximately 20 years. By the late 1970s the dykes had eroded and once again water flowed into the depression during the spring melt. By the 80s and 90s wetland communities gained a foothold and trees began to mature around the perimeter of the lake. The lake has always had high fluctuations of water seasonally, varying by up to 12 feet during the course of a single year.

Today, with the help of the hydraulic buffer the lake is healthier than ever, sporting healthy populations of frogs, birds and fish and continuing to provide natural storm water attenuation.

James Dick Construction Limited is a grassroots Caledon based company and has grown from a one man operation to be one of Caledon's largest employers.

"Thanks to OSSGA for this special recognition. Everyone needs sand and stone and this award demonstrates that here at James Dick we are sourcing those essential materials in an environmentally responsible way!"