No results given from pit rehabilitation

Good for Penny Richardson. Sometimes residents wonder if the aggregate people believe they can say or do almost anything and it will never be questioned. Giving an environment award to James Dick and having it given or presented by a member of the aggregate industry is a great example of just how the aggregate firms view the Caledon residents.

For years, over 40 since coming to live in Caledon, I have heard the subject of the rehabilitation of pits come up in public meetings, OMB hearings and Town of Caledon meetings as well as election meetings of candidates. Still, there never seems to be anything concrete we are given, or that the Town has for us to see, that indicates that the rehab of pits is being monitored and the results that were found. The view from the air is disgusting and the number of ponds of water that you see, evaporating daily, seem to bother no one.

We now have a new pit application where the loss of water weekly due to the need for the poor quality of sand to be washed amounts to 11,783,232 litres per week. These are the experts' figures submitted to the Town for the Olympia pit on Porterfield Road. Again, is this figure going to be accepted without question, does anyone realize just how precious our water supply is, and how many citizen requirements this loss reflects.

It is time that the Town of Caledon, the province of Ontario and anyone else that is interested in the future of our water supply, the landscape of the Town of Caledon, the amount of land sitting useless in pits operations, sat down and decided just what is going on, and ask the questions that need to be asked. Since Connie Smythe's days, no progress appears to have been made with the pits on Highway 10 as far as rehab work or land returned to the proper condition it should be.

Have you noticed the amount of dust created by the trucks entering #10 from the Dick operation on the east side of the highway, look across the street, same thing applies to the other pits. Does anyone monitor this problem? Mr. Sweetnam once informed me that his trucks have governors so they cannot travel faster than 90 kilometres per hour and this would be going downhill.

Hard to believe when I had clocked them at 109 km-h on #10 and reported this to him with truck number, etc. and not going downhill, I have had the need to again travel #10 recently a number of times. With the many independent truck operators now working in the area, speed is again up to more than 100 km-h almost consistently. Have you ever noticed that you never see a truck stopped by the OPP for speeding, the answer for this I was told by the police years ago, was that they couldn't catch them as the drivers were in touch with each other and the location of the police was known, so the trucks used a different route, or simply slowed down, until the police moved.

Have we ever tried a blitz with maybe 10 unmarked cars at one time? Someday a horrific accident will happen then watch the attention that is paid to this problem.

J.B. Reid

Caledon