RM of Springfield considers sand-mining referendum, but vote will have to wait

The mayor and council ofthe rural municipality of Springfield will have to wait at least one weekto consider a plan to gauge public opinion about aproposal to extract sand from below the surface of southeastern Manitoba.

Springfield's council was forced on Tuesday evening to lay overa vote on a motion to hold a referendum or conduct a survey about Alberta miner Sio Silica's plan to drill as many as 7,700 wells in Manitoba in order to remove high-quality sand from an aquifer located about 50 metres underground.

Coun. Mark Miller, the author of the motion, was unable to attend the meeting because of an air-travel delay on his way back from a trip to Ottawa.

That left Coun.Andy Kuczynskion his own among council memberswilling to support the motion. No other member of council agreed to second the motion, forcing it to be moved to a meeting later in July.

Coun. Melinda Warren said it would be pointless for Springfield to seekpublic opinion on its own when 11 Manitoba municipalities would be affected by Sio Silica's proposal to extract sand from wells that would be drilledacross a broad swath of southern Manitoba.

"It's our aquifer and everybody takes out of that aquifer, so I don'tfeelthat it's just a Springfield issue," Warren told council on Tuesday in the Springfield council chamberin Oakbank, east of Winnipeg.

"If you're going to open the door to a public survey or areferendum, we should be doing it with theremainder of the municipalities that are affected and this shouldbe brought up to the provincial government," she added.

"Whether we have a say or not, the decision is with the provincial government."

Minister in no rush to decide on Sio Silica

The decision to approve or deny Sio Silica's proposal sits with Manitoba Environment and Climate Minister Kevin Klein, who said in June he is in no rush to rule on Sio Silica's proposal.

The Clean Environment Commission, Manitoba's environmental regulator, recommended in June against any immediate decision about the project until more is known about the effects ofremoving millions of tonnes of sandfrom the vast Winnipeg Sandstone Aquifer.

"The commission does not have sufficient confidence that the level of risk posed to an essential source of drinking water for the region has been adequately defined,"theClean Environment Commission said in a 105-page report completed in June.

"The mining approach proposed by Sio Silica does have merit if the risks posed to the quality of water in the affected aquifers can be better defined and the management of those risks can be adequately addressed."

Nonetheless, there remains public pressure on Springfield, which has been asked by Manitoba's Municipal Board to approve the development of a sand-processing facility near Vivian, Man.

Springfield declined to approve the development in June. Mayor Patrick Therrien said he isnow waiting to see what the quasi-judicial board which the province has granted the power to overrule municipal land-use decisions will dictate to his municipality.

"I have to wait, and so does council, to see what they're going totell us to do," Therrien said following Tuesday's meeting.