Landowner worries about potash exploration

The owner of land in Millstream where a potash mine could be located says no one from the mining company Atlantic Potash Corp. or the provincial government has tried to talk to him.

Geoff Oland says he is not happy his property could soon be host to a mine.

Oland says his 182-hectare plot is special to him.He inherited a portion of it from his grandfather as a teenager and bought up adjacent land.

He's spent decades planting and thinking and preparing it for his retirement. NowAtlantic Potash Corp.wants to explorehis land for potash.

"This is really upsetting to see. It keeps me awake at night. I just don't know what I'm going to do. Since I was 16, I've putnearly everything I owned into that piece of property."

Oland had a previous scare in the 1980s when BP arrived with an exploration permit. The company was a presence for years making roads and drilling deep core samples before eventually packing up.

Oland says one of the most trying legacies from that BP exploration period was the loss of control over his land.

For years after, people used the road the company made to drive on his propertytaking down gates, even hauling campers in during hunting season. He said it took years to regain control of his property.

But BP didn't build a mine Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. did, right beside Cynthia McEwen's seventh-generation family farm in Penobsquis.

Shelost her well waterand now she says she's watching her property sink.

"Through drainageplus subsidence, I've got 26 acres that I can't farm," McEwen said.

"Be careful. Ask Questions, ask lots of questions, and don't believe everything you hear, don't believe everything they tell you," McEwan warned.

The Atlantic Potash Corp. says it has spoken to some of the landowners involved.

Keith Attoe, the co-chief executive officer, says he is sorry to hear of concerns expressed by Oland. He said he plans to hold more individual meetings and host public information sessions early in the new year.

Oland says he never got a call. But he will be getting a lawyer.