Colchester County residents oppose proposed quarry expansion

A group of property owners along the Little Dyke Road in Glenholme, N.S.,is working to prevent the expansion of a quarry in their neighbourhood.

Irving-owned Osco Aggregates Ltd. wants to buy 30 hectares of private land in the Colchester Countyarea to excavatesand,gravel and other stone.

Ted Jordan's home on Little Dyke Lake isabout two kilometres from the existing quarry. He said he'sworried about the disruption of the water table, excessive noise and heavy truck traffic.

"When we moved out here, we moved for the lifestyle," he said.

"We didn't know that we were going to move in next door to a mine.We were here first. Doesn't that count for something?"

Effect on property values

Shawn Putnam, operations manager for Osco Aggregates, saidthe property his company wants to acquire is abouteight times the size of thecurrent operation.

However, he said thatdoesn't mean it will all be mined at the same time. Aportion of the land will be excavated and refilled beforethe same process beginson another parcel, he explained.

Amy Hutt, who owns lakefront property on Little Dyke Road, said she's concernedabout her property value.

"I've rerouted my lifeto come from Halifax and buy real estate [here]," she said.

Excavating 6 days a week

Osco hired Dillon Consulting to prepare an environmental assessment for the proposed mine. It's been registered with the Environment Department and isawaiting approval. The company expects an answer by early August.

According to its application, Osco saidit wouldprotect the water quality of nearby lakes and wells by only digging within a half metreof the underground water table.

The application saidthe excavating is expected to occur between 12 and 14 hours a day, six days a week. It noted there is the potential for"short periods of increased operations22-24 hours/day."

Gravel 'happens to be in this area'

Officials with Osco saidresidents near Little Dyke Lake wouldprobably hear the quarry's excavators, conveyors, trucks and washing plants.

But they hope to minimize the noise by surrounding the quarry with sound barrier walls, called berms.

"We're not in control of where the sand and gravel is," Putnam said."It happens to be in this area. We can't just go 20 miles back in the woods and dig it there because it's not there.It's here."

That doesn't sit well with Ian MacFadden, who divides his time between his Halifax home andhis other at Little Dyke Lake.

"There's a lot at stake," he said."The risk here is that this environment that you see here this lifestyle could be damaged forever."