Group protests gravel mines in Blyth, prepares for Ontario Land Tribunal hearing

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

In an act of defiance that had to wait a week - initially postponed from its original date of Valentine’s Day - over a dozen people had their say in front of Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson’s office last Friday to raise awareness of their years-long fight against a proposed gravel pit in Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh (ACW).

 

The Friends of Ball’s Bridge and Little Lakes (FOBBLL) group, which formed years ago in an eventually successful effort to save Ball’s Bridge from decommissioning, has now shifted its focus to a proposed pit in that same neck of the woods. This below-the-water-table mine has generated much opposition and has even led the Huron County Planning and Development Department to rethink its approach to aggregate mining in the county. 

 

This proposed pit - an expansion of the Fisher Pit, as it’s called by many - would further the mining of aggregate along Little Lakes Road, which is near several environmentally-sensitive areas, like nearby trails, the Maitland River and the aforementioned historic Ball’s Bridge. It is a continuing project by Van Bree Enterprises, formerly known as Lobo Sand and Gravel, that dates back to late 2020. The case will now have its day in “court” with an Ontario Land Tribunal hearing scheduled for this July.

 

In the intervening years, the FOBBLL group has remained active, working to engage with politicians at the municipal and provincial levels, conducting research and building a case against expansion of the pit, complete with their own lawyers and experts, and hosting events - both for fun and for informational purposes - in an effort to raise both awareness and funds.
Last Friday, one of the group’s lead volunteers, Jennifer Morris, spoke on behalf of the group to cheers and chants, citing the vast degree of aggregate mining in the province, suggesting that it was too much and that the mining in Ontario needs to be more firmly controlled and tamped down.

 

And while the group marched and chanted to raise awareness of their fight, Morris, Rebecca Garrett and others said that the group’s priority in the coming months will be to raise funds to hire experts or to pay the experts and lawyers they have already been working with, ahead of that fateful stretch of time in July when their case will finally be heard. The experts lined up by the group for the hearing will be an environmentalist, a planner, a hydrogeologist, and air quality expert and someone in the field of cultural heritage.

 

The group’s efforts to engage with ACW Council and Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, Morris said, have largely not borne fruit, especially since the case redirected to the Ontario Land Tribunal. Members are also pointing to the 2023 Auditor General’s report on gravel mining in Ontario, which recommended that the Ontario government “pull the emergency brake and halt new approvals until it can guarantee public safety...” and has made some members feel as though the industry of aggregate mining in Ontario is in an even worse way than they had initially thought.

 

And while Morris, Garrett and others felt encouraged by the local planning department’s work that could help curb aggregate mining in the county going forward, that work will not impact the Little Lakes proposal and the group is looking for support for their opposition, whether it be from fellow citizens, or local politicians. Morris and Garrett said they felt left behind, in a way, by their local representatives, especially as they have seen other councillors and representatives defend protesting citizens in similar fights.

 

The 10-day Ontario Land Tribunal hearing for this case is set for July 3-18 and will take place entirely online.