Mine expansion will exclude active agricultural lands

Raymond Parker

Comment online since April 1st 2007
Mike Bishop, Plant Manager
c/o Fundy Gypsum Company
PO Box 400
Windsor, NS
B0N 2TO

Dear Mr. Bishop:

It has been over a year since our community’s residents initiated public meetings and
the issues of the Avon Peninsula watershed are still not being addressed. USG stands to make millions at the expense of our communities and the good people of Avondale, Poplar Grove, Belmont, and Mantua on the Avon Peninsula.
One has only to look at a map or an aerial photograph to see that what is proposed
is located in the heart of our area and destroys valuable, ecologically sensitive land
that supports, among many things, the agricultural industry, because it is a
watershed. Destruction of the watershed impacts private homes, biodiversity, and
wildlife habitat farmers around here need.

The Municipality zoned the peninsula Agricultural Priority One for a reason. The 2003 Windsor-West Hants Mining Profile, quoting the Department of Natural Resources,
rates Avondale the poorest for gypsum mining of many West Hants areas because “the immediate vicinity is used for agriculture.” No matter how you spin it, the phrase “immediate vicinity” tells its own story.
Long-time residents have had to accommodate their own business dreams to this zoning for years, but now USG thinks they can just erase the zoning because of their business plans that will destroy the land forever? Is it any wonder that residents are
upset? Mr. Bishop, our families want to live and do business on the Avon Peninsula,
period. Your workers have excellent trade skills needed in Nova Scotia and like us,
they may have to make the necessary sacrifices we’ve had to. Maybe you’d like to
see AP residents move away so USG can mine the whole peninsula, because they
won’t have a community here to call home. But maybe they won’t be able to move because they won’t be able to sell their home. This doesn’t seem hardly fair either.
Residents are our greatest natural resource—not gypsum we sell to USG at 16 cents a tonne.

The sinkholes, wetlands, and uneven terrain you refer to are unique formations
known as Karst. Anyone can source information on Karst—from us, from our team of experts, on the Internet. What they will discover is that these landforms and
associated features have many values, and any disturbance has effects far beyond
their apparent geographic boundary. Any amount of industrial development and
pollution not only negates these values but also negatively impacts the surrounding
communities in numerous ways. Many Karst areas are protected on the World
Heritage list. We invite government and USG to consider protecting this area as well.
The Avon Peninsula is a gem that should not be destroyed at the behest of an
American company that accounts for less than 2% employment in West Hants and
which causes investment to stay away. Smart money is not attracted to a region where a long established planning framework can be subverted in favour of such destructive activity.

We have a more positive vision for the future, one which builds on the considerable
assets this area is blessed with, including the green aspirations and initiatives of
many local residents and businesses, as articulated by our government’s new
Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act: a vision of economic prosperity and quality of life based on a mixture of traditional knowledge, innovation,
entrepreneurship, local value-added production and respect for our landscapes and the human and natural communities that live in them.

As you know the APWPS is committed to working with you, our many community
partners and all interested parties to help realize this vision. It is unfortunate that
USG declined to meet with the numerous stakeholders impacted by your proposed
strip mine, including the APWPS, in the forum proposed by the Hants Regional Development Authority, where this discussion might have begun.
We look forward to a thorough public review process, Mr. Bishop, because we know
that science, the environment, good economic judgement and a lot of public support is on our side—regardless of what USG is paying “experts” to say on April 3 and 4.
Over 2,500 Nova Scotians, and more day by day, agree with us.

Raymond Parker
President, APWPS
President, Roseway Farm Limited
CC: West Hants Municipal Council
Town of Windsor
Town of Hantsport
MLA Chuck Porter
Minister Mark Parent
Minister Brooke Taylor
Premier of Nova Scotia
Paul LaFleche (DM – Agriculture)
Peter Underwood (DM – DNR)
William Lahey (DM –DEL)
Greg Keefe (DM – SNSMR)
Lloyd Bloise (Hants Federation of Agriculture)
Dave Chalk, AVR
Gordon Delaney, Chronicle Herald
Fred Lawrence, Hants Journal
Ralph Surette, Chronicle Herald
Paul Withers, CBC

Calum MacKenzie

Comment online since March 30th 2007
Additional mining in the APWA will add to the lowering of the already depleted water table.
For the mining company to state that farmland will not be affected is mendacious.

Water is our most precious resource after air and must be fully protected, taking local knowledge at par, using the do no harm principles as well as the precautionary principle.

Mining is an unsustainable activity while farming will cater to our entire population for generations.

Let's support our local farmers and the land over which they have stewardship. God is just not making any more!