Gravel Watch Meeting Addresses Legal Issues
ABERFOYLE-For many private citizens and assembled community groups opposing gravel pits due to noise, dust and environmental and health concerns, it can feel like a David versus Goliath type of battle. So it seemed many of the close to 200 people that gathered at the Puslinch Community Centre Thursday night carried frustrations and small defeats. It was Gravel Watch Ontario's fourth annual general meeting and this year's theme was litigation.
The not-for-profit organization was created to provide a central voice for disparaged and dispersed community groups to speak to the provincial government about regulations that are not being enforced and are not up to standard. "The more we learn, the more we are concerned," said Dennis Lever, a member of Gravel Watch Ontario, who has led the Puslinch community group that has continuously opposed an application from Capital Paving.
Canada's gravel extraction rate is twice as high as that of the United States and three times as high as the United Kingdom's, Lever said. And according to the group's calculations, only half of Ontario's disbanded pit and quarry sites are rehabilitated, despite provincial regulation. Rehabilitation means the site has been cleaned up so it doesn't endanger the immediate environment and can safely be used for other purposes.
The evening's guest speaker, Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive for Friends of the Earth Canada, said not every case is suited for litigation. A large part of what her organization does is push for enforceable laws. She said much of the province's legislation around environmental issues including effluent discharge, aggregates and mining is out of date. But sometimes a lawsuit is the best option.
Her organization helped a citizens group in Quebec successfully sue St. Lawrence Cement for $15 million. The Supreme Court ruling set a precedent, because the company operated within its licence from 1957 to 1997, but the court still found it was a nuisance. "What we did was intervene," Olivastri said. "It was really the citizens that put up with it since the 1950s."
The legal action started in 1994 and took more than a decade. She says this work takes patience. "There is no easy way, it takes stamina," she told the crowd.
Panellist Anastasia Lintner, a lawyer with Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund) and University of Guelph economics professor, pointed out a few important details that concerned residents should take away from the case. Namely, that Quebec law follows its separate civil code, but the judges made a point to say it resembles nuisance law in the rest of Canada and should therefore be applicable.
Lintner also pointed out that there are statutes of limitations on different types of cases, so residents opposed to an action should seek legal advice as soon as possible.
Olivastri's advice was to keep as detailed records as possible and also to publicly hold politicians and companies accountable. Calling it "embarrassment tactics," she said letters sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and local politicians should also be made public, through letters to the editor, for instance. She also suggested bringing in partners with similar goals.
Gravel Watch Ontario president Ric Holt, an Elora resident and University of Waterloo professor, said the idea that the polluter pays should be obvious, but that doesn't seem to happen with aggregates. That is what makes Olivastri's story so important, he said. But litigation can be expensive. He is personally concerned about pits set to go forward in the Inverhaugh Valley.
Writer Jim Zimmerman lives near Holt and championed the citizen group. He told the crowd and panellists that the group has spent thousands of dollars opposing this development, only to see it going forward. It went through the Ontario Municipal Board, so Zimmerman said it is no longer a legal issue. "It's a political issue," he said.
Guelph Mercury