DurhamRegion.com reports, “St. Marys Cement Inc. has plans to head below Bowmanville’s stretch of Lake Ontario to meet some of its [limestone aggregate] mining needs. …[It] plans to build a [49 square kilometre] mine under Lake Ontario, a mine they believe could operate for up to 100 years.”
Bowmanville is located about 75 kilometres east of Toronto.
The newspaper notes, “Chris Darling, a representative of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority, which has responsibility for the nearby wetlands, attended the company’s public meeting on Sept. 17. He said his group is seeking more information on the project and is looking to an environmental impact study done by the company.”
Darling says, “It’s too early to identify what the environmental concerns are. We have no idea the extent of the blasting or the impacts it could have.”
The article adds, “The project is still a long way off, with the company just starting to hold public meetings on the subject. It still needs to go through some approvals by the municipality and licensing from the province.”
St. Mary’s Cement is the company behind the controversial Carlisle quarry that was to be built near Hamilton, Ontario. It was stopped by the Ontario government because of the harm it would have caused to the area’s groundwater. As a result, the company launched a $275 million NAFTA investor-state challenge claiming their quarry was scuttled for political reasons. In March 2013, the provincial government settled with a $15 million payment to the company for costs they had incurred with the project.
