Another gravel pit may be coming to Caledon.

Blueland Farms Ltd. is the corporate entity that has put forward an application for a license to operate an aggregate (gravel) pit on the property known as the McCormick farm on Heart Lake Road, north of Escarpment Sideroad.

“They have a lot of hurdles to overcome,” said Ward 1 Area Councillor Doug Beffort. “But I would say that as long as they meet all the requirements of the aggregate policy, I would see them getting approval, except…”

And the excepts are lengthy.

According to Beffort, the process has just begun, and Blueland Farms is going to have a lot of work to do.

“They have a lot of hurdles to overcome,” he said. “Part of the property is in the Niagara Escarpment, they also want to exit onto Heart Lake Road, north of Charleston.”

And the exit is where they may have their biggest fight, said Beffort.

According to the Ward 1 Councillor, Heart Lake Road would need a lot of work before it could become a truck haul route, and even then, he wasn’t confident that could even be achieved.

“Heart Lake is not built to withstand that kind of traffic and would have to be upgraded at their (Blueland Farms) cost,” said Beffort. “I know the Town of Caledon is not interested in putting any money into that road, and I’m not sure if there is enough width to make that road safe.”

Beffort said that efforts may have to be made by the Blueland farms corporation to cooperate with James Dick, who operates the aggregate pit beside the McCormick Farm.

The proposed site is actually along an aggregate deposit that a number of quarries already utilize.  “It’s about 100 acres,” said Glenn Harrington, of Harrington McAvan Ltd., the consultant for Blueland Farms. “There’s a sequence of gravel pits that have been in operation, and this one is on the same deposit.”

According to Harrington there is no good answer for the proposed lifeline of the potential mine, as he said, the amount of gravel drawn out each year will be dictated by the construction market. But a ballpark guess was approximately 15 years.

Asked if they expect this to be another Rockfort Quarry, both Ward 1 councillors were quite confident that this is a very different situation.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Beffort. “Since the time we’ve fought against gravel pits, we have developed a pretty substantial protocol. We’re not talking about displacing water and all of that stuff here, we’re talking about a fairly typical pit.”

“This is not,” said Regional Councillor Richard Paterak. “Rockfort is in an area where there wasn’t extraction, it had water flowing in many different directions...the problems here invovle the haul route, it would be totally different.”

Paterak also mentioned that processes like this take some time. Another aggregate application in the Town fo Caledon is in its fifth year of red tape. “It’s an expensive process for all concerned, and can be quite lengthy.”

Beffort explained that there was a fight in the past to keep pits east of Kennedy Road, but that was lost.

“The Town will probably support it as they are with LaFarge and their pit off Willoughby,” he added. “Where the Town will probably balk will be having the trucks go up Heart Lake Road. I don’t know if they (Blueland) have deep enough pockets to upgrade the roadway, and again, whether they are even going to be able to upgrade that road.”

A public meeting was held on February 25 at Caledon Village Place, but with the amount of questions he has gotten from his constituents, Beffort has spoken with Harrington and has his agreement to arrange another.

“Dates aren’t set yet, but I will be distributing flyers and talking to the media when they are,” said Beffort.

And it appears, in Harrington, concerned residents have a very willing participant.

“We have sent councillors a copy of the notice, copies of the reports are at the Town to put in the library and there should be one at municipal offices, and my contact info is on that sheet,” said Harrington. “And that’s the part I’m really interested in. I’m happy to explain as many times as possible what the proposal is, and I am happy to explain how we can make it better for the community.”

But Harrington did warn that the process for responding to applications under the aggregate resources act do have extremely strict guidelines and deadlines, and members of the public who want to make their voices heard will have to adhere to those in order to have an effect.

“The process is cast in stone, no pun intended,” said Harrington. “People get intimidated by the process, but that’s what you have to do to have your rights and objections put into it. But, even if you don’t choose to do that, we will listen to you.”