A group of residents and politicians against a proposed quarry by Scotian Materials in Goffs, N.S., reiterated their concerns to reporters Friday morning.
The group, Stop the Fall River Quarry, invited reporters to the meeting at the Gordon R. Snow Community Centre.
The litany of concerns raised include environmental impacts, and the potential dangers of blasting at the site, which is near to a highway and a few kilometres away from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
The group paid an expert on blasting for a report.
“His estimation is that blast rock could fly as high as a thousand feet or more, maybe even closer to 1,200,” said Stacey Rudderham.
Robert MacPherson, president of Scotian Materials, said that the data used in the report is incorrect.
“‘If those types of issues were a reality, I can certainly tell you, we wouldn’t be doing a quarry. The reality is, this is just fearmongering that’s out of control,” he said.
The quarry would take up slightly under four hectares in size. Its approval was revoked last year.
“Why are we putting so many at risk with virtually no value whatsoever to Nova Scotians because, at best, they will bring in 12 new jobs,” said Barry Dalrymple, councillor for Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley.
“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect within a year to two years to have 30-40 permanent, full-time, local jobs,” said MacPherson.
Scotian Materials previously tried to get the quarry approved through the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The municipality declined for zoning-related reasons but got overruled by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal last year; the rationale was that quarries are governed by the province.
The municipality is now trying to get the Supreme Court of Canada to reverse that ruling.
“If that’s the decision, somebody can come in after that, and, in theory, they could put a quarry in on Citadel Hill,” said Dalrymple.
In a statement to Global News, the Department of Environment said: “Municipal zoning requirements are taken into consideration as part of the review process. However, municipal zoning by-laws alone cannot be the sole basis for an application to be rejected.”
More information is needed from the company before the department can do a review. A decision will then be made within 60 days.
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