PUSLINCH – The University of Guelph is coming under fire in Puslinch for the way it has managed its Mill Creek aggregate pit.
Opponents say the university has stretched extraction of the pit to its limits and has disregarded promises made to the community and the township since 1985.
It has come to a head as Dufferin Aggregates, on behalf of the university, has requested more below-water-table aggregate extraction at the pit from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), much to the disapproval of both Puslinch council and the advocacy group the Mill Creek Stewards.
John McNie, a member of the group, delegated to council on Feb. 20 to outline the Mill Creek Stewards’ initiatives and their worries about the enterprise.
The group has started a letter-writing campaign to draw attention to the issues and to encourage the university to keep its promises and restore its reputation as an environmental leader and an institution that cares about the communities in which it owns land.
“The University of Guelph is not a good steward of Puslinch lands,” McNie told council.
“They are taking advantage of the passage of time, fostering the illusion of compliance.”
According to McNie, the university purchased a farm on Concession 2 in 1985 with the intention of conducting agricultural research on the site.
Instead, it applied and was granted an aggregate license in 1995 and contracted Dufferin Aggregates to mine the site.
McNie said the university also promised to mine the site for 25 years then restore the land around the lake, which formed from excavation.
The restoration was to include building homes and conducting research, providing a model for the province for how aggregate sites can be rehabilitated after use, he added.
But in practice, he said, the university has extended the extraction area into buffer zones, extended the licence to 40 years, torn down heritage homes and barns to clear the way for extraction, and is now hauling in gravel from other sites for processing.
It’s lucrative business though, and the university yields “tens of millions of dollars” over the life of the pit, McNie added.
“The university’s administration is supporting the destruction of farmland, wetlands and is facilitating the destruction of Puslinch,” he said.
“And it pays Puslinch nothing.”
In a subsequent interview, McNie said the bigger issue is not just what the U of G is doing at the Mill Creek pit, but how it argued to the Ontario Municipal Board back in the day – and won – that it is using environmentally sound practices.
“It’s the university’s application for the pit that has established precedent for aggregate pits across the province,” he said.
“Instead of doing what they promised – setting a superior precedent – it has been negative. The example they are setting is where the damage lies.”
‘This is revenue driven’
The Mill Creek pit is located on a 188.4-hectare property on Concession 2 between Sideroads 25 and 20.
The biggest section is on the north side of Concession 2, but there’s a sizeable property on the south side as well.
Almost 30 years of extraction below the water table has created four large open water bodies.
U of G has offered advice on another pit remediation project in the vicinity – an aquaculture farm – a practice that is purportedly an environmental rehabilitation.
But residents complain about the smell of rotting fish from June to August and worry that decaying fish are contaminating ground water.
“This is our drinking water,” Mayor James Seeley said at the meeting.
“This is revenue driven and I just want them to honour their original commitment,” he added in a follow-up interview.
“They don’t have to dig the last part out. They don’t have to go after every piece of stone and gravel.
“It’s very disturbing that the community was promised one thing and several amendments later, through the decades, this is still an issue.”
Seeley said the operation was allowed to process gravel excavated on the site, but now it is importing gravel from North Dumfries and processing that at the Mill Creek pit as well.
“When they [Ministry of Natural Resources] approved (on-site processing) we were told it was an interim land use. But now it’s not interim. It seems to be a permanent processing site.
“And that’s my biggest concern,” he continued. “Puslinch will feel the impact of that land use for decades.”
Extraction to last until 2028-29
In an emailed statement, U of G’s director of media relations Tara Sprigg said the Mill Creek pit is under lease with Dufferin Aggregate “until extraction is concluded, and restoration and remediation have been successfully completed.”
University officials project that extraction will be completed by 2028 or 2029.
“The University of Guelph has publicly committed that it will not pursue further aggregate extraction once this previously committed project is complete,” Sprigg wrote.
She stated the university is planning a comprehensive review of the land “so that it is well positioned to make informed, forward-looking decisions … that take into account economic, social and environmental priorities while helping the university to achieve its academic and research mission.”
Meanwhile, the university has assurances from Dufferin Aggregate that operations “surpass required standards for environmental monitoring and reporting,” she said.
And progressive rehabilitation, like snake hibernaculum, turtle island wetlands and osprey nesting perches, has already begun on 266 acres of the property, she stated.
As for the funds generated, Sprigg said U of G has yielded about $950,000 a year in royalty revenue, which is invested in the U of G’s heritage fund, a long-term endowment used to support “strategic priorities” like construction of the Honey Bee Research Centre.
Sprigg said some of the information stated by McNie is incorrect.
For example, she said the land was purchased in 1969 and used as a veterinary research station until 1985.
And the original lease was 50 years, not 25 as McNie had stated, she added.
‘Do the right thing’
The township has also raised concerns about the pit with the university and the MNR in the past, so in some ways McNie was preaching to the choir at the council meeting.
He told the Advertiser the letter campaign could make a difference to U of G when administration realizes they are putting the reputation of the institution and its graduates at risk.
“The university has so much potential, even now, to do the right thing,” he said. “It’s time for them to step up.”
The Mill Creek Stewards have prepared a website with background information on the Mill Creek pit and the university’s promises at win.newmode.net/mcsai/integrity.
