Central Huron Mayor Suggests it's Time for a Time Limit on Gravel Pits

by Bob Montgomery

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn raised the issue of gravel pits at last week's Federation of Agriculture MP / MPP and Local Politician Forum.

Ginn says public opposition to gravel pits is growing and it's not limited to Huron County. He says there are issues in Brant County and in the Georgetown area as well. The problem is the length of time it's taking to rehabilitate the pits after they've been used. He suggests there wouldn't be as much opposition to them if people knew they were going to be rehabilitated within fifteen or twenty years. 

“The Ministry considers it a temporary use but I've seen pits sit there for thirty or forty years without being rehabilitated and the claim is there's still gravel there so they haven't finished with that pit.” The Federation of Agriculture has always been quite successful in lobbying. When municipalities and the Federation team up the results have been excellent in getting action from the government, so he suggests they lobby together for a time limit on how long a gravel pits can be used before they have to start rehabilitating them. Ginn says it appears that some pits are being left with a small amount of gravel still there so they can claim it's still an active pit and they don't have to start the rehabilitation process. 

“Some of these lands will not be restored to agriculture. There's certainly gravel extracted below the water level and then you have a pond, but ponds can be used for other things too, they just have to be cleaned up instead of being left with rocks all over the place and scrub trees growing there.”

A proposal was announced recently in London to convert an old gravel pit into a combination of a park and a residential area. Ginn says that makes more sense than taking prime agricultural land out of service for residential development. He also points to the twin baseball diamonds in Holmesville that was once a gravel pit, so there are options.