Proposed Rosser limestone quarry worries owners of Six Pines Farm

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This article was published 12/07/2020 (1375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A decade-long battle in the community of Lilyfield has been resurrected once again, as Lilyfield Quarry Inc. prepares to appeal a council decision to reject a rock quarry development in the Rural Municipality of Rosser.

Residents who have opposed the project since 2011 worry a quarry will have detrimental effects on the health and well-being of the community.

Judy and James Thevenot own Six Pines Farm, a 33-year-old agri-tourism site which hosts weddings, birthday parties, school tours, petting zoos and Halloween haunted houses on its Lilyfield land. Judy Thevenot, who has been at the forefront of the fight against the proposed quarry, recently launched an online petition calling on the municipal board to once again deny its approval.

“It is not compatible with the surrounding area, it is detrimental to our health and welfare, and it will negatively affect our properties,” Thevenot said in an interview Monday. “The lack of respect for the community — if the community has said they don’t want you, but now you’re going to go before a municipal board to appeal the decision of council who was hired and elected by community members.”

Over the years, Thevenot said, the community has engaged in a continued cycle of municipal hearings on the issue of a proposed limestone quarry that would span 380 acres and remain active until 2035.

Hugh Munro Construction Ltd. owns the proposed quarry lands, and is owner/operator of Lilyfield Quarry. It applied for a conditional use permit from the Rosser municipal council in 2018, but was denied in a November 2019 vote.

The municipal board, appointed by the provincial government, would allow the quarry developers to appeal the council’s rejection in hopes of securing approval. The board’s decision will be final.

Thevenot said the community on the northwest edge of Winnipeg is primarily concerned about the noise and dust of blasting, potential impacts on groundwater and wells, and increased truck traffic.

“We’ve got a lot of seniors in this area,” she said, referring to concerns about asthma and other respiratory effects. “If you ever decided that you need to move… and you go to try and sell your property, now that value’s not there. Who’s going to buy my place once a rock quarry is there?”

Lilyfield’s water is provided by wells, and Thevenot worries the water table will be compromised by blasting.

Representatives for Lilyfield Quarry declined to comment on the health and safety measures an approved quarry would undertake, but within the company’s application notes are plans to regulate blast vibrations, monitor water wells, and build tall berms to reduce visual impact.

Meanwhile, Thevenot said the community has been vocal in its disapproval, and is tired of having to fight.

“It’s already affecting us. The stress level, the anxiety level… how do you keep dealing with this?” she said. “Health-wise, financial-wise, we should be concentrating on our business, our family.”

Thevenot said her family has fundraised thousands of dollars to cover the legal fees of opposing the project, but feels community concerns have fallen on deaf ears. She now hopes to garner thousands of signatures on a petition to convince government to hold fast in its denial of the quarry permit. So far, the petition has more than 250 signatures.

“They can’t allow this to happen. They can’t put one business over another… over the health and well-being of all the residents,” she said. “We shouldn’t be having to do this every two years, if no means no.”

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers