FOUR KEY ISSUES TO KNOW ABOUT NORTHUMBERLAND QUARRY (NCCI)

FOUR KEY ISSUES to know about Northumberland Quarry (NCCI), owned and operated by Andrew Rodgers, who are looking to expand the current 4ha quarry to 40ha up in the Elmsdale Lumber owned property area of the Uniacke Mines Road......near where the old Gold Mines site used to be.

1) NCCI was required by Government to publish two 'Notices of Intent' to expand for the purpose of making the residents within Mount Uniacke aware of the expansion and a Public Open House, they were also required to hold. To help them understand the impacts of, and to give an opportunity for folks to ask questions, receive answers and submit their concerns to NCCI. None of these things happened and that's just not right!!!

- the two notices were not done!

- the Public Open House was held but only approx 100 people showed up ONLY because of the quick efforts of a few area residents (in a very short window of time) who posted signage throughout the Village. There was nothing about the meeting that was open or inviting. Clearly the quarry people didn't expect ANYONE to show up as they weren't prepared at all. Folks left frustrated by the behaviour of disrespect shown by NCCI and that just wasn't right!

- The Government should be directing NCCI to hold a second Public Open House that provides an atmosphere of the good will they're expected to foster within the Community, providing folks with the opportunity for a proper Q&A session. The public of Mount Uniacke was robbed of a 'respectful' information, Q&A session and to be denied the opportunity by Gov't just wouldn't be right!

2) If NCCI's expansion is approved, and it most likely will be, and they're going to continue operating by traversing the Uniacke Mines Road (which is most likely the plan) to access the quarry, then there should be no more bandaid fixes to this gravel road. The Uniacke Mines Road should be paved and Government should direct NCCI to pay for the asphalt and labour. This would solve a multitude of negative 'quality of life issues' the steady flow of heavy truck traffic creates for the taxpayers who live on the Uniacke Mines and Norman Lake Roads and for all others who reside around Cockscomb Lake and must travel the road to get to their homes. The ill-structured roadway, as it is today, has a multitude of issues that have only been worsened 'greatly' by the quarry traffic and will continue to grow. These 'quality of life' issues continuing just wouldn't be right!

3) Government needs to direct NCCI to get on track with the 'Ministerial-ordered' Community Liason Committee (CLC) from 2015 that they have been in non-compliance with and instruct them to maintain the (CLC) with a broad spectrum of Community representation including folks Mr. Rodgers isn't particularly fond of, and that going forward, all CLC members - how to contact them, changes in and CLC business discussed - should be published in the Uniacke Newsletter twice annually, as required seven years ago but never done, so we, the public, know they're conducting meetings and there's a process in place for dealing with public concerns that come up, going forward. This is the only way for the public to hold NCCI accountable on certain issues regarding the quarry activities that may impact our lives, our roads, our environment. For Gov't to allow NCCI to continue being in non-compliance of this CLC would just not be right!

4) that NCCI be directed to post their blasting dates info in the Uniacke Newsletter on a monthly basis even if there were no blasts that month. This will help area residents in closest proximity have knowledge of those dates, should there be negative impacts on their properties. (eg: well water supply changes or cracks in foundations of buildings causing issues) especially if there are multiple properties at the same time exhibiting similar issues and no other industrial activity was present at the time. This is a condition area residents had asked for seven years ago but has never been provided. Going forward with this expansion, for decades to come, for Government to deny this 'Ask' for residents living closest to the quarry, would just not be right?

If you agree that these four key issues area residents in your Community are dealing with alone ARE JUST NOT RIGHT, then PLEASE HELP US, by taking a few minutes to send an email to some of your Governmentt officials and let them know this. There is a complete list of Government email addresses posted onto the Uniacke Newsletter site. You can copy and paste them into the 'To' box of your email and they'll all line up. Easy and time saving! THANKS EVERYONE!

THE COMPLETE LIST OF EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE LISTED IN A SEPARATE POST ON THIS WEBSITE.