Two of Clearview Township's experts say they have no issues with an expansion of quarry operations west of Duntroon.

On Thursday, Clearview's director of planning told the Consolidated Hearings Board looking into Walker Aggregates application there would be no negative environmental affects from expanded quarry operations.

In a statement to the board, Michael Wynia said Walkers has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the County of Simcoe and the Township of Clearview that there will be no negative impacts on the natural features or on their ecological functions."

Wynia based his conclusions on his review of six issues from a policy point of view: threatened endangered species, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitat, areas of natural and scientific interest, and fish habitat.

In addressing a settlement the Township entered into with Walker Aggregates, he told the board that the company cannot proceed with Phase 2 of its quarry expansion until it satisfied the Township that reforestation efforts on the lands surrounding the extraction are appropriate and taking hold. He also spoke to the Township's requirement that Walker relocate a pond; limit truck traffic to 500 trips per day; extract a maximum of 2.5 million tonnes; not locate an asphalt plant on the site; and limit hours of operation for stripping, drilling, blasting, plant operations, shipping and maintenance.

Walker has no limit on its hours of operation at its existing Duntroon Quarry.

Other conditions under the settlement agreement include reducing the speed limit along the portion of County Road 91 from Duntroon to the quarry to 60 from 80 kilometers per hour, having Walker pay for a sidewalk in Duntroon, and pay the Township one cent per tonne of aggregate shipped to be used for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive lands and tree planting.

Wynia told the board that the many of the concessions the Township required of Walker were in response to concerns expressed by residents, as was a subsequent road agreement. That agreement would see County Road 91

west of Duntroon downloaded from the County to the Township, and the section from County Road 31 to the eastern portion of the Walker lands closed and transferred to the company.

Wynia said the agreement was made in response to concerns expressed by citizens about the amount of traffic on that section of road and the traffic impacts. He also noted that the Township would gain up to $10.5 million in nearby road improvements, but would only contribute $1 million -the remainder coming from Simcoe County ($2 million) and Walker (up to $7.5 million).

Those are benefits to the Township's view of the public interest, he said.

On Wednesday, the township's noise expert said he was satisfied with the report from company's noise expert.

Nicholas Sylvestre-Williams said he noted the comments in his peer review report and discussed them with Walker's expert John Emeljanow. "He addressed all the points I raised," Sylvestre-Williams said of Emeljanow's final report, and "I was satisfied with his response."

He said he agreed that the haul route for the proposed quarry down County Road 91 toward Duntroon was the preferred haul route from a noise perspective, and was satisfied that the noise levels from truck traffic and from operations within the expanded quarry itself would fall within Ministry of Environment guidelines.

He went on to say that the two noise experts met with their counterpart for the Clearview Community Coalition (CCC), John Coulter, in late April and were not able to arrive at a statement of agreed facts.

During cross examination, the lawyer for the CCC, David Donnelly, challenged the view by both Clearview and Walker noise experts that the quarry was an expansion, as opposed to a new quarry. He questioned why noise levels along the haul route should be compared to levels that occur with the existing Duntroon Quarry, instead of being compared to noise levels if the existing quarry were closed.

Earlier Sylvestre-Williams testified that he believed the quarry is "clearly an expansion," noting that his firm and others he is aware of consider noise levels based on existing operations.

Walker's lawyer Wayne Fairbrother objected to Donnelly's line of questioning, arguing that if the CCC had a concern with the quarry application being considered an expansion, it should have included it as such on the list of issues before the board.

Chair Chris Conti agreed, telling Donnelly, "If the expansion wasn't included on the issues list, you can't expect the witness to include it in his witness statement."

Donnelly asked a number of questions about air brakes on trucks and also about how truck traffic might compare to an airplane flying or a train travelling past. Sylvestre-Williams said it would depend on factors such as the type of plane or train, and how close they are.