Original post via Walkerton News.

Dear Editor,

I live across the road from a gravel pit.  During the day, I can often hear the sound of heavy machinery, and a number of trucks lumber down the road each day.  In the summer, raises a bit of dust, and sometimes in the winter, they work all night dumping snow from neighbouring towns.  All things considered, my road and my home in the country would be a little more pleasant if it just wasn’t there.

Maybe I should start raising a petition to get rid of it.  Maybe back in the day, the previous owner of my property should have put up a web site, placed derogatory signs around the neighbourhood like “NO DIRTY PIT”, and gone door to door getting people’s back up about it.  Maybe I should appeal to the government to try and shut it down.  But I don’t.

You see, my neighbour Al, who owns the pit, makes a good living for himself and his family, and he employs a number of other area residents, who live, work, feed their families and pay their taxes in my community.  He’s a conscientious business owner, who obeys all environmental legislation to protect the land and water. And furthermore, Al is providing an important service.  The people of Bruce County need gravel and other aggregates, to build and maintain roads, homes and businesses.  It has to come from somewhere, and it just so happens that these rolling hills of Carrick have rich gravel deposits, which make my neighbour’s property a perfect site.  So I support Al and his business.  In fact, the last time Al needed his neighbours’ agreement to make a minor expansion to his business, I talked to him to get the facts, and then gave him my signature.

Now, the people of Ontario need a place to safely store their nuclear waste, and it just so happens that South Bruce meets all the conditions for a perfect site.  Half the country’s rad waste is sitting just up the road at Tiverton, and the geologic conditions are ideal to seal this stuff safely away in a deep underground warehouse.  We have a workforce skilled in the safe handling of radioactive material, and the industry makes safe shipments around Ontario on a regular basis, with the highest levels of care and diligence.  If this goes through, the NWMO will employ many of our neighbours, friends and relatives with secure, high-paying jobs for decades to come, and its employees will live, work, support our businesses and pay their taxes in our community.

That’s why I encourage my fellow residents and land-owners of South Bruce to be part of the solution, and support the DGR in South Bruce.

Tony Zettel

RR5 Mildmay ON