Vernon Wheeler has owned and run Wheelers Maple Products with his family since the late 1970s. A proposed gravel pit would sit next to his sugar bush.
While it wouldn't be the only aggregate pit in the area, concerned residents said it would be the largest and potentially most damaging. But the company's history has done little to quell people's fears. Thomas Cavanagh Construction Limited has faced at least three previous convictions and fines between 2003 and 2017 for damaging and illegally polluting the Jock River in Lanark County.
The site of the proposed pit by Cavanagh. The company says there are about two million tonnes of high quality sand and gravel there. "The maple tree is very sensitive to change, to different water levels.… The trees have adjusted to the way it is right now, the way it's been for the last hundreds and hundreds of years," he said of possible changes to groundwater.
Schruder, whose property is located in front of Barbers Lake and next to the site, said there's wildlife that the pit would put at risk, including trout and Blanding's turtles,Brad Richardson, Cavanagh's general manager of aggregates, said in a statement that "there are stringent rules and regulations in place to protect Barbers Lake and species at risk."
In 2005, company owners pleaded guilty and paid $15,000 in fines after once again digging on a section of the river without a permit. McLaren, who used to own a gravel pit himself, said it's unlikely Cavanagh's operation will dig as much or as fast as what they'll be licensed for, but he understands resident opposition.