City seeks permanent protection for Mount Nemo Plateau

For Immediate Release - March 1, 2010

BURLINGTON, ON –The city recently received the support of the Niagara Escarpment Commission to protect the Mount Nemo Plateau. This support follows on the November 2009 motions by both city and regional councils to ask the province to re-designate the Mount Nemo Plateau in the Niagara Escarpment Plan to an Escarpment Protected Area.

"The Mount Nemo Plateau must be protected, it's the right decision for the environment and the right decision for area residents," said Mayor Cam Jackson. "The plateau has endured the burden of more than 100 years of quarrying, it's time for Mother Nature to heal herself."

The Mount Nemo Plateau is a unique, ecologically sensitive and prominent geological feature that links the distinct cultural and biological features of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve. The re-designation of the Mount Nemo Plateau will permanently protect a number of environmental features that includes the following:

· The headwaters of the Grindstone Creek, a key source of clean water for Hamilton Harbour.

· The Grindstone Creek Headwaters Provincially Significant Wetlands Complex.

· The habitat of the Jefferson Salamander and Butternut tree, both identified as federal species at risk, and protected under Ontario's Endangered Species Act

· Drinking water resources for hundreds of residences and farms in and around the Mount Nemo Plateau.

· Vital ground water resources supplying water to creeks, significant woodlands, environmentally sensitive areas, habitat for threatened and endangered species.

“It is important that we work to protect the Mount Nemo Plateau and the many critical environmental features that it contains,” said Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor. “This highly sensitive and unique environmental area must be protected for future generations.”

Much of the Mount Nemo Plateau is currently designated as an Escarpment Rural Area in the Niagara Escarpment Plan. The boundaries of these designations were established more than 25 years ago, before the development of the first watershed plans, the first groundwater studies and the designation of provincially significant wetlands.

Within the Mount Nemo Plateau the Nelson Aggregate Company operates a 210-hectare (519-acre) quarry on the north side of No. 2 Side Road on lands currently designated as a mineral resource extraction area in the City of Burlington Official Plan. In 2004, the company applied for an Aggregate Resource Act licence as well as amendments to the Burlington Official Plan, Halton Regional Official Plan and Niagara Escarpment Plan to allow for a new quarry south of its existing quarry on No. 2 Side Road. The Nelson applications are now before the Joint Board which is a tribunal comprised of members of the Environmental Review Tribunal and the Ontario Municipal Board. Further information on the Nelson Quarry applications and the city’s concerns is available on the city’s website at www.burlington.ca.

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Communications contact:
Sean O’Brady
Communications Advisor
Phone: 905-335-7600 ext. 7531
o’bradys@burlington.ca

Media contact:
Leo DeLoyde
General Manager of Development and Infrastructure
Phone: 905-335-7600 ext. 7833
deloydel@burlington.ca