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THE VOICE OF HALTON HILLS SINCE 1866 125TH YEAR NO 82 PAGES SINGLE COPY GST- 25 HALTON HILLS ONTARIO WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 1 1TH 1 Business opening disrupted Protesters confront visiting Premier Rae By LISA The Herald POWER protesters greeted Premier Bob visit to- Georgetown Monday with shouts and placards calling for his rejec tion of the Acton dump proposal dump Saying that he had forgotten his promises of 1988 when he told Halton Hills residents he didnt sup port the dump the Protect Our Water and Environmental Just the facts please Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources POWER protesters Rita Landry middle and Diane Vandevalk right look at Ontario Premier Bob with what appears to be anger and skep ticism as he answered their questions about the Acton dump proposal They kept asking him what he was going to do and tie kept answering he could do nothing that the decision rested with the Minister of En vironment Ruth Herald Photo by Lisa BoonstoppelPot Quarry pumps wafer over legal limit ByBENDUMMETT The Herald United Aggregates has been breaking the law by pumping out of the Acton quarry in excess of the amount permitted by its provin cial water taking permit con firmed Andrew Coor- dinator of Environmental Studies at the Ontario Ministry of En vironment According to a report United recently submitted to Mr the quarry company has pumped more that the maximum million imperial gallons of water per day permitted by its water taking permit on several oc casions during the past two years When questioned about the com- panys water pumping practices Mr Mellary acknowledged the law was being broken at those times when water was being pumped in excess of the permitted maximum Mr Mellary concurred with the reports findings that more than a million gallons of water was being pumped from the quarry during periods of heavy precipitation and runoff Contacted Friday Giuseppe Gori who lives close to the quarry questions how the United Aggregated could be allowed to operate illegally He also wondered aloud whether or not his shortage of well water results from the companys pum ping activities Mr said the company wont face any punishment for operating illegally However it has been requested to justify its taking of more water per day than per mitted The request comes in the wake of a meeting between officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources the Credit Valley Con servation Authority Region Conservation Authority and United Aggregates At this meeting said United Aggregates requested its water taking permit be adjusted to allow the company to increase its maximum Female robber arrested A woman has been charged with robbery in connection with a robbery at Arctic Charlies frozen food store in Acton Dec Detective Sergeant Mike said the 23yearold woman is also being charged with two other coun ts of robbery for robberies at a Macs Milk and Super Video store in Milton All three robberies occurred Dec 1 by a petite woman who threatened store clerks with an unseen gun No weapon was ever seen The 23yearold woman was arrested Monday following a bail hearing in Orillia where she was in court on robbery charges laid by Orillia OPP A decision concerning the request will be made sometime this spring once the company has submitted a water budget report to the he said The water budget report will in dicate from where the excess water United Aggregates is pumping originates If the report shows the excess water is due to heavy precipitation and runoff the company is more than likely to increase the permit maximum for certain Jtimes during the year said Mr Mellary However If the excess water is due to a diversion of water from 12- mile Creek a concern raised by the Halton Region Conservation Authority an adjustment to the permit is less likely he explained Until that report is complete a rainwater gauge has been installed at the quarry to ensure any amount of water pumped in excess of a million gallons per day must be due to heavy precipitation said Mr ces POWER group jeered at him when at first he refused to respond to its claims Two hours later he did speak to the approximately 20 protestors af ter officially opening the new engineering research and technology centre at MoldMasters on Armstrong Avenue The opening was the reason the Premier was in town and POWER members didnt miss the chance to ask him what he was doing to prevent a dump from being established on the Niagara Escarp ment Are you going to kill the dump proposal or kill my kids Rita Landry wearing a toilet seat around her neck asked the Premier pointblank In responding Premier layed all responsibility for the dumps future on the shoulders of his Environment Minister Ruth Grier Minister Grier is looking at all the material as part of the process and at some point shell have to decide if its in the context of protecting the escarpment and en vironment overall he said I dont have the authority to make the decision she Ms Grier does but she has to allow the process to unfold before she makes a decision Lois asked the Premier if he thought the government was being unreasonable and Premier Rae assured her it was not I dont think anyone is being unreasonable You have every responsibility to the environment and so does the government but the government also has a respon sibility to the process The process is always im portant he continued The government cant be seen to be or act arbitrarily But the protesters kept calling for him to take action against the proposal and the Premier respon ded by saying thats not my job He assured the protestors he would bring this demonstration to the attention of Minister Grier After approximately minutes the Premier left and most protesters seemed unhappy with his comments It was baffleab said the angry Ms Landry Hes a member of cabinet and he doesnt know if he has the power to overturn a decision and reject the proposal She said she got the impression the government just doesnt want to deal with the issue but warned the Premier will continue to hear from POWER and next time it will be more severe Fellow protester Diane van de Valk who at first seemed thrilled that the group would have chance to speak to the Premier was disap pointed after his appearance Ive heard that rhetoric before she said Two years ago when he was here himself said it wasnt a suitable site for a landfill and there was no reason to go fur ther with it Now four years later were still fighting against it AN INSIDE LOOK SECTION A Beat Cans MoiwyMltttn9 Editorial 10 10 Peoples Forum Carlo Testa 11 Weirs World 11 Jade B Palmer 14 BaHfnatadNewi14 Sporti 151B SECTION B School Newt 3B Entertainment Arts Aldus SB Legion Lines Community Service Bulletins 6B Community In Focus 7B Seniors 13B News 14B Religion 14B Knechtet For Meat Thai Does More Than Ontario Premier Bob Rae Opens New Research Centre See Lifestyles Section LIVING LIGHTING GEORGETOWN 4168732996