Noise Impacts can include:
- Truck noise from constant truck movement, deceleration and acceleration noise and use of engine brakes
- Extraction noise from construction, extraction and processing equipment (e.g. stone crusher, washing plant, loaders, conveyors)
- Alarms - back up alarms on machinery exempt from noise by-laws
- The noise of the gravel pit can carry despite berms. The hours of work at the gravel pit extend up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. On top of this, the gravel pit application mentions extended hours, which could mean disturbed sleep for the community.
Will the noise and micro dust particles invade your yards? Will it impact your family’s enjoyment of the outdoors?
Large trucks produce toxic pollution and are safety hazards to our community.
‘Even a modest level of noise, over a long enough period of time (Like beeping trucks, air conditioners, hair dryers or in this case from a gravel pit), can cause damage to the brain networks that extract meaning from sound. Many of us don’t even realize our brains are being blunted and our thinking impeded by this invisible force.” (from Scientific American website)
“If possible, choose where you live wisely, based on noise levels. The constant low-level meaningless noise is chipping away at your brain’s ability to make sense of meaningful sounds like speech, and may hasten cognitive decline in old age." (from Scientific American website)
In the long term, noise from inside and outside, including the one caused by transportation, can affect a children’s academic performance. Attention problems, difficulty differentiating sounds, loss of motivation to learn, impaired memory, especially for complex tasks requiring understanding, are only a few of the problems of long-term exposure to noise. (Source)
Dust & Pollution can include:
- Dust - aggregate dust from construction and extraction operations and stockpiling
- Vehicular and Equipment Emissions - pollutant emissions from diesel trucks and equipment (e.g. nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds – VOCs, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter)
- Plant fumes - asphalt and concrete recycling
Dust from gravel pits gets into the body through our nose and mouth. Respiratory disease is well documented but what we know now is that the lining of the lungs can be infiltrated by these micro particles, and these end up in the blood stream and get to the brain. Through the nose, microparticles can pass through the olfactory bulb and pass directly into the various parts of the brain. When swallowed, particles can actually alter the microbiome of the gut which processes food and gives us nutrients and vitamins, etc. The health of the microbiome directly impacts brain health. Studies on air pollution and the brain indicate significant developmental, mental health, and neurodegenerative impacts on the brain. (Source 1 "Air Pollution May Damage People’s Brains"; Source 2 "Researchers Now Have Even More Proof That Air Pollution Can Cause Dementia")
“With every breath, children take in more air per unit of body weight than adults. By extension, when air is toxic, they take in more toxic air per unit of body weight than adults.” (UNICEF 2017) Children in our community will be at risk because they live near the gravel pit and will breathe and swallow its dust.
“Exposure to traffic emissions has been associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including increased risk of respiratory diseases such as asthma, birth and developmental concerns, cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality. While some individual pollutants in traffic exhaust are toxic, it is the combination of the many pollutants present in emissions that is of concern.” (Source - University of Toronto "Near-Road Air Pollution Pilot Study released")