ProgressIVE Rehabilitation Award
The Progressive Rehabilitation Award recognizes the ongoing efforts of individual operators to progressively rehabilitate their sites in accordance with their site plans.
LAFARGE CANADA INC. - A MEMBER OF LAFARGEHOLCIM
Township of Oro-Medonte
Returning to Agricultural USE
From 2016 to 2019, the Orillia Pit has undergone a gradual rehabilitation with the intent to decommission the plant and the silt ponds and to rehabilitate the side slopes and the floor on the balance of the disturbed area of the site. Ultimately, the goal is to return the lands to agricultural use. This work has taken place over 30 hectares of land split between an area north of the haul road where aggregate was fully exhausted and an area south of the haul road.
NEIGHBOURHOOD CONSULTATION
While original plans called for reforestation on the perimeter site slopes, consultations with local neighbours and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) determined it was better to maximize the agricultural land and instead grade the side slopes to a gentler 5:1 scale. A total of 82,000 cubic metres of overburden and topsoil was removed, the soil was conditioned over a three-week period, then fertilized and seeded. The large portions of the site south of the haul road have been converted back to agriculture use and are being actively farmed