Detonation of explosives is the principal method used in extracting rock in a quarry operation, and leads to a number of adverse effects on the environment and its inhabitants. The engineers associated with aggregate industry and its explosives have been remarkably successful in concealing from the public, including land use planners, mortgage lenders, real estate brokers, real estate appraisers, etc., the existence and danger of flyrock, which is the ultimate adverse effect of a blasting quarry operation, and a significant health and safety issue. Flyrock is an unavoidable and unpredictable by-product of blasting rock, and because of the way in which flyrock is defined or characterized varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction the incidence or frequency of flyrock is understated and underreported. Flyrock has the potential to damage personal and real property, and to injure, disable permanently or kill human and non-human life. The purpose of this research paper is to create public awareness of flyrock, to dispel the notion that flyrock can be eliminated by the use of empirical formulae, and to support the argument that the only effective remedy to protect the environment and health and safety of onsite quarry employees and offsite third parties is by way of permanent onsite setbacks and offsite separation distances.

Breaking rock for road construction, installation of infrastructure or for extraction typically involves detonation of explosives. Any time explosives are detonated there are undesirable impacts on the environment and its inhabitants, which are always more severe in populated areas of significant human and non-human activity. The primary focus of this paper is on the impact that blasting quarry operations have on the environment and its inhabitants. A number of civil cases, investigations, published articles and press releases documenting the adverse and cumulative effects of blasting rock are presented, discussed and analyzed. The extensive number of documented cases and media reports of the adverse and cumulative effects of blasting quarry operations on the environment and its inhabitants shed light on the gas lighting strategy employed by the aggregate industry and their explosives engineers to alter the public’s perception of reality by consistently and repeatedly claiming that blasting within regulatory limits cannot cause structural damage and that the vibrations felt from blasting are no more than a minor inconvenience. Gas lighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the abusers, in this case the aggregate industry and its explosives engineers, attempt to sow self-doubt and confusion in the minds of their victims, and to mislead approval authorities and cause them to question their own judgment and intuition from a practical non-theoretical perspective. The research conducted supports reducing Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) to a maximum of 2 mm per second measured along the entire perimeter of a blasting quarry operation, combined with a permanent onsite 500-metre setback and offsite minimum separation distance of 1,000 metres from incompatible land uses to minimize damage from structural response to ground vibrations and airblast (concussion), and to eliminate or reduce substantially lawsuits and complaints from residents exposed to the adverse impacts of blasting. None of the adverse effects prohibited under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act are permitted to impact public or private third-party properties beyond the boundary of an existing or proposed blasting or non-blasting quarry operation.

Aggregate resources are essential for road and building construction. In 2019, the US domestic production reached 1.53 billion tons of crushed stone valued at $18.7 billion produced by an estimated 1,430 companies operating 3,440 quarries, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries. But, it is also recognized that a quarry blasting below the water table is one of the most noxious, toxic and destructive uses of land, with no reasonable prospect of post-extraction-rehabilitation. If permitted and established in the wrong geographic location, a blasting quarry operation can result in significant deleterious impacts on the environment and local inhabitants and can disrupt short and long-term land use planning objectives. Because a quarry can remain operational for 100+ years, impacting five or more generations; quarries have the potential to cause permanent environmental degradation, destabilize communities, damage, sterilize or diminish the use and enjoyment of residential and non-residential properties, and reduce property values. Blasting is the preferred method of extracting rock in a quarry operation, the consequences of which can lead to environmental and property damage, and to injury or death of human and non-human life. In North America, licensing and operational oversight of a pit or quarry are primarily controlled by the individual states, territories and provinces, and address matters of compliance, while issues related to land use planning and zoning are entirely within the jurisdiction of the local municipalities, counties or regions. Accordingly, this research paper seeks to inform land use planners of the importance of protecting the environment and its inhabitants from the adverse effects, including the diminution in property values, associated with aggregate extraction operations generally and blasting quarries specifically, through the use of permanent onsite setbacks and offsite separation distances to avoid land use incompatibility and sensitive land uses.

Aggregate extraction operations are notorious for causing significant environmental damage, often permanent and irreversible, and when permitted in the wrong geographic locations nearby property owners are adversely and uniquely impacted. Through no fault of their own conduct, innocent property owners near an aggregate extraction operation experience a diminished quality of life, lose the full use and enjoyment of their properties, and sustain a reduction in the value of their properties, for which no compensation is received. The unauthorized and free use of third-party property by a Pit or Quarry results in a de facto taking of an interest in land similar to an easement for as long as the Pit or Quarry remains operational, which, in Ontario, should be assumed to be in perpetuity. A Licence to extract aggregate has no expiry date, and annual tonnage figures are not publicly accessible. Given the indeterminate duration of aggregate extraction, municipalities need to develop robust land use policies that will protect existing communities, sustain orderly and efficient long-term growth and preserve the quality of life for future generations.

In Ontario, a blasting quarry operation, once established, is allowed to effectively operate indefinitely, as a licence to permit aggregate extraction has no expiry date. Once established, the prospect of terminating a quarry operator’s licence is virtually non-existent, regardless of the nature or number of site plan and quarry violations or adverse impacts (e.g., flyrock, noise, toxic fumes, fugitive dust, vibrations, drain or damage domestic wells), all due to a lack of effective government oversight (e.g., government staff shortage exacerbated by allowing self-reporting of the aggregate industry). Before a blasting or non-blasting quarry operation is permitted, the owner of the quarry should be compelled to purchase potentially impacted properties, provided that in doing so the environmental impact is reduced to a “trivial” level and the surrounding community is not destabilized. Otherwise, once a quarry is operational, the only remedy available to the municipality and impacted property owners is to launch a civil action at considerable time and expense, a process that can drag on for years with no guarantee of success. Sometimes, a quarry operator will voluntarily commit to purchase adversely impacted properties, but sometimes the acquisitions are undertaken surreptitiously, and require the property owner to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This case study pertains to a number of adversely effected homeowners whose homes were bought out by the owners of the Acton Quarry in Halton Hills, Ontario. They concealed their true identity through the use of numbered companies and one with the delightful sounding name (Snowfarm Ltd.) when purchasing the houses and in the process destabilized the community.