Climate change is already impacting our day-to-day life right here in Caledon.

	This significant wetland along the Elora-Cataract Trail Way - filled with water for decades - has been dry for four years.
	Our fields often have little snow cover in the winter. This means insufficient recharge of the groundwater we rely on for drinking water.

If there is insufficient groundwater:

• wells supplying drinking water for people and livestock will dry up
• sensitive fish species, like brook trout, will not be able to reproduce successfully
• forests and wetlands that rely on wet soils will perish
• farmland, dependant on water to produce fruit crops, will have failures due to drought
• rivers and tributaries will lose their ability to maintain productive fisheries

As the climate crisis deepens, we cannot afford to have Votorantim pumping precious groundwater and wastefully dumping it in the Credit River for the next 40 years.

There are concerns about how groundwater impacts may affect the Credit River just east of the proposed quarry. That section of the Credit is an important refuge for brook trout. These beautiful fish need cool, clean, clear water. Moreover, their spawning sites require gravel beds infiltrated by groundwater upwelling. This upwelling bathes trout eggs in a constant temperature over winter and keeps them free of smothering sediment. If this groundwater upwelling fails, one of the few remaining brook trout habitats in the Credit River Watershed will be gone. (this paragraph courtesy of Don Scallen)

Gravel in the ground is also a natural filtration system for water.