There are areas at Straitgate Farm, that Aggregate Industries has indicated should be quarried and that are within the boundaries of extraction, that are not realistically quarriable at all.
We have already shown that AI is overstating the saleable resource by at least 500,000 tonnes; now it's clear that AI is exaggerating the extraction area too.
At least 1m must be left unquarried to protect groundwater supplies and at least 1m of topsoil and subsoil must be retained on site for restoration. There are areas in the south and east of the site, where the thickness of material above the maximum water table is under or just over 2m, that have little if any material to recover.
Why does AI's extraction boundary not reflect this? Or does AI have absolutely no intention of leaving the 1m of resource to safeguard drinking water supplies? After all, once AI gets its excavator teeth into the site, who would ever know??
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| Table: Points within the extraction boundary that have 2.5m or less of material above the maximum water table |
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| Brown contours: surface topography (AI). Blue contours: maximum groundwater level (AMEC). |
