More than 100 people wholly rely on the Straitgate Farm site, through wells and springs, for their drinking water. They have voiced their concerns to DCC many many times over the years. Their concerns have fallen on deaf ears - most recently demonstrated by DCC removing from the Devon Minerals Plan the 1m buffer above the maximum water table that was intended to protect private water supplies.
We've already heard how Aggregate Industries would deal with any derogation of water supplies due to quarrying at Straitgate; how
If we dispute that the derogation is caused by our working we may, once we have restored your water supply, have the matter referred to an independent arbitrator...
how
... if it is ultimately found that the cause of the derogation to your supply was not our workings, then it will lie with the arbitrator to require you to reimburse us the expenditure we have incurred in restoring your supply and the costs of the arbitration.
Anyone thinking that the concerns of those using the wells and springs around Straitgate are misguided, wells and springs that have given uninterrupted supply for centuries, should read this article:
People living in a small rural community on the outskirts of [Edinburgh] have been left without clean drinking water and struggling to wash for the past five weeks after their water supply was cut off by a multinational construction company.
The private water supply to five homes along Edinburgh’s Long Dalmahoy Road, between Balerno and Kirknewton, is controlled by Tarmac, which operates the nearby Ravelrig quarry.
Local residents, who range in age from two to 78 years old, have had to endure days at a time without washing and flushing toilets and have been forced to buy in gallons of bottled water for drinking and cooking.
Now they say enough is enough and immediate action must be taken to restore a basic human right.
... neighbours are angry that Tarmac – which is required under planning conditions to "take all necessary precautions to ensure that a continuous and sufficient supply of potable water is available at all times to those premises" – is not doing enough to resolve the situation.
"We are being bullied and ignored by a big PLC business that controls one of our basic rights – to have fresh water. “Without water, normal life quickly grinds to a halt."
What does Tarmac say?
"We are working hard to identify whether the source of this issue is within the boundaries of our site or at the properties themselves, to ensure we resolve the problem as quickly as possible."
Which sounds very much like they are working hard to determine if blame can be shifted elsewhere.
Who wouldn't be concerned that, judging by what's already been said, AI wouldn't act just the same?
