How dare people complain about mines polluting their groundwater and causing cancer - don't they know there's no individual or property right to be free from other people's contaminating activities?
The odds of anybody in that room, except for the mine operator, having any idea what the current rules and regulations, and what the potential (realistic) problems are is minimal.
You get a lot of people showing up to these meetings just looking out for their own interests without any idea as to what's really going on. And they love to whine. Been there, done that.
When we were in front of the board to build a new greenhouse we had this. A woman showed up to express concern about her well going dry if we built in her area. On the surface it sounds like a valid concern. Greenhouses use water. We tried to explain that we'll have a total of three wells, not one of which will be capable of pumping any more water than a standard residential well. One will be used for plant material, the other will be backup, and the third will only be used for drinking water as that will have to be certified by the health department for human consumption. Plus we were planning on using city water for the whole thing anyway so there's no need for any concern.
Oh, and there was already a well on the plot of land that the previous farmer used to irrigate his 105 acres of crops with. So, the water usage was already there.
What was left unstated is that we'd personally have felt horrible if we dried up the water source, plus we'd lose $X million in live plant material if that ever happened, so we're gonna made frog damned sure that never happens.
Alas, she showed up to the next meeting with the same concerns expecting the township to do something about a potential problem that nobody thinks is real. But, it was real to her.
Now, I don't really blame her. It's a valid concern when you don't have all the facts in front of you. Why she came back, I don't know. Perhaps I'm not remembering us giving a proper public explanation in front of her. It is very possible. Or she might just not have trusted us, and that's fine too. I harbor no ill-will against her either way. She was worried about her home and I respect that.
But, that's just one person. We had others with nonsense objections too. It wears on you, and this was just trying to build a darned greenhouse! It's not exactly much of a potentially earth-raping adventure compared to a mining operation. I can only imagine the BS this guy heard spewed.
With having said all that, do you have any specific objections to that proposed mining project De Selby? Actual knowledge of how the mine would work, what the environmental impact would be, etc.? Or are you just making a knee jerk response?