JFK Quarry continues legal proceedings

While a provisional injunction to allow the JFK Quarry to immediately proceed with its restoration plan was refused last Thursday, legal proceedings for an interlocutory injunction are continuing at Quebec Superior Court, with the owners of JFK alleging that the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) has been delaying work for years despite previously agreeing to proceed with the plan.

The MCK was served with notice of the legal proceedings at the start of the month, which included an application for provisional and interlocutory injunctions as well as for a declaratory judgement, filed by Frank McComber and Jay Jacobs, who co-own the quarry.

The notice of application, which has been viewed by The Eastern Door, outlines the request for an injunction that would order the MCK not to impede, obstruct, or otherwise prevent work related to the restoration plan.

In a statement shared with The Eastern Door on Thursday afternoon, JFK’s owners outlined their position that the restoration plan needs to be implemented - including their offer to stop quarry operations if the plan can move forward.

“JFK’s plan uses established, safe methods, offers transparent monitoring and significant community revenue, and includes an offer to end quarry operations,” the release reads. “It is solely because JFK has been unable to obtain timely responses from MCK that it was forced to file legal proceedings.”

The MCK declined to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.

Restoration plan

The MCK and JFK signed a Quarry Agreement in 2016, mandating the quarry to develop a restoration plan.

That agreement, which has been viewed by The Eastern Door, required JFK to present Council with feasible options for the long-term restoration of the quarry, which must be approved by Council via Mohawk Council Executive Directive (MCED).

An MCED, also viewed by The Eastern Door and signed by the Council table in May 2023, outlines JFK’s intentions to use A/B quality soil as part of their restoration plan.

As outlined in that MCED, A/B quality soil is not currently permitted by the MCK’s Interim Landfill Policy for Clean Soil and Interim Landfill Procedures for Clean Soil, but MCK’s internal Quarry Committee “supports, in principle, the use of A/B quality soils as a feasible restoration plan option.”

The MCED notes that the Council of Chiefs recognizes that exemptions from certain provisions of the Policies and Procedures for Clean Soil will be required in order to proceed with the restoration plan - i.e. the allowance of using type A/B soil for the restoration.

In Quebec, type A soil is the most “high-quality” soil with the least contaminants, while type A/B soil includes soil that has a certain threshold of contaminants, such as manganese.

Type A/B soil remains the most common type of contaminated soil in Quebec, and is used for commercial and industrial land use regularly - under the Environment Quality Act, this type of soil is also tracked to ensure clear traceability of the origin and destination of the soil.

A subsequent MCED, dated June 2024 and viewed by The Eastern Door, shows that the MCK formally approves JFK’s restoration plan, including that the plan be based on filling the quarry with type A/B quality soil.

“This project is exempt from the application of the MCK Interim Landfill Policy for Clean Soil and the MCK Interim Landfill Procedures for Clean Soil,” the MCED reads.

Per the press release from JFK, all A/B soil movements would be tracked via Traces-Quebec, which tracks information about the origin and destination of soil types as well as its quality, and MCK would have 24/7 live access to the data.

“JFK has always said that it will comply with permitting conditions and Kahnawake law,” the release states.

Current legal proceedings

The legal proceedings currently filed by JFK argue that the MCK is delaying and preventing the restoration plan from proceeding, despite the previous agreements and MCEDs demonstrating Council’s endorsement of the plan.

Per the filing, work needed to be authorized to commence by April 24 of this year in order to be viable for the season.

In those documents, JFK argues that another MCED adopted in October 2024 unilaterally imposed additional conditions on the restoration plan, beyond the scope of the initial agreement.

“(The 2016 Quarry Agreement) provided only two options: approving the restoration plan or refusing it if MCK had reasonable grounds to do so,” the document reads. “MCK created a third option, approving with certain conditions (which are themselves unreasonable).”

The filings argue that JFK and Solterra attempted to meet the additional conditions requested by MCK, but failed to receive timely correspondence from Council on a number of occasions.

“MCK has continued to treat this matter with a lack of urgency, thereby preventing the agreement from being finalized,” the filings read.

Part of the delays stemmed from the requirement for JFK to get a permit under the Sanitary Conditions Law - JFK alleges that they found no permitting process had been established when meeting with representation from MCK.

They also allege they were then given a new timeline by a permitting committee, with the most recent update from the committee giving a July timeline for issuance of a permit - a date they claim is much farther than initial expectations of when they could proceed and too late to proceed with work for the current season.

Alleged breach of 2016 agreement

The filings argue that the delays and additional conditions imposed by MCK have meant that “restoration work is unilaterally and indefinitely delayed, to the immense prejudice of JFK,” something that they say is a breach of the 2016 Quarry Agreement.

JFK said it ultimately believes that it is “contractually entitled to commence the work without any interference from MCK, having complied with all its legal obligations and satisfied all required conditions,” and asks the court to allow them to proceed with the restoration plan in full.

JFK’s Thursday statement also puts forward that it has offered to stop quarrying on June 1, 2030, should the restoration plan to use type A/B soil be approved.

The expected next court appearance will be a case management hearing - as of the time of writing, the date of that appearance was not set.

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