The province has yet to make an adequate case for selling land it owns by the Eramosa Karst to homebuilders, according to a preliminary review by the Hamilton Conservation Authority.

Chief administrative officer Steven Miazga said cave expert Marcus Buck, hired to conduct the review, found many holes in a class environmental assessment prepared for the Ontario Realty Corp, the province’s real estate arm.

He said he expects staff to provide a definitive opinion to the ORC in the next couple of weeks, but Mr. Buck’s review suggests the land is best left as is.

The authority already owns the 73-hectare karst park –home to caves, sink holes, dry valleys and sinking streams –and is pushing the ORC to expand it by donating 32.4 hectares in buffer areas rather than allow houses there.

City council also opposes development.

“There are a lot of outstanding issues to be addressed and there is some science indicating on a very preliminary basis that perhaps that area is best left as a conservation area or preserved for future generations,” Mr. Miazga told authority directors last week.

“One of the issues I’ve put to the staff from the province is, when are you going to look at the issue of how much more money you are going to spend on additional studies? Because this could go on forever and a day,” he said.

“Quite frankly, they’ve spent a substantial amount of money on studies already, and according to our peer reviewer, there’s a substantial amount of money that could be spent in addition to that already spent because the information contained in those studies is not, in his opinion, adequate to prepare or present a decision one way or the other.”

ORC spokesperson Julia Sakas said her agency is still awaiting formal input from the authority and city, as well as the results of a peer review being done by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

She said the ORC hopes to host a public information session in June, by which time the ministry review should be available for viewing. Comments from the city, conservation authority and public will meanwhile be addressed in a final report expected this fall.

“We intend to give more information on the reports and on the comments that we’ve received, but we also take it very seriously that we need to collect the input from the community as well,” Ms. Sakas said of the information session.

“There’s still lots of opportunity for input.” Mr. Buck’s criticisms of the ORC’s plans are

not new. Co-author of a 2003 report that led the province to donate the existing karst park to the conservation authority, he has previously charged that construction in the area since then has ignored recommended measures to prevent a change in water flows into the karst.

He’s noted, for instance, that there has been “extensive dumping of fill” in the catchment of Nexus Creek –located on ORC buffer land to the east of the park –which flows into Nexus Cave, the karst’s largest and rarest geological feature.

In an August 2007 letter, Mr. Buck warned that altering water flows may change erosion patterns in ways that “may not become apparent for many decades.”

That erosion may be exacerbated by road salt and other contaminants, he cautioned. In the case of hydrocarbons from fuels like methane gas, they may “create explosive atmospheres within caves.”