Amazon's arrival delivers dust-up with new neighbours

Chantal and her husband Kevin moved to their rural east Ottawa home near Vars six months ago, hoping for some peace and quiet.

But in mid-July, the couple whose names CBC is withholding for privacy reasons say hundreds of dump trucks a day began thundering down their gravel road,coating everything in a thick layer of brown dust.

The couple in their late 20s are among several homeowners on McVagh Road who are angry trucks are using their street to haul soil from the nearby Amazon warehouse construction site, which they then dumpon land across from their homes.

On Monday morning, municipal and provincial politicians will join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and representatives from Amazon to officially break ground at the site on Boundary Road adjacent to Highway 417.

The McVagh Road homeowners are about seven kilometres east of the future warehouse, and they saythey never imagined the construction would affect them.

"We woke up one morning and heard all the noise and got blasted with dust," said Chantal, standing on her front porch.

Her husband said he'spower washed the vinyl siding that covers the housethree times since then.

Herecalled the morning of July 13 when without any notice from either the construction companyBroccolinior the city the trucks started rolling.

"The road has been a mess with potholes, and it would have been nice to get a heads up to this. A little common courtesy would have been great," he said.

Chantalsaid the potholes createdby the trucks caused $900 damage to her vehicle, and she and her husband are getting professional car washes twice a week now.

She called the city to complain about the trucks, since the street sign on McVagh Road says no trucks allowed.

She contacted Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais's office, and said he told her that whileMcVagh is a city road, the municipalitycan't regulate where trucks go.

'Only so much mitigation you can do'

Blais told CBC News thatdespite the "no trucks allowed" sign, provincial legislation allows them access because they'redelivering soil to a lot on that road not driving straight through.

He said Broccoliniand city staff are regularlygrading the road and applying water and calcium to control dust.

"We have worked hard with Broccolinito take these additional measures," Blais said. "They aren't required to take these measures and ...there's only so much mitigation you can do when you're talking about a project of this size and scope."

James Beach, director of real estate and business development for Broccolini, told CBCNews in an email that his staffmet with city officials earlier this monthand agreed someone from his company would monitor McVaghRoad daily to assess the condition of the road.

When required, Beach said, awater truck and grader would be used to address the dust and potholes.

"We understand that despite best practices being implemented, construction activities can sometimes be interpreted as nuisance," Beach wrote in the email. "We appreciate the sustained patienceand co-operation of the residents within the area of construction activity."

'All about money'

Kevinsaid he's disappointed no one thought about them in advance.

"Nobody cares. It's all about money. And [the Amazon warehouse] isgreatfor the Ottawa community,but this situation is areal hot potato and they should have dealt with this before it escalated," he said.

The couple said they'll keep calling the city and Broccolini if they fail to keep the dust under control.

"No one has offered to pay for the costs of cleaningour house, our cars," said Kevin."A sorry would be nice."