Molly’s Creek is a little…

Comment

Molly’s Creek is a little spring fed stream that enters the Sydenham River and the proposal that York1 has proposed could cause harmful chemicals to runoff from the site into the creek and eventually into the Sydenham River. There is a distribution of fish species at risk if either Molly’s Creek or the Sydenham River becomes contaminated. The Sydenham River also has a distribution of mussels species at risk, according to the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority. Also the increase of traffic that would be coming and going into Dresden will increase tremendously. Once these haul trucks arrive in Dresden, these same trucks will be exiting our area as well. The noise will increase, pollution will increase, traffic congestion will increase and the damage to our roads will also increase. We are a small town that is a part of the municipality of Chatham-Kent. Our municipality already struggles to keep our roads up to code or in decent shape.This municipality is responsible for several small towns that have many rural roads. To maintain these roads is extensive and expensive, our population is smaller then other larger cities which results in a small tax base. Our roads are already in poor condition and adding more traffic will only deteriorate beyond what our tax dollars can handle. According to the Chatham daily news.ca, stated that Good Roads (originally the Ontario Good Roads Association), “rural roads are disproportionately dangerous and a source of significant liability for rural municipalities. Lawsuits resulting from these accidents are also significant factors in increasing municipal insurance premiums”. Dresden is not located anywhere near a major highway artillery. The 402 is about 85.7km away and you must cross other small towns to get there. The 401 is about 25.5km via Kent Bridge Road and 29.5km via Chatham-Kent County Rd 21, both are rural roads. Since we are an agricultural area we have a heavy presence of farm equipment on our roads during planting and harvest season eg. tractors, planters, combine harvesters. These machines do not go fast, with the added presence of truck haulers going through these areas and no matter if they are coming from the 401 or 402, they will be crossing agricultural communities. This will cause traffic congestion and increase the risk of accidents due to the increase of vehicles on the road.