Recycling, but at what cost?…

Recycling, but at what cost? As a longtime resident of Dresden, and as a mother who planned to raise her eight-year-old daughter here, I am deeply concerned with York 1’s new plan for the landfill and 'recycling facility'. Although I realize that this site was previously approved as a landfill, this was over 30 years ago and it accepted a maximum of 75 tonnes per day with a storage limit of 75 tonnes on site. It also accepted mostly incinerator ash and it has been dormant for years. Anyone who drives by this site can clearly see that it is not a landfill. York 1 wants to increase the size of this site exponentially, going from a daily receiving rate of 75 tonnes per day to 6000 tonnes per day and they also want to take additional waste materials, including tires, asbestos, contaminated soil and who knows what other hazardous materials will be hiding in old construction waste. They want to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and it is clear that they plan to increase the size of its operations in the future given that they have purchased large adjacent lots and expressed during the March 1st 'meeting' that this is the plan. This would bring anywhere from 150-700 trucks into and around our small community of approximately 2500 people, which is absolutely crazy to me. I could probably count on one hand how many times I have been out and around town and seen a large transport or dump truck in Dresden over the last 10 years. This is not the 401 and it would without a doubt cause significant traffic issues and increased accidents (with farmers on tractors and children on busses) and our roads are not built to handle this type of traffic or weight. Who would be responsible for paying for these roads and their repairs? I also know that York1 really likes to push the recycling aspect of their plans and while I think we can all agree that recycling is beneficial and needed, is it worth destroying an entire community and ecosystem? The carbon emissions alone from all of these trucks driving to and from Toronto and the States every day is clearly not environmentally conscious and would cause a significant increase in noise and air pollution in the area. Additional trucks would also be needed to drain the leachate ponds as the municipality has already said we do not have capacity for their leachate. There is also significant risk of water and soil contamination being so close to the water. York1 can say what they want, but evidence has proven that leachate liners often have leaks and this location is right beside Molly's creek which leads directly into the Sydenham river which is home to multiple species of fish, mussels and reptiles which are classified as species at risk. This location is in a flood zone and there is no way that water contamination can be 100% prevented during these times. Placing a landfill this close to a water source is clearly environmentally irresponsible. This entire facility is also within 1 kilometre from our town and mere minutes from our homes and children's schools. Who would allow this? Previous environmental approval or not, this is morally wrong and clearly York1's plans are nothing like the dormant landfill that has been there for years. I have talked to so many people who say that they would have never moved to Dresden or will plan to leave should York1's proposals go through. This makes me so sad for our community, but I too would want to leave as I would no longer feel I was providing my daughter with a safe place to grow up in. My fear however is that a lot of us will not be able to move as our property values will drop significantly living beside such a large landfill/'recycling facillity' and we will end up stuck here. I truly cannot wrap my head around how little say our community and council have in this matter even though it is going in our community and we are the ones who have to live beside it. York1 has been incredibly sneaky and deceiving with the people of Dresden and while council may have been aware that the property was purchased, they were never given details on the scope of what York1 was planning. I can tell you that I have not met a single Dresden resident who is not against all 3 of York1's proposals and our mayor, council and school board have all voted unanimously against this dump. How is that not enough? There are clearly significant issues with York1's proposals and I am begging you to take our concerns seriously and do a thorough investigation. Sure York1 held a couple of 'public meetings', but it was very clear that this was nothing more than a check box for them as they showed complete disregard for any of our concerns, gave different information to different people and were caught multiple times being untruthful. This is very disheartening, but I suppose we should have expected it given the way we all found out about the proposals in the first place. We did not even get a chance to comment on their first proposal as we were completely unaware. If it were not for one of our residents informing us of york1 submitting a proposal, we would have never known. If this company has nothing to hide, why would they be so dishonest. I would like to know if any York1 faculty would allow their families and children to live within 1 kilometre of this? Talk to any person who attended one of York1's meetings and they will all tell you the same thing, we left feeling more scared, confused and deflated than when we walked in. The meetings were of no benefit whatsoever to our community. How can a new environmental assessment not be required for re-opening and re-locating a dormant landfill and requesting an expansion this large with the addition of so many more materials, SO many years later, so close to our town and homes and so close to the water. York1 told us during their meetings that they plan to move the landfill site back even closer to the waterways, this should be considered a new landfill and require a new environmental assessment. How can approvals from years and years ago not be amended to account for new research? We know that landfills less than 3.5-5 kilometres from a community will cause adverse effects. We know better and we should do better. The increased traffic and noise pollution will be devastating for our town. York1 has also already said that dust will be an issue and I can only imagine what types of particles will be emitted into the air with all of the grinding and breaking down of construction material. Who is going to pay for the destruction of our town? Will York1 be paying us all for the depreciation of all of our houses? The effects this will have on all of our businesses. Surely there has to be somewhere else that is a minimum 3.5 kilometres from peoples houses and away from the waterways. How many times in the past have people been told things are safe only to have catastrophic consequences down the road? Why risk it? Please help us save our homes, water, farmland and future. We as the host municipality have complete opposition to this proposal and please ask that you take all of our concerns very seriously, as York1 has made it clear to us that they will not. I also do not see how it’s ethical for York1 to be able to conduct their own traffic reports and species at risk assessments. This should all be done by a 3rd party. Thank you for listening to our concerns!