This note is to express my…

This note is to express my concern for the health and safety of our community should the proposal for the expansion and relocation of a Landfill and the development of a Regenerative Recycling Facility put forth to the Environmental Registry of Ontario by York1 be approved.

Brief History: One Kilometer from the town of Dresden there is a dormant, small landfill site, which was used in 1980 to dump fly ash from the town’s garbage incinerator. The license said 95 per cent of what was to be landfilled would be the ash. Some time after that the land was used on a small scale to recycle wood and the owner was to bring only 75 tonnes of other waste per day to the site.

York1, has purchased the dormant landfill site and additional farm land with plans to expand, bringing up to 6,000 tonnes of soil and 1000 tonnes of waste a day from construction and demolition sites. This huge amount of material will either be recycled or landfilled.

The operation, York1’s proposal says, would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company wants to build a 1.62 million square meter landfill site and a regenerative recycling facility, complete with a 21,000 square foot building to sort and store the construction waste. The company’s proposal for the recycling and transfer site says up to 700 trucks could enter the site daily.

Dresden is a small town of 2,400 people, complete with everything a small town needs. There are two schools in the town. Dresden is also the historical site of Uncle Tom's Cabin (often visited by international tours), and more recently has made the top ten Outdoor Festivals to visit in Ontario list. It's really a vibrant little town. The rural residents and town residents work diligently to have the community live up to the tag name of Christmas Town and Dresden Shines.

Dresden is home to Conagra, a large tomato-processing plant -processing around 140 tons of tomatoes annually. Farm machinery and tomato wagons often frequent the community/county roads as you would expect in a farming community.

Top Concerns:
1. The site chosen by York1 is one kilometer from the town of Dresden. I am told that the recommendation for a new landfill is that they are not located closer that 3.5 kms from a town. This is for health and safety of a community. York1 said at a recent information session they do not have to follow the 3.5 km distance recommendation as the landfill was already existing - even though they plan to move the landfill site, expand it, and change the usage of it. How does that make it safe for any of the students in the two schools, let along the 2,400 town residents and several rural residents which are all closer that the 3.5 kms required distance? Many residents live right next to the proposed site The dust, noise and traffic that will result by allowing this mega dump to be created is a huge issue and concern. It does not make sense.

2. The site chosen by York1 is right beside Molly's Creek. Molly's Creek directly drains into the Sydenham River. This river is home to several aquatic species of which nineteen are identified as Species at Risk. One of many examples are some of the mussels in the Sydenham River are found nowhere else in Canada, if not globally.
Below is a link for exact info from the SCRCA (St Clair Region Conservation Authority) regarding the Species at Risk from a 2018 newsletter … copy and paste to find and read it.
scrca.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SAR-Newsletter-2018.pdf

York1 said at a recent information session they do not require an Environmental Assessment as the landfill was already existing - even though they plan to move the landfill site, expand it, and change the usage of it. They commented they only need an assessment if it is "new". They are piggy backing onto an old permit (40 years plus old) trying to take a short cut.

On display at the recent town hall mtg was York1's limited hydrology exhibit which upon questioning showed that the proposed storm ponds would indeed overflow during one those hundred-year rain events, going directly into Molly's Creek, which in turn empties into the Sydenham only 1 km or so away. We have had some of those rain events over the past few years and as we all know these events are occurring way more than once in a hundred years, especially w climate change. It would be absurd to think a waste site of soil and recycling materials from construction would not contaminate the waterways via any surface drainage. Who knows what could be in construction waste? It’s not just timber and concrete but asbestos and electrical materials. And so many composite materials w various glues for example. The other monumental aspect of this is that rural community residents have water wells. What is to prevent local water wells from consequential contamination?

3. Dresden is not located close to a major highway such as the 401 or 402. Travelling to the proposed site would mean driving through smaller communities and rural areas. York1 states they will be operating the facility 24 / 7 ! At the possibility of 700 trucks per day, 24 hours a day means about one truck every two minutes! Imagine the noise and disruption to the residents and traffic. I can visualize transport trucks stuck behind slow moving tomato wagons, spewing diesel fumes all the while. Our roads and road base are not built to handle that volume or weight.

Locating this facility this close to a town and right on a water source, Molleys Creek, is a disaster waiting to happen. With the proposed volume of debris to be trucked in from all over Ontario there are so many other concerns like dust, noise, traffic and infrastructure. Certainly an increased risk for health issues. There has already been real-estate devaluation. The list is long.

I ask that you please review and act too the best of your ability on my concerns.