DRESDEN DUMP Dresden is a…

DRESDEN DUMP
Dresden is a quiet farming town with a population of about 2400, and land area of about 2.8 square kilometers.

As someone frequently on the 401, the constant parade of garbage trucks has been very noticeable. To even imagine the proposed 700 garbage trucks per day, 24/7, 365 days a year in Dresden, makes my stomach drop. There are so many things that can be anticipated for the town –
• Noise pollution all day and all night.
• People’s health deteriorating, as the dump is less than a km from the town border as well as 2 schools and there are significant concerns about contamination. (Contamination has already been verified in some reports). Gradual leaching into water wells is a concern, on top of the concerns already related to the wind turbines
• Environmental health – As reported by the St Clair Region Conservation Authority, the Sydenham Watershed has great biodiversity, and several species are found nowhere else in Canada. 19 species of fish and mussels are nationally or provincially species at risk. And Dresden is on a floodplain. Molly’s Creek is also nearby. What will happen to the waterway and nature pastimes that people have enjoyed when the water is contaminated?
• Impact on farming in the area. There is concern about contamination through the air, into ground and surface water. So the safety of plant and animal food produced may be at risk, and farmers feed the cities, so the impact is not just local, but for Canadians who need to eat. This dump is counteractive when people are trying more to buy Canadian.
• There are already concerns about the 1st application proposal to increase the waste facility from 2 ac to 61.8 ac, and the daily receiving rate from 75 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes. It’s very concerning to have the request to change the catchment area to all of Ontario. As well, there are concerns as 2 bordering farms have been bought by an affiliate company.
• Thwarting of the hard work that has gone into Dresden as a heritage destination
• Smell
• Property values declining. Chatham-Kent is wanting to woo people and businesses to the area, but Dresden is much less likely to be a destination of choice with constant dump activity close by 24/7 every day of the year.
• Roadways not made to sustain constant heavy trucks, so more road breakdowns/construction delays can be anticipated.
• Traffic congestion
• Businesses declining. If it’s too much hassle to get there and the smells are noxious, customers opt to go elsewhere

Another significant issue is that this area is unceded territory of several indigenous peoples. As a country, we’re in the process of Truth and Reconciliation for past transgressions where the agreements with the indigenous peoples were not honoured and there was a policy of assimilation rather than honouring the culture, contributions and traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples. In this area, we’re living shoulder to shoulder with indigenous from several reserves (Walpole and Moraviantown being closest to Dresden), as well as numerous indigenous living off reserve. It is distressing to know how poorly the “white people” honoured their treaties with the indigenous in the past and what the consequences have been. I would see it as very important, as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, that the indigenous be included in these discussions and their rights be honoured. We need
to prove that we can be trustworthy now, and honour the long-standing treaties. As part of this, we are all called on to “recognize our collective responsibilities to the land and water”. It is critical to include
the Indigenous peoples, the First Nation Liaison Committee, whose rights and traditional knowledge are important and to have a full Environmental Assessment done, not just the Environmental Compliance Approval.

As well, we all need to think much longer-term and address the root cause. We are producing too much garbage and an awful lot of it is dangerous.