Part of the proposed…

Part of the proposed legislation is relevant to plans for expanding a long dormant dump site at 2983 Irish School Rd., located less than a kilometre from Dresden. It specifically references revoking Ontario Regulation 284/24 that would remove environmental assessment (EA) requirements for the proposal to resume landfill operations and expand waste handling, processing and transfer operations at the Dresden site.

I support both the municipal government and citizens, who remain united in opposing legislation to revoke the EA requirement on the site that was approved by Ontario environment minister Andrea Khanjin.

York1 Environmental Waste Solutions applied last year to create an eight-hectare landfill for 1.62 million cubic metres of waste capacity on a 35-hectare site with a maximum fill rate of 365,000 tonnes a year, an average of 1,000 tonnes a day.

The proposal also included developing a regenerative recycling facility at the same Irish School Road site to accept as much as 6,000 tonnes a day of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste and 30,000 tonnes of unprocessed soils.

The plan also includes operating the site around the clock with an estimated 700 trucks coming to the site daily.

The company initially sought the make these massive changes through an amendment to an existing environmental compliance approval that was granted to the site decades ago to operate on a much smaller scale.

If passed, Bill 5 would reverse the win requiring the EA, but Taylor told council the legislation “would clarify and provide that this property is not subject to any of the requirement under the Environmental Assessment Act.”

I support Dresden residents assertion that removing the EA requirement “on a project of this scale, one that could affect our air, water, roads and overall well-being is unacceptable.”
While local residents are ready to continue the fight and to work with the municipality, this is not just a Dresden issue. “It’s a Chatham-Kent issue and it deserves a strong, united Chatham-Kent response.”

Walpole Island council recently issued a social media statement that it “stands strong” against Bill 5 and having the EA revoked for the Dresden landfill project.

The Band Council also noted and I support their observation that an EA usually takes six to seven years and allows for proper environmental review, public engagement and Indigenous consultation. “Instead, the province is pushing to replace it with a fast-tracked, one-year, ‘EA Lite’ process." “This shortcut ignores the complexity and long-term risks of the proposed landfill, including the threat of leachate contamination near sensitive aquifers, and fails to respect our inherent and treaty rights with responsibilities as caretakers of our lands and territories since time immemorial,” the statement added.