CK Council calls for the proposal to be rejected

A Mississauga company planning to revive the old Dresden dump has formally asked the Ministry of the Environment to reopen the landfill.

The proposal for York1 Environmental Solutions to re-open the Irish School Road dump – part of a larger plan to build a recycling centre for construction material – was posted today on the Environmental Registry of Ontario

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-8313

Ryan Jacques, director of planning for Chatham-Kent, says the municipality just received the notice Feb. 26. He told council the original license for the site, issued Nov. 20, 1980, specifies 95 per cent of the material deposited at the site be fly ash from the town’s garbage incinerator. Jacques says it has “no capacity now” for any waste.

York1’s proposal says they want to build a modern 1.82 million square meter landfill which could take up to 1,000 tonnes of industrial, commercial and construction waste per day.

“At this fill rate, the 8-hectare landfill would reach capacity in 2032, assuming construction of the engineered landfill was completed in 2024,” reads the proposal.

After Jacques presentation council passed a motion saying Chatham-Kent “opposed in principle to the application and calls for the province to reject the applications for waste processing, storage and transfer and the landfilling facility currently open for public comments. And if the province is not prepared to reject the application, council calls on the Minister to designate the project for a full EA (Environmental Assessment) process to remove any doubt that a EA study process is required for the application.”

Councillors, including Steve Pinsonneault who is the Progressive Conservative candidate for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, voiced their concerns.

“I suggest that York1 should be going look for a different site. I don’t think this is a good fit for anybody. And Lord knows we’ve dealt with enough water well issues that this could potentially affect water wells in the area as well,” said Pinsonneault.

Municipal staff say they have yet to talk with York1 representatives. That was something Mayor Darrin Canniff railed about Monday.

“There has been zero communication and they’re trying to shove this down our throat…they’re not treating us as partners at all in this; zero, zip, zelch,” he said angrily adding the people of Dresden had been treated with “disrespect.”