Heather Wright/The Independent

York1 Environmental Waste Solutions offered to accept half the construction waste and soil it originally planned in a bid to avoid a full Environmental Assessment of the revitalization of the Dresden dump.

That from a letter filed to the Environmental Registry of Ontario as the provincial government sought input on a plan to force the Mississauga-based company to do an indepth investigation of a plan to revitalize the derelict dump close to the Lambton County border.

York1 purchased the former Waste Wood Disposal site on the Irish School Road in 2022 to create a construction and soil waste recycling centre. When it filed application under the Environmental Compliance Approval process for what it says is not a landfill expansion, the company planned to bring up to 6,000 tonnes of construction waste and soil in up to 700 trucks a day to the site.

Dresden residents were outraged since the property –most recently used as a waste wood recycling – is just 800 meters from the town. It’s also surrounded by homes.

Residents, Chatham-Kent and Lambton politicians and environmental groups all argued the project needed more scrutiny considering during the 1970s, when the approval was first given, there were few environmental rules for landfills.

In it’s letter to the Environmental Registry of Ontario, which received comments on whether an EA was necessary, the President of York1, Brian Brunetti, said the company was willing to scale back its plans so the approval of the projects could continue through the Environmental Compliance Approvals division.

“York1 is voluntarily proposing key changes to the Environmental Compliance Approvals in order to reduce the potential impacts of the project. These changes include; excluding the transfer of asbestos waste and source separated organics to the site, improving safety, removing any odours, reducing the volume of recyclable materials being transferred to the site by 50 per cent each day,” Brunetti wrote.

That, said Brunetti would result in “50 per cent less truck traffic.”

The company also offered to reduce operating hours from 24 hours a day, seven days a week to 7 am to 7 pm Monday to Saturday “eliminating evening and weekend noise.

“As a result of these changes, any potential environmental impacts of the project will be significantly reduced.”

Brunetti also offered to “voluntarily conduct an Environmental Screening Process for Waste Management Projects.” That is a “proponent driven, self-assessment process” which looks at the entire project and consults with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks as well as the community but avoids the lengthy Environmental Assessment process which the Minister ordered in June.

“By following the steps of the environmental screening process, York1 can build on the community and Indigenous engagement they have already started,” said Brunetti.

“York1 strongly objects to the designation of their project to require a comprehensive environmental assessment.

“The province should support and foster the development of regenerative recycling facilities to address Ontario’s critical shortage of existing landfill capacity, rather than creating regulatory roadblocks that could hamper progress on innovative recycling initiatives,” he said adding it creates “an unnecessary regulatory burden which will contribute to Ontario’s lack of waste disposal capacity.”

Brunetti added that under recent provincial changes, the Dresden project shouldn’t be forced into an Environmental Assessment. The site, he said is not new, has existing approvals for recycling and landfilling, and won’t accept municipal solid waste or hazardous waste.

Brunetti said the capacity of the site is not increasing since the original site did not have an approved capacity and said the dump had 1.58 million cubic meters of space remaining in the landfill.

Brunetti added “excavation of the currently landfilled waste will be undertaken as an environmental
improvement to modernize the existing landfill…the intention is not to increase landfill capacity but to bring the landfill up to current environmental standards.”

He concluded “to impose a site-specific regulation on this project is unnecessary for this site; but, more importantly, it would set an illogical and inefficient precedent and could significantly hamper sustainable recycling initiatives in Ontario.”

York1’s letter of objection for a full Environmental Assessment was one of two on the ERO website. The other was from Waste to Resource Ontario, “the voice of the waste management and recycling sector.”
There were 529 submissions on the site, 25 by email and 626 comments by mail.

The province announced its final decision to force York1 to perform an full Environmental Assessment in June.