By Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
Chatham-Kent is asking the Ontario government to reverse its decision to allow the York1 Dresden landfill project to proceed without a full environmental assessment.
The vote comes on the heels of the province’s rapid passage of Bill 5 June 5. As part of the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act 2025, the legislation removes the EA placed on the project by the environment minister in 2024.
Following a presentation by C-K director of legal services Dave Taylor, council gave unanimous support to the motion at a recent meeting. It directs staff to continue to oppose the landfill and engage with the community, First Nation peoples, as well as provincial and federal agencies.
The municipality is also planning to facilitate expert environmental and traffic impact studies of the project located at 29831 Irish School Rd.
“We anticipate this will move forward quickly,” Taylor said of the York1 proposal, noting the motion is another attempt to defend Dresden.
“We hoped this would have taken a different course, but unfortunately, we are where we are now,” he stated. “There are still some tools that are outlined in this motion that might be used to potentially stop the landfill, though with this provincial decision, the barriers are much higher.”
If the province is unwilling to undo the Dresden decision, Chatham-Kent will forge another path, calling on government to require comprehensive studies and public consultation equivalent to an EA designation. This would examine geotechnical, noise, environmental, air-quality and socio-economic impacts of the expanded landfill.
Going forward, Chatham-Kent is also asking that formal engagement and consultation with affected First Nations take place.
As well, the municipality is requesting a federal environmental review under the Impact Assessment Act and to examine ways to challenge Bill 5 in the courts. The federal bill of environmental rights will also be examined.
Taylor said Chatham-Kent will continue to work with citizen groups and neighbouring municipalities and will have “close discussions” with local First Nation members who may be taking legal action.
Mississauga-based York1 Environmental Waste Solutions Ltd. plans to revive the dormant dump site, utilizing an eight-hectare landfill to accept up to 365,000 tonnes of construction waste annually.
The firm plans to build a regenerative recycling facility to repurpose an assortment of materials to be used in other construction projects.
A leachate ponding system will be built as well.
York1 has said it will operate the facility from Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. accepting up to 6,000 tonnes of waste daily. Earlier plans posted by the company stated there could be as many as 700 trucks travelling to the site each day.
The landfill is located within a kilometre of the town’s high school.
Since the plans were made public on the Internet 16 months ago, opposition the project has continued to build.
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