Given widespread community concerns and the scale of the project, Chatham-Kent council voted unanimously Monday to oppose in principle a proposed Dresden-area regenerative recycling facility.
The issue was discussed at the end of the night, after a presentation by municipal planning staff.
York1 Environmental Waste Solutions Ltd. has applied to Ontario’s Environment Ministry to restart and expand a waste disposal site at 29831 Irish School Rd., north of Dresden, to operate a regenerative recycling facility to divert construction waste from landfills.
The application proposes going from a 0.8-hectare (two-acre) site to a 25-hectare (nearly 62-acre) site that would accept as much as 6,000 tonnes a day of non-hazardous solid waste, including construction and demolition waste and excess soil, for beneficial reuse.
York1 also offers indoor storage of 1,800 tons of materials and outdoor storage of 3,000 tons of materials and 30,000 tons of unprocessed soils.
It also wants the site to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Planning director Ryan Jacques told council a second York1 application to amend an environmental compliance approval (ECA) for a waste disposal site was posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario Monday afternoon.
The landfill’s proposed capacity is 1.62 million cubic meters of waste in an eight hectares (20 acres) with maximum fill rate of 365,000 tonnes a year — an average of 1,000 tonnes a day.
“Currently within that property, there is no defined 20 acres (eight hectares) for where that landfill is previously approved to be,” Jacques said.
York1 provided a fact sheet Wednesday saying the landfill application is for “disposal of non-hazardous solid construction and demolition waste from industrial, commercial, institutional, and municipal sectors from Dresden (within the Municipality of Chatham-Kent).”
The company intends to recover 80 per cent of all material processed at its regenerative recycling facility (RRF), it said. “Anything that cannot be recycled will be sent to an alternative landfill not located in Dresden.”
The facility will be engineered and designed to be “protective of the environment,” York 1 added.
“York1’s goals are to modernize the facility, which will include unique modernized recycling operations and implementing environmental improvements to modernize past operations,” the company said. “Other proposed environmental improvements including the installation of new engineered systems to protect both surface water and ground water.”
North Kent Coun. Jamie McGrail moved Monday, seconded by ward colleague Coun. Rhonda Jubenville, to oppose the facility, noting the potential for serious impacts on residents and the environment.
The motion also called on the province to reject the application, and for the mayor to write the environment minister.
Council had voted unanimously to discuss the matter Monday, waiving the notice period for motions.
“It’s really important we get on this now,” McGrail said.
“I’m really pissed off about this,” Mayor Darrin Canniff said when asked what the municipality knew of the project and communications with York1.
Chatham-Kent only learned of the plan, for a project with significant potential environmental and transportation issues one kilometer north of Dresden, through a filing to the Environment Ministry, the mayor said.
“The nerves they have coming into our community to do that,” he said. “There’s been zero communication, they’re trying to shove this down our throats and it’s very frustrating.”
East Kent Coun. Steve Pinsonneault, recent Progressive Conservative nominee for the yet-to-be-called provincial byelection in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, where the property is located, also voiced his opposition.
Noting municipal drains around the site feed into Molly’s Creek, which flows into the Sydenham River, Pinsonneault said, “This has potential for real environmental issues from leaching.”
That could be detrimental to the Sydenham River, which has several species at risk, he added.
Darren Galbraith, Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission general manager, told council the municipality can’t take anything leachate – contaminated liquid generated by percolating through a solid waste site – from the proposed York1 facility.
Municipal facilities in Blenheim and Chatham are licensed to accept leachate, he said. But the Blenheim plant has a 99-year host deal to treat leachate from the nearby, expanding Ridge Landfill. And the Chatham wastewater treatment plant’s leachate capacity is “maxed out.”
“(York1) would have to find somewhere else to take it,” Galbraith said.
“For this (Dresden-area waste site proposal) to go forward, we should be a willing community and we’re not,” said Pinsonneault, suggesting York1 look elsewhere.
Jacques confirmed York1 has bought about 20 hectares (50 acres) of land north of the proposed project site and nearly 40 hectares (100 acres) south of it.
Jubenville asked if those parcels would require zoning approval from council.
Jacques said the land is zoned agricultural, but if company proposes a new use in future, “in all likelihood they would make the necessary applications at that time.”
McGrail asked if the municipality has any rights under Bill 197, the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, to block the York1 project.
Legal services director David Taylor told council an element in the bill will require council to seek legal advice, which his department is working on.
But so far, the Environment Ministry’s “interpretation of that section – which would really give council a veto – has been applied only to new landfills,” he said.
The ministry is “interpreting this as an expansion or a continuation of an existing landfill,” Taylor added. “The ministry’s perspective, to date, from what we’ve seen is that, ‘No, that power is not available to council in this context.’ ”
Jubenville said she was glad the issue came up Monday, so residents could hear “council really hasn’t had much knowledge about this.”
Many residents initially thought council was “moving in the dark, doing things behind the scenes,” she added, but she believed people are starting to see this was not the case.
“This is the will of Dresden and Dresden area,” McGrail said of the motion to oppose the project. “No doubt, I have the same feelings.”
York1 is holding a public meeting Friday to discuss its proposed project. The meeting begins at 6 pm at the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Center at 1212 North St. in Dresden. There will be seating for 300 on a first-come, first-served basis.