‘What the heck is going on?’: Dresden residents upset with heavy equipment at controversial landfill property

Dresden residents are worried after York1 was seen moving heavy equipment into the Dresden landfill site. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske has the details.

Dresden residents are expressing their dismay as heavy equipment has been seen at a controversial landfill property.

York1 Environmental Waste Solutions has started ‘housekeeping and prep work’ at 29831 Irish School Road, just north of the small town.

One resident spotted the heavy equipment on York1 transport trucks Monday and posted it to social media.

“I thought, oh no! Here we go. It’s started already,” Wendy Vercauteren told CTV News on Thursday.

“We’ve had periods of nothing happening and then we see this and it’s just ‘What the heck is going on!’”

York1 spokesperson Laryssa Waler confirmed a “small crew” is on site with heavy equipment.

“The tasks underway — grounds clean‑up, grading, removal of legacy debris, and installation of basic environmental controls — are all activities that are expressly permitted under the site’s existing Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA),” Waler wrote in a statement.

Just three weeks ago, the Ford government passed Bill 5 which, among other things, exempts York1 from going through a comprehensive environmental assessment for their plan to build a regenerative recycling facility on the property.

“Our goal is to stabilize and modernize this site,” Waler wrote.

“Later this year we will apply to amend the ECA for waste transfer & processing so we can transition it into a modern Regenerative Recycling Facility that will handle only non‑hazardous construction and‑demolition materials.”

“I am not done fighting this thing,” Vercauteren said.

She is a co-founder of Dresden Together, one of two grassroots groups fighting the York1 development.

Vercauteren said she’s not specifically opposed to a recycling facility, but not this close to town.

And she is worried the province will use the ongoing concerns about a lack of landfill space for residential waste to pivot the plan near Dresden.

“Who’s to say that at some point the province examines the landfill crisis in the province and that they could, with Bill 5, declare this as a special economic zone and change course and change it from a regenerative recycling facility and make it into a landfill,” Vercauteren said.

“We are still here and we’re still fighting,” Stefan Premdas said Thursday, co-founder of the other group called Dresden CARED (Citizens Against Reckless Environmental Disposal).

Premdas is organizing a rally for Thursday, July 3 in Dresden at Rotary Park, starting at 11:45 a.m.

“It is a show of community support and resistance that we’re planning,” Premdas said.

“We spend a lot of time going to Queen’s Park in small numbers. It’s several hours away, and it’s quite costly for our town to get there. And so, we want to do something local so that our entire community can participate.”