Most of the former Dresden landfill has changed owners again.
Dresden Citizens Against Reckless Environmental Disposal (C.A.R.E.D.), a local activist group formed to oppose the landfill development reported this week that York1 Environmental Solutions Ltd. in Mississauga transferred a major portion of the property at 29831 Irish School Road to Whitestone Fields Ltd. in Toronto for $2,527,965 in early February 2025.
C.A.R.E.D. said one of the new owners is Brian Brunetti, the current president and chief operating officer of York 1.
"Our fight continues unimpeded," C.A.R.E.D. said. "We are gathering all the details and have reached out to CK municipality for assistance in our endeavors."
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent said it just recently learned about the transfer of ownership.
"The Municipality is not involved in transfers of the ownership of properties. Land ownership transfers occur through private transactions, and are tracked through a Provincial Land Titles system. We were not given any prior indications to suggest there would be a change in ownership, nor would we normally," said CK General Manager of Development Services Bruce McAllister in a statement to CK News Today. "We have not had any contact from York1 and we haven’t heard anything further from the Province regarding this file since Ontario Regulation 284/24 (an environmental assessment) was passed last summer."
The community strongly opposed the proposal for an expanded recycling centre when it was announced in February 2024 and shortly after, an environmental assessment was announced by the province.
The municipality also noted the environmental assessment for the dormant landfill clearly sets out that the regulation applies to the property and not to a specific corporate entity, regardless of who owns the property.
York1 was proposing a landfill with an estimated disposal capacity of 2.9 million tonnes and a proposed maximum fill rate of 365,000 tonnes per year.
The waste processing facility would accept up to 6,000 tonnes of waste materials per day, including construction and demolition waste, metal, paper, cardboard, concrete, asphalt, block, brick, plastic drywall, asphalt, shingles, blue box recyclable materials, organics, asbestos-containing waste, tires, soil and “soil-like materials” including contaminated soils.
Neither York1 nor Brunetti have commented on the future of the site.