THE HERALD
SERVING THAMESVILLE, DRESDEN, BOTHWELL AND THE DELAWARE NATION AT MORAVIANTOWN
Vol. 138 • Issue 7
Established in 1886
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
MAKING A SPLASH AT THRESHING FESTIVAL
HEATHER WRIGHT/THE HERALD
Farmers young and old were making a splash during the 50th Anniversary of the Thamesville Threshing Festival June 20 and 24. The Farmer Olympics always draw a crowd to watch as competitors vie to log the fastest time in the relay which features pulling a tractor, a mini bed race, stacking wood, a bag race, tossing eggs, crawling through hay and ends with one person being deluged with water for the grand finale. For more on the event see pages 13 to 16.
Aquifer around Dresden dump ‘highly vulnerable’
voiced including the need to look at alternatives for waste management in Ontario, concerns about York1’s plan to bring material in from all of Ontario instead of just Chatham-Kent as the original Environmental Compliance Approval states, how close the operation is to Dresden and “the proximity to the floodplain and the impact of severe weather” and “the potential impacts to water quality, specifically the underlying aquifer, Molly’s Creek and the Sydenham River.” Ken Phillips, the general manager of the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, says there is legislation which protects aquifers feeding municipal water systems. And the authority also watches the affects on private wells. Phillips says the former Dresden dump is in the area of a local aquifer. “There is a potential for an aquifer in the area to be highly vulnerable to any contamination. So we would hope that the province would acknowledge this and make sure that when they’re planning the site, measures are taken to do a lot of monitoring, to do whatever mitigation measures they could do in the area,” Phillips says. That would include drilling specific wells with specific monitoring equipment, he says. He adds there are monitoring systems like this in the watershed and the company “wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.” SEE AQUIFER PG 2
HEATHER WRIGHT/THE HERALD
Messages left on hockey pucks at the foot of the Ken Houston statue in Dresden.
Dresden honours Decker Beatty
HEATHER WRIGHT/The Herald A Dresden Kings Number 10 jersey is wrapped around the leg of the Ken Houston statue. At its feet, pucks, flowers and hand written notes all bearing the number of Decker Beatty. The 12 year-old known for his kind heart and being a role model died after
being injured in a July 3 ATV accident. July 6, family, friends, the sporting community and his classmates poured into the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre to say goodbye to the young man who had been hailed as a “humble...natural born leader.”
SEE REMEMBERING PG 3
Three Great Summer Events IN DRESDEN July 26
DETAILS ON Pages 10, 11 & 12
DRESDEN NIGHT MARKET, EMANCIPATION DAY AND THE DRESDEN EX
The Herald • $3.00 (HST incl.)
HEATHER WRIGHT/The Herald The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority says the aquifer which feeds private wells in the Dresden and Dawn-Euphemia areas is “highly vulnerable to any contamination” and it’s calling on the province to ensure there is water monitoring at the old Dresden dump. That comes as two provincial leaders came to Dresden urging the community to continue the fight to force the provincial government to repeal the law which allows the Mississauga company to move ahead without a full Environmental Assessment. (See Aquifer on page 2) The authority submitted its concerns to the Environmental Registry of Ontario in May. At the time, the province was introducing Bill 5 which, in part, reneged on a promise to the communities to force York1 Environmental to complete all the steps of a full Environmental Assessment before setting up its construction recycling centre and installing a 20-acre landfill. The conservation authority submission was one of 2,162 received about the York1 EA in the 30day public review. Only four submissions were in support of the project. The Herald asked for copies of those submissions. At press time, we had not received them. The ERO says there were a number of concerns