Perceived Community

As we walk down the road to understanding the proposed landfill and the implications to Ingersoll we need to understand that the landfill proposal is not an environmental issue first and foremost. There are aspects of grave environmental concern to be sure, but the landfill speaks mostly to the concept of what our community is.

How do we define ourselves? When you look at the satellite photo of the Ingersoll/Beachville and Zorra area you see a huge grey-white blotch that is the Carmeuse Lime Quarry. An outsider looking at this overwhelming blotch could easily make the mistake that our communities are overwhelmed by this pit. Do the decision makers at Carmeuse in Belgium and Walker Industries in Niagara only see that blotch when they see us?

We know that we are so much more that that grey hole in the ground. That hole that rocks our town, that creates dust and releases the smell of sulphur. We live with that hole, and work with that hole and give to others the gift of limestone from that hole, but it doesn’t define us. We are so much more; we exist without any sort of classification caused by that large pit.

Ingersoll and the surrounding area is agriculture, industry, sport, history, music, the arts, live theatre and good people. Oxford County works to build an identity of hard work, good family and small community pride. Oxford County builds a concept of intelligent and educated citizens with purpose and a focus on building the best community possible. This landfill seeks to change all that.

The landfill, with its stigma and risks, is an outward sign of our failure as a society to deal with our waste effectively; a sign of our greed for more and our failure to change. And in turn, it changes the social focus of what we are. It changes the big pit to a big indicator of how others perceive our community.  The environment of our daily lives shifts; the perception of our community to partners and prospective partners is compromised. We are already, at the very core, altered by the very fact there is a proposed dump on the table.

The idea of perceived community may not be covered in an Environmental Assessment; it is, however, the core component of who we are and how we are seen. Our self-view, and how we are viewed by others, is key to our progress and our future. And just who will define who we are? Will it be our community and our community leaders, our voices – or a private waste disposal company intent on making a profit at our expense and a provincial system that allows it to happen?

We will talk of water and drainage and liners and leachate, which are all very important. However, the fabric of our community of Oxford is the issue at heart. The location of the dump is the issue – not just for water and animals and the air, but for the nature of our community, who we will become, and how we will get there.