The Council of Canadians London chapter will participate in the ‘How to Stop a Dump’ conference in Ingersoll next weekend.
The May 1-2 conference will include an opening plenary session, a break-out session with “Roberta Cory of London Council of Canadians on arts and activism”, an endnote speech by Linda McQuaig and much more.
The Ingersoll Times reports, “Environment Minister Glen Murray has been invited to attend this weekend’s conference, How to Stop a Dump, to announce the cancellation of the Southwest Landfill Proposal, but even if he doesn’t arrive, there will still be a lot of education and information available for participants.”
The 200-acre landfill would receive garbage from all over Ontario. The proposed site is located in a mined-out portion of a quarry owned by Carmeuse Lime in Zorra Township on the boundary with Ingersoll and near the Thames River. The dump would operate for 20 years, but it could be expanded to continue to take garbage after that time. Every day an estimated 100 trucks would take a total of 3500 tons of garbage to the dump. The company is also reportedly examining if moving the garbage by rail to the site is a viable option. The community has raised concerns about the odor from the garbage, toxins and dust in the air, the number of garbage trucks this would put on the road, and the pollution of local drinking water.
In April 2014, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke at a rally in Ingersoll and stated, “There are many reasons to fight the Southwest Landfill proposal, but none more important than protecting water. It’s a real and present danger to drinking water and groundwater in general.”
For more on the conference, please click here. For more on the campaign to stop the landfill, click here.
