The mayor of Ingersoll is stepping up his fight to keep a mega landfill from setting up near his community.
A motion was tabled by Mayor Ted Comiskey during Wednesday night’s Oxford County council meeting that would prevent new landfills that accept garbage from outside the county from setting up.
After discussing the legal complexities at an in-camera meeting, the motion was passed unanimously by council. The move is a direct hit against Walker Environmental Group, who has been trying to set up a landfill in Zorra Township.
More than 200 people had jammed council chambers to support Comiskey's motion including Karen Paton-Evans of Oxford People Against Landfill.
She says "This is a big victory for all of the councillors to vote to essentially put all of the resources that they can to make certain that landfill companies that want to set up here and import Toronto's garbage or anybody else's, that that's just not on."
Walker Environmental is proposing turning a limestone quarry into a 200 acre landfill that would hold 20 years worth of trash from all over Ontario.
While noone from the company was there to defend the plan, Walker has pledged to be responsible stewards of the environment and would pay Zorra Township a reported $4 million per year in tipping fees.
Comiskey says "This is going to affect the community, and it's not you and me. It's 20 years, 30 years, 50 years from now when the contaminants move through the soil or through the water and the air."
The fight is still far from over though. If the official plan is eventually amended to keep foreign wast out of Oxford County, it's widely expected that Walker Environmental would appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board.
