Environmental risk perception and well-being: effects of the landfill siting process in two southern Ontario communities

Abstract

In the context of siting (environmentally) noxious land uses, recent research suggests that the well-being of individuals and communities is impacted as much by the decision-making process as the outcome itself. The study results presented in this paper stem from an ongoing, two-stage quantitative/qualitative investigation of impacts on individual and community well-being associated with the environmental assessment process in Ontario, Canada. This research uses a parallel case-study design to investigate two proposed landfill sites in southern Ontario. Qualitative in-depth interviews (n=36), conducted across a variety of stakeholder groups, were used to address the following objectives: to explore the nature of concerns experienced by individuals faced with a local landfill site proposal; to explore the effects of the siting process on individuals and communities; and to examine the coping strategies employed by individuals in response to impacts experienced. The work attempts to apply theories of risk society (as conceptualised by Beck and Giddens) at a community scale. In so doing, we build on the work of health geographers attempting to link the social and contextual with the medical. Overall, substantial impacts on individual and community well-being were reported across all stakeholder groups interviewed: these included stress, disempowerment, hostility and divisions within the community. The experience of psychosocial impacts and effectiveness of coping strategies is shaped by certain factors associated with the site and the siting process (including uncertainty and the perceived lack of meaningful participation). The links between risk, process and impacts are theorized using a conceptual framework which incorporates site and process factors, effects on daily life (e.g. feelings of losing control, mistrust), and Gidden's conception of ‘ontological security’. These findings have implications for environmental decision-making, as they suggest a need to locate the delicate balance point between community involvement and an expedient decision-making process within variable community contexts.

Introduction

In the context of siting (environmentally) noxious land uses, recent research has shown that the well-being of individuals and communities is impacted as much (perhaps more) by the process of making the decision as by the outcome itself (Elliott et al., 1993, Elliott et al., 1997, Hadden, 1991). For example, higher reported levels of psychosocial effects (e.g. concern, worry, anxiety) have been observed in a community undergoing an environmental assessment process for a nonhazardous waste facility than in several other communities living with existing facilities (Elliott et al., 1997, Elliott et al., 1996, Elliott, 1998). There is some indication that these psychosocial effects are due more to the uncertainty embedded in the siting process than to the (perceived) exposure itself. Increased understanding of the impacts of the siting process on individual and community well-being is essential to environmental risk management, not only to facilitate successful siting of much needed facilities (see Elliott, 1998) but also given the potential for effective mitigation of psychosocial effects through the environmental (risk assessment) policy process.

This need to better understand the components of the siting process which affect individual and community well-being provides the point of departure for the research presented here. Using a qualitative methodology, the research addresses three objectives:

• to explore the nature of concerns experienced by individuals faced with a local landfill site proposal;

• to explore the effects of the siting process on individuals and communities; and,

• to examine the coping strategies employed by individuals in response to impacts experienced.

This work is informed by the risk society literature (Beck, 1992a, Giddens, 1991) which contends that as part of a process of ‘reflexive modernisation’, we have become a society obsessed with environmental risks resulting from techno-industrial processes which are both omnipresent and unavoidable. This work attempts to apply risk society theory (which so far has been used primarily to address global environmental risks) at a community level. In so doing, we build on the work of health geographers attempting to link the social with the medical vis-à-vis ‘putting health into place’ (Kearns and Gesler, 1998).