‘IT'S NOT BECAUSE YOU LIKE IT ANY BETTER...’: RESIDENTS' REAPPRAISAL OF A LANDFILL SITE

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal study of psychosocial effects in a population living near the Halton Regional Landfill in Milton, Ontario. The research is situated within environmental stress theory. The focus of the study is on local residents' reappraisal of the landfill over a five-year period. A telephone survey was administered to a random stratified (by distance) sample of households immediately after the landfill site was approved (1990), shortly after the site was constructed and began operation (1992–93), and two years after operation had begun (1995). Due to attrition, the baseline cohort (n=187) was reduced to 108 by time 3, although no significant bias was introduced. Data from all three surveys were obtained from a sub-group of 87 respondents. These data provide indicators of change in response to the landfill over time and allow an examination of the reappraisal process. The results reveal the landfill had little impact on neighborhood satisfaction, which remained high throughout, and a positive change in landfill perceptions, concerns and actions from 1990 to 1995. Furthermore, the results for the sub-group of 87 showed a temporal gradient of change for several indicators of concern. These findings imply an on-going process of cognitive reappraisal due to a combination of individual and landfill related factors. While 50% of the 1995 respondent group remain concerned, the open-ended survey responses revealed that many had adapted to the facility or at least had become resigned to it. This response may partly be explained by the design and operation of the landfill itself, which was influenced by the concerns community residents raised as part of the environmental assessment process. The findings of the study are discussed in terms of their contribution to the literatures on environmental stress and on the siting of noxious facilities.