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The Rural Voice, 2001-02, Page 10WINGHAM FORESTRY SERVICE R.R. #1, Wingham Ontario NOG 2W0 TREE MARKING FOR TIMBER SALES OR FUEL WOOD CALL (519) 335-6768 MURRAY HALL - FORESTRY TECHNICIAN DARE TO COMPARE RSPB AS OF JAN. 22/2001 Rates available through 1 YR. 5 YR. ABC INVESTMENTS 5.05% 5.55% BANK OF MONTREAL 4.00% 4.70% CIBC 4.00% 4.70% CANADA TRUST 4.00% 4.70% LAURENTIAN BANK 4.00% 4.70% ROYAL BANK 4.00% 4.70% SCOTIA BANK 4.00% 4.70% TD BANK 4.00% 4.70% ALL COMPANIES MEMBERS OF CDIC INSURANCE. INVESTMENTS INSURED UP TO $60,000. INVESTMENTS 122 The Square, Goderich 1-800-265-5503 - 524-2773 6 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston When healthy skepticism is unhealthy The most frightening thing coming out of the public inquiry into the Walkerton water tragedy for me is that I can recognize the attitudes that led to the situation in myself and many other rural people I know. Certainly the circumstances that led to the tragedy that killed seven and made more than 2,000 people ill were rare. Without torrential rains that caused flooding that appears to have flushed E. coli - laden manure into a vulnerable well located too close to farming activities, the carelessness of the local water authorities would not have been crucial. Still, listening to those involved, I hear echoes of a rural culture that generally thinks regulations are just so much nonsense to be ignored or circumvented. And though some of those involved are being painted as criminals these days, no doubt they thought they were just giving people what they wanted. During testimony, it became , obvious that the officials felt chlorin- ation was silly and the requirement to document their efforts was even stupider. Still. it was a necessary evil to havc to do the paperwork to keep somebody off their backs so they saw nothing wrong with making up fictitious records. And I'll bet before the tragedy happened, they got a lot more complaints about the taste of chlorine in the water than they did about the possibility of E. coli. I know that in our town, which also had unchlorin- ated water from deep wells until the Walkerton tragedy, one the loudest complaints in town these days is the smell and taste of chlorine in the previously pristine water supply. Even after Walkerton some people's attitude has been that this was a unique set of circum -stances that could never happen again and all the fuss has gotten out of control. No doubt there will be a lot of extra money and effort expended to make sure Walkerton can not happen again when it had never happened before that unique converg-ence of so many things going wrong. But in a way it was our rural culture that killed those people — that culture that has a "healthy" skepticism, that tends to scoff at "experts" whether they be people working for a government ministry, a health unit or an engineer. In this culture, most government regulations are unnecessary red tape that gets in the way of making things happen. Most inspectors are creating work for themselves. Most rules interfere with personal freedom. And those truisms are probably correct a great deal of the time. It's the odd time when something goes wrong that hindsight shows us there was a reason for all that regulation. Life on earth will never be totally safe and secure. Still, the only altern- ative to trying to make it as safe as possible is to admit that periodically there will be more Walkertons. That's fine until Walkerton happens to you. Our healthy skepticism about rules and regulations comes from a past when each lived unto himself. If the guys at Walkerton PUC had been looking after their own personal water, their attitudes wouldn't matter. They didn't recognize that if they were wrong about the need for chlor- ination, 4,000 lives were at stake. That's what worries me about our culture of skepticism. Farmers handle potentially toxic drugs, pesticides, and millions of gallons of manure. We can talk about HACCP and licensing of feed mixing and so many other checks and balances but if some individuals think these regulations are stupid, that they're something to be gotten around, then people's lives can be put in danger. Can we change our culture enough to recognize that we hold a lot of power these days and our inconvenience with rules might be a small price to pay for others' health70 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.