As long as old regulations for wind turbine noise and setbacks remain unchanged in Ontario, anger is not going anywhere
Former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is reported to have said of citizens objecting to wind power projects in 2009: “They can’t stay mad forever”.
But, it seems they can.
Writer Tom Van Dusen explores this in the August 24 edition of Ontario Farmer and asks, why, when the Nation Rise power project has been approved and is now operating, after lost citizen appeals and even a court case, is the opposition to the project just as strong?
Why aren’t people just accepting of the 29 giant turbines, and getting on with their lives?
Why indeed?
Appeal process was a sham
For one thing, there is the sense of injustice about it all. Almost every single wind power project was appealed, before 2009 to the Ontario Municipal Board and after, when the Green Energy Act prescribed an appeal process before the Environmental Review Tribunal. Legal writers have described the task of appeal as almost impossible to win, the way the rules were set up. Instead of power developers having to prove there would be no harm, citizens, with limited time and resources, had to prove there would be.
Birds killed? Sure, Ontario said, but turbines would have to kill so many that entire species would be wiped out. Impossible. (Except when it came to turtles…)
A recent academic paper showed that “the people were not wrong” in their concerns about the dangers to people and the environment that led them to take action. Many of the risks they foresaw in the power development proposals have actually become reality.
Among those, noise is paramount. The Ontario government now has about 7,000 formal complaint records called incident Reports dating back to 2006. There appears to be no process in which these records are collected and submitted to the environment ministry for review, analysis and action. They stay in the District Offices until asked for (which we do, every year.) There are families in Ontario who have been complaining about noise for five years and more—there is no effective response.
The Green Energy Act is not gone
The Green Energy Act may have been repealed in Ontario but the Regulation that governs noise limits and setbacks, Regulation 359/09, still exists, unchanged from 2009.
The Renewable Energy Approval process is likewise unchanged; if there were to be another rush for wind power (like the City of Ottawa is proposing as “local” power), the process will not save anyone from being invaded by huge turbines that will make noise, produce vibration and sound pressure, and will affect wildlife.
Disturbed water wells are another concern: dozens of families in North Kent are awaiting the results of a public health investigation into why their wells, some operating for decades without problems, suddenly stopped working after construction began on a wind power project.
Developers claim that griping “non-participating” landowners are just jealous of the lease fees. It’s true that it is tough when they see leaseholders driving around in new trucks, said one Nation Rise resident. But the reason it’s tough is because their actions left other property owners with homes that have lost value, and are perhaps not even sellable.
Opposition to wind turbine projects continues around the world, and is growing in the U.S. where some states (New York) are actually forcing through legislation to steamroll over local opposition. And there is opposition, with key states being Illinois, Michigan, New York and Vermont, to name a few.
Mr. McGuinty was wrong: we CAN stay mad forever…and we will until there is justice for the unwilling neighbours of industrial wind power projects.
Jane Wilson
President
Wind Concerns Ontario
What needs to happen:
-
REVISE Regulation 359/09 with new setback distances and noise limits
-
Revise Renewable Energy Approval process to reflect reality of wind turbine noise emissions
-
Revise and update 2010 Chief Medical Officer of Health statement on wind turbine noise and health
Follow us on Facebook
And Twitter @windconcernsONT
8 Comments
Ed E.
A good move Jane. The new media (internet) is the route to go. The big media seems to have been bought off.
Reliable sites like WCO are necessary.
Wind Concerns Ontario
Thank you for your comments. We hope people continue to file complaints. MECP staff are all too ready to say, No complaints = no problems!
Ed E.
FYI
From:
Rebel News Network Ltd.
PO Box 61056, Eglinton/Dufferin RO, Toronto, ON M6E 5B2, Canada
“They’re the richest newspaper company in Canada. And they’re not even Canadian.
Postmedia is owned by a giant New Jersey hedge fund called Chatham Asset Management,
…
Today, they’re the number one recipient of Trudeau’s bail-out money. They take $140,000/week from Trudeau, and it shows.”
(generosity of the taxpayers?}
Tracy
Awaiting results to a public health investigation..as per Ontario’s Health Protection Act…there must be an investigation. This has not been done.
Dr. Shanker Nethesurai, former Chief Medical Officer of Health for Haldimand-Norfolk counties is well aware. He simply said there is no problem and closed the book!
This is CRIMINAL.
I’ve be “waiting” for more then a decade, since 2008 to be exact.
Wind Concerns Ontario
Are you saying the Haldimand-Norfolk doc delivered the results of the provincial health investigation? Or was that something he said earlier?
Maks Zupan
Who is mad?
I attended a “green” gathering not long ago. I could not explain to them that a wind powered generator is not like a sailboat which moves with any wind. I mentioned to them that a year has 8760 hours and that a useful wind for power generation blows only about 400 hours. Many in the attendance had a degree, at least one with masters in science. Not one of them supported me. So powerful are wind propaganda lies, so few people are willing to think critically beyond wishful thinking. Keep defending human sanity, Jane, thank you again.
Maks
Wind Concerns Ontario
We have to keep trying!
Stan Thayer
One more point to add to your list!
I would like someone to show the actual taxpayer cost of the small amount of power that each wind turbine does contribute. Maybe, just maybe, that would open some serious conversation on the added benefit in power to the added grief produced and in some areas irreversible damage to our ground water supplies.
The overall costs, health, environmental, wildlife, etc., etc., just doesn’t seem at all worth it for the small amount of intermittent electrical power gained.
Stan Thayer