Debate over wind farms blows onto Manitoulin
Bud Wilkin’s family has farmed the land on Manitoulin Island for five generations.
The beef and dairy farmer is hoping the wind that blows over his pastures will bring with it a financial opportunity that will encourage his grandchildren to continue the tradition.
Bud and his son, Brad Wilkin, have agreed to sign a lease with Northland Power that would allow the company to put about 10 wind turbines somewhere on the family’s 2,000 acres of land.
“The agreement was hammered out on this table here,” said Bud, tapping his fist on the tabletop inside his Willis Sideroad home. “It took many sleepless nights. If it wasn’t to my liking, I wouldn’t have agreed to sign the lease.”
His cattle, he said, come first.
“We are going to be able to farm in harmony with the windmills,” Bud said.
Bud’s tone is slightly defensive. That’s because the development is stirring up controversy among some of the about 2,500 residents of the Town of North Eastern Manitoulin and the Islands.
Ray Beaudry is the head of a citizens group that has formed in NEMI to oppose the development.
“To me, it’s a health and safety issue,” said the Morphet’s Sideroad resident.
He has joined a growing legion of anti-wind advocates who worry turbines cause health problems as a result of low frequency noise and vibration. Beaudry is also concerned about property values, driving away tourists and the effect the development will have on the ecosystem.
Allan Ryan, who is part of the citizens group, said he doesn’t think there is a place for industrial wind turbines anywhere.
“They are monsters. They are really industrial behemoths,” he said.
That’s not the way Mayor Jim Stringer sees it.
“A project like this, it’s what we dream of in terms of (economic development) like this in the municipality,” said Stringer.
The Wilkins are two of 14 landowners who have signed leases with the company. Northland is in the process of securing the necessary approvals to build the 43-turbine, 77-megawatt project on McLean’s Mountain near Little Current. The turbines, which each have the capacity to produce 1.8 megawatts each, could power about 20,000 homes.
The company’s environmental screening report is in the final stages of the public comment period. Upon securing the required approvals and permits, the company is hoping to start building roads in 2010 and putting up turbines in 2011.
The project would pump about $100,000 tax dollars, paid by Northland, into the township annually. “It represents between 2% and 3% of our tax bill,” said Stringer.
Northland would pay participating landowners about $8,000 annually for each turbine on their property.
“Over the 20-year contract that we expect to get from the Ontario Power Authority, we would anticipate about $7.5 million going to the landowners who have turbines on their property,” said Gordon Potts, director, business development at Northland Power.
The project would inject money into the local economy and create about nine permanent jobs. The company would need “hundreds” of workers during construction and plan to use local suppliers and workers whenever possible, Potts said.
Landowner Ed Ferguson sees it as an opportunity for farmers, who have had it rough.
“The farming community has gone through some terrible, terrible times lately with mad cow disease, the U. S. country of origin labelling and world-wide condemnation of Canadian pork as being carriers of swine flu,” Ferguson said. “This is an opportunity.”
Ferguson said he has always been a “proponent for the rural view.
“I’ve stuck my nose in a lot of people’s business, right down to Queen’s Park. This time here, I’m kind of the view that maybe it’s time for change.”
Whether the residents are ready, Manitoulin Islanders are likely going to have to get used to the look of wind turbines.
Schneider Power is in the advanced stages of constructing a three-turbine, 6.5-megawatt development called the Providence Bay and Spring Bay Wind Farm.
M’Chigeeng is in the final stages of approval for a six-turbine, nine-megawatt development.
Chief Isadora Bebamash said wind turbines are an economic development opportunity for her community.
Wikwemikong is also looking at developing a 20-to 26-megawatt project, which would consist of 10 to 13 turbines.
“This is an opportunity for us to generate long-term revenue for the community,” said Roger Peltier, Wikwemikong’s energy planner.
Manitoulin’s wind regime is great for turbines. The provincial government is also pushing these types of projects in order to reduce Ontario’s reliance on coal-fired power.
In 2003, the province had just 10 turbines. Now there are at least 589. More than 1,200 megawatts of capacity was expected to be online this year, which is double what it was in 2008. It is enough to power about 325,000 homes.
Manitoulin Island has the wind regime to power more turbines, but it does not have the capability of transmitting a great deal of power off the island and into the province’s grid.
The Ontario Power Authority’s Integrated Power System Plan lays out a comprehensive plan for the province’s electricity system for the next 20 years.
It suggests the possibility of rebuilding the existing 115- kilovolt line from Espanola to Manitoulin and constructing a new 230-kilovolt line from Espanola to Manitowaning to accommodate new wind developments.
Ben Chin, vice president of communications at the Ontario Power Authority, said this plan is still under review. A lot of that planning was done before the Green Energy Act came along.
The province is expected to finalize the act in the next month or so.
“The Green Energy Act really changes the universe in terms of adding renewable energy into the power supply mix and helping Ontario eliminate coal-fire generation or replace it with something else,” Chin said.
It’s hard to determine if, when and where transmission lines will be upgraded until the Green Energy Act is passed and wind power projects are approved.
“The transmission lines will be going to where the projects are,” Chin said.
The purpose of the Green Energy Act is to encourage green energy sources and to move away from dirty sources such as coal, said Kate Jordan, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.
“The framework that we are putting forth is unique. It’s going to see the approvals process (for renewable energy projects) be more streamlined. More work will be done upfront,” Jordan said.
The regulatory changes and policies will include a number of measures to encourage the development of renewable energy projects. It includes the proposed feed-in tariff program to guarantee specific prices for energy generated from renewable energy projects. The program is supposed to be simpler because it will have standardized program rules, contracts and prices. The program also provides incentives for First Nation, Metis and community-based projects.
Chin sees the program as the “democratization” of the energy system.
“The door is being opened not just to planners and engineers, but to the development community, residences, businesses, First Nations and community groups,” Chin said. These groups can generate power and the OPA will pay a fixed price over a long period of time to ensure a rate of return.
“We are now entering into a process which will have a clear outcome and those outcomes are going to decide where transmission lines need to be built,” Chin said.
It is currently up to municipalities to determine rules such as how far wind turbines must be from homes.
Under the new act, the government is proposing a minimum setback of 550 metres.
“That’s unique. We are the first jurisdiction to actually do that,” Jordan said.
Wind projects that are near completion will not have to reapply under the Green Energy Act once it becomes law. It’s likely that Northland will not be far enough along and will be required to reapply.
“It’s all dependent on the timing of when the final regulation is passed. Since they don’t have a certificate of approval and they are still in the review period, they are not in what we would call the final stages of completion,” Jordan said.
Stringer said he would gladly turn responsibility over to the province when it comes to decisions about wind farm developments. A municipality the size of NEMI can’t afford to hire consultants and legal experts to make these decisions, he said.
Municipal input, however, will still play a role in these developments, Jordan said.
The proposed act would set up a template developers would have to follow to provide the province with public and municipal input.
“We would be aware of any local concerns or municipal concerns so they can be addressed,” Jordan said.
The main issue among the group of concerned residents in NEMI is public health.
The Internet abounds with stories of wind turbines causing everything from fibromyalgia to heart palpitations to sleep disruptions to seizures.
Dr. Roy Jeffery, who lives in NEMI, is against the turbine development. He has been in touch with Dr. Robert McMurtry in Prince Edward County.
McMurtry said he surveyed people living near turbines and found some suffered from headaches, sleep disturbances and depression. He is calling on the government to do a formal study into the issue.
“He says that wherever these wind turbines have been built there have been health effects,” Jeffery said.
“These turbines do cause very serious medical problems in a small percentage of people who live within about two kilo-metres of wind turbine fields,” Jeffery said. “We are all pretty green-oriented, but I think it would be a bad strategy to create a public health disaster in trying to solve the climate change problem and close coal-fire plants.”
Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit conducted a thorough study of the research available about wind turbines and health. It concludes: “Although opposition to wind farms on aesthetic grounds is a legitimate point of view, opposition to wind farms on the basis of potential adverse health consequences is not justified by the evidence.”
Farmers such as Ferguson and Bud and Brad Wilkin don’t believe they are putting their families at risk by having wind turbines built on their property.
“I did my homework before I ever decided to get involved with windmills,” said Bud. “If I had been (concerned about health effects), there is no way I would have allowed windmills at our place. We have to live here, too.”
Ferguson said the concerned citizens group is “going on the Internet and trying to find everything that is harmful and then holding meetings.
“If you go on the Internet you can find anything you want on either side,” Ferguson said.
“Apparently these wind towers are responsible for everything from heart attacks to irregular menstrual cycles,” he joked.
The problem he sees with the citizens group is they never come up with a viable alternative.
“If there is some other way of getting good clean power without putting up these wind towers, I’d be the first person to say let’s do that instead,” Ferguson said.
He pointed out there are thousands of turbines in the world.
“There are countries that rely on them,” he said.
The province did consider potential health effects when drafting the Green Energy Act.
“We take those concerns very seriously,” Jordan said. “When we were developing the proposed framework we did look at the leading scientific studies from around the world,” she said. “We did what is called a jurisdictional scan to ensure that what we are proposing would be protective of public health and the environment.”
The province looked at what other countries had in place for standards and setbacks.
“We are the only jurisdiction that we know of that is proposing this minimum standard setback (of 550 metres). That is to protect the residents of the surrounding community,” Jordan said.
The province also plans to establish and fund an academic research chair to examine any potential public health effects of renewable energy projects. The chair will review new health and science information and research as it becomes available.
“The chair will research any potential public health effects and provide that information to us. We will ensure our
approvals continue to be protective of public health and the environment,” Jordan said.
The Prince Wind Farm, just outside Sault Ste. Marie, has been operation for about three years. The 189-megawatt project is one of the largest in the province.
Kara Flannigan, public health inspector with the Algoma District Health Unit, said no one has called the health unit to report any issues related to the turbines.
“We are not aware of any health concerns that people have here,” Flannigan said.
Anti-wind advocates have pointed to Melancthon Township, in Dufferin County, as an area where turbines have caused a decline in property values.
Jon Hebden, municipal relations representative for the Municipal Property Assessment Corp., said that’s not the case.
“I don’t know where they are getting their information from,” he said. “We base property values on sales… Sales don’t indicate any decline in value at all.”
NEMI’s concerned citizens group has expressed a worry about what would happen to the turbines if Northland went bankrupt or sold the development.
“Even if we were to go bankrupt, the project will still have assets on the ground that will be valuable to somebody,” Potts said. “There is no reason to believe they will be left standing there collecting dust. These are not cheap pieces of equipment.”
It won’t be up to landowners to dismantle and remove turbines.
“The lease agreements that we have with each of the landowners have very strict provisions on what our obligations are and what future owners’ obligations would be to dismantle the turbines at the end of their useful life,” Potts said.
Despite the vocal outcry of some residents on Manitoulin, Stringer believes the majority of people in his township support the development.
“There are going to be people who just don’t want wind farms anywhere on Manitoulin. We are not going to appease those people,” Stringer said. “The province is pretty clear that wind power is moving ahead.”
Wilkin is in favour of wind turbines, but doesn’t want it to come to the province pushing the development through.
“It’s nicer if a community can pull together, do this together and take whatever benefits come along,” Wilkin said.
By Rachel Punch
23 August 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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