North Gower Citizens Group Hires Law Firm

Credit:  North Gower Wind Action Group, 10 March 2010

OTTAWA — In its fight to ensure that a proposed development of industrial wind turbines is located a safe distance from hundreds of homes in the North Gower-Richmond area, the North Gower Wind Action Group has retained the services of an environmental lawyer in the Ottawa office of Fogler, Rubinoff LLP.

The group has asked the developer to share documents related to the development process with the community.

“As a member of Wind Concerns Ontario, we hear reports every day of people having to live too close to industrial wind turbines and suffering for it,” says the group’s chair, Gary Chandler. “The province has established a minimum setback of 550 meters between houses and an industrial wind turbine, but we’re learning that health effects from the constant noise and vibration from these huge machines are being experienced by people as far away as two kilometers. We don’t want that to happen to our families in North Gower and Richmond.”

“Community Groups such as North Gower Wind Action need to mobilize to ensure that new wind turbine projects are sited and planned to avoid significant adverse environmental and human health effects, ” says the group’s environmental lawyer, Kristi Ross, of Fogler, Rubinoff LLP. “Projects that are located such that they have the potential for harmful effects on the community or the environment may be challenged under the environmental approvals process.”

Dozens of Ontario communities are protesting to the Ontario government that the Green Energy and Green Economy Act removed their ability to plan their communities and protect citizens, including Mapleton, Kawartha Lakes, Grey County, the Northumberland Hills and Chatham. They are asking Ontario for a moratorium until independent health studies are done.

The North Gower group has the support of hundreds of residents and is gathering petitions for all levels of government, asking for a halt to wind turbines projects until there is assurance that residents’ health will not be affected. Last summer, the local Green Party candidate issued a news release to say the party supports “green” energy but that the North Gower project raised concerns due to the closeness of the turbines to homes. Dr David Suzuki has said that improperly sited wind turbine projects can “do more harm than good.”

Prowind’s response to the North Gower Wind Action Group has been simply to point the community to its website, and that it will hold a “final” public information session in the summer or fall.

“It’s a shame that Ontario citizens now have to hire lawyers to find out what is going on in the wind energy development process, and to protect people’s health and property values,” says Chandler.

The North Gower Wind Action Group Inc. was founded in 2008. The proposed turbine development is for 8-10, 626-foot industrial wind turbines (the tallest in Ontario) to be scattered around the Village of North Gower and in the south area of Richmond. The wind developer is Prowind Canada, a subsidiary of Prowind with headquarters in Germany.

NORTH GOWER WIND ACTION GROUP
P O BOX 485
NORTH GOWER ON K0A 2T0
northgowerwindactiongroup@yahoo.ca

Tags: Wind power, Wind energy

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