National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Sandy soil won’t support turbines, says resident

A new warning has been issued about a proposed wind farm east of Port Ryerse: the sandy soils there won’t support turbines weighing two million pounds or more, says a resident in the lakeside hamlet.

The problem is a lack of bedrock to anchor the towers, said Nora Brown, a former biologist with Environment Canada.

“In Port Ryerse, you have no idea how deep the sand is until you get to bedrock,” she said.

As proof, Brown showed council on Tuesday night photos of a large 100-year-old tree that blew over in a storm earlier this year.

“All its roots are attached. It’s clean as a whistle. There’s no mud attached,” she noted.

The project, which calls for four turbines to go up in farmland east of the lakeside hamlet, is a danger to person and property, said the 87-year-old.

“If they are built and fall, the damage could be monumental . . . What is there to prevent these humungous two million pound pieces going over and hitting somebody’s property – and, saints preserve us, nobody is in the way.”

Brown asked council to “please stop” the project.

Mayor Dennis Travale reminded the meeting there is little the county can do. Green energy projects are now under provincial jurisdiction and council has twice voted in support of a provincewide moratorium on building any new turbines until more studies on the impact on the health of nearby residents are done.

Council is familiar with controversy over wind turbines. It has heard repeatedly from residents in the west end of the county who insist the infrasound vibrations emitted from the spinning propellers in their area are sickening them.

As soon as the Port Ryerse project was announced, a group of residents there formed to oppose their construction.

Brown said she has asked the developer of the project, UDI Renewables, for a copy of their soil study but has yet to receive anything.

Brown sat on a committee that studied Norfolk County’s groundwater and said the soil in the area is made up of sand and gravel and is “porous.”