December 24, 2013
Ontario

Unifor and MOE provide information on wind turbine

By Tiffany Wilson, Shoreline Beacon | Monday, December 23, 2013 | www.shorelinebeacon.com

After a series of deputations to council in August on the impacts the Unifor Industrial Wind Turbine have on many local concerned residents and groups, Larry Allison, chief administrator officer presented a follow-up information report at last week’s committee-of-the-whole meeting.

Allison said the Ministry of Energy (MOE), as of Dec. 10, advised them that a total of 139 complaints have been submitted since the wind turbine began operating in March.

He said in regards to the noise-related complaints, the MOE and Unifor staff have done re-active monitoring and pro-active monitoring.

“Incident details documented by Unifor in complaint forms, including wind direction, wind speed, weather conditions and a description of complaint are recorded by the MOE. To date, the MOE noise monitoring in response to complaints, including pro-active noise monitoring, has not exceeded the applicable sound level limits of stationary sources in Class 2 urban areas,” the report read.

Secondly, the shadow flicker complaints were followed up by the MOE and Unifor working together and installing software which results in the idling of the turbine when conditions are likely to result in shadow flicker occurring off the Unifor property.

“Due to recent complaints, there have been some changes to that software as such that it will now turn the unit off in morning conditions,” Allison added.

With respect to the infrasound complaints, the MOE has responded indicating that they continue to do more wind turbine research studies, which won’t be able to be reviewed until 2015/2016 at the earliest, Allison said.

Meanwhile, he said there has been some direct dialogue between Unifor facilitated through the mayor’s office and some conversations with one particular citizen.

He said although Unifor offered to further test to assess the potential emanation of infrasound offsite, the terms of the testing have yet to be finalized.

“One of the things that frustrates (citizens) is the complaint process,” Saugeen Shores mayor Mike Smith said. “And the message that I think we need to get out there is that if you are affected, continue to file complaints through the process… continue to raise the profile of this issue and what it is doing to our community.”