January 16, 2014
Ontario

Town objects to location of turbines

John Edwards | January 16, 2014 | www.mississauga.com

The Town of Collingwood officially voiced its concern with the Fairview Windfarm near Stayner on Monday.

Council objects to the proximity of four of the proposed turbines to the Collingwood Regional Airport.

WPD has proposed to build eight wind turbines, west of Stayner on the north and south side of County Road 91.

Collingwood Regional Airport board chair Charlie Tatham argues that the turbines will cause safety issues and questions why they couldn’t be located further away from the airport.

“It will make the airport less safe in marginal weather,” he said.

“It will reduce accessibility somewhat. Why stick them up beside the airport? We’ll have to amend all of our approach and departure procedures to dodge them.”

In the motion, council suggested moving four turbines would “significantly reduce the negative impacts to the airport.”

Councillor Mike Edwards said this isn’t about turbines, but safety.

“This is not about whether or not we like wind turbines, this is about the safety coming in and out of our airport,” he said.

The airport retained Chaz Cormier several years ago to do a study on how the turbines would impact the airport.

According to the report, “his analysis determined that the four turbine

locations north of County Road 91 would negatively affect the airport in several ways.”

These included making approaches riskier and would reduce the effectiveness of a GPS system.

The wind farm is currently open for public comment and council asked that their comments be forwarded to the Ministry of the Environment, MP Kellie Leitch and MPP Jim Wilson.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/01/16/town-objects-to-location-of-turbines/