July 22, 2014
Nova Scotia

Residents weigh in against turbine plan

The Chronicle Herald | July 22, 2014 | thechronicleherald.ca

A Colchester County community group objecting to planned wind turbines in its area is taking what it says may be its last chance to officially express its consternation over the energy project.

The Friends of Harmony/Camden, Greenfield and Surrounding Areas recently filed a “notice of planning appeal” with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

A board document submitted by the group acknowledged its objections are being provided to the regulator late in the approval process.

“Even in the final stage of approving this project, it is our position that once again, the regulations, rules and polices are not being followed,” a letter to the review board’s chief clerk says.

“As lay people, we have been abandoned and dismissed by governments.”

The group, representing rural residents, has a number of quality-of-life concerns about the Affinity Wind project, a development that would see at least two turbines installed on a ridge in their district.

Local families feel they’ve been ignored by the powers that be.

“Rural communities are being slam-dunked and walked over,” Claudia LeClerc, a signatory to the appeal notice, said Tuesday in an interview. “We have just been crucified here.”

LeClerc lives in Lower Harmony, about 1.5 kilometres from the planned wind turbines.

In April, Affinity’s president, Reuben Burge, said turbines are more than 1,000 metres away from area homes. The project should be finished in late 2015.

The community group’s letter to the board says more than 80 per cent of residents living with a two-kilometre radius of the proposed project “signed petitions opposing the (development) as it is defined today.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/07/22/residents-weigh-in-against-turbine-plan/