National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Wind worries raised in Chatham Township; Wind project officials say sample was ‘visually clear’

Company officials with the North Kent Wind Project say they have looked into a recent well water complaint.

Jody Law, the project’s senior manager of development, said in an email that the issue, which arose in Chatham Township, was investigated.

“The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change received a complaint about water quality from a landowner on Monday and relayed it to us. We immediately scheduled a site visit by Aecom staff, which included licensed well contractors, to sample the water and have it tested,” Law said.

“The preliminary update from Aecom’s field staff is that, with no remedial work required, they were able to run a faucet continuously with no issues. The sample was visually clear and colourless with no visible sediment. We have requested expedited analysis from the lab but, at this point, there is no empirical evidence of an issue.”

More than a year ago, Water Wells First began sounding the alarm about building industrial wind farms in the area, because the aquifer is in an area with Kettle Point black shale bedrock, known to contain heavy metals such as uranium, arsenic and lead, which are dangerous to human health.

There concern is the vibrations from the construction and operation of wind turbines, anchored into this bedrock, will cause sediments from this black shale to get into water wells.

Water Wells First has stated it wants the vibration data turned over for an independent review.

– With Postmedia files