Wind Power News: Ontario
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Wind farm equipment removed
The Otter Creek wind project is officially dead. Crews could be seen taking away equipment for what was supposed to be a 12-turbine, 50-megawatt project led by the Boralex corporation which was slated to be located north of Wallaceburg. RES Canada and Walpole Island First Nation were the other partners in the venture. In a letter to local landowners, Borolex said they will start removing equipment that was installed for the project’s studies, starting in late January. The letter said . . . Complete story »
Wind turbine water activists frustrated by lack of government support
Officials with a local group that advocates for clean water in the Chatham-Kent community say their cause is at a standstill right now. Water Wells First began speaking out about the correlation between wind turbines and groundwater contamination in 2016. According to the group’s spokesperson, Jessica Brooks, the concern started when black water started appearing in local water wells after a wind farm was built in Dover Township. When a wind farm was proposed in North Kent, the group further . . . Complete story »
Add declining property values to water wells problems
At a Water Wells First community meeting recently, the members continued to express their frustration with the government’s lack of action to make good on a Doug Ford promise to hold a full health hazard investigation into well contamination in the area of the North Kent Wind Farm in Chatham and Dover townships and dropping property values. WWF spokesperson Jessica Brooks said frustration with the situation continues to rise. “After our community meeting, Water Wells First members continue to be . . . Complete story »
Water Wells First considering next steps
With a recent change in its leadership, and a different provincial government in office, a grassroots organization is considering its next steps to protect water wells in North Kent. However, exactly what the group will look like in the future, and what its focus will be, remains to be seen. Water Wells First held a community meeting at Country View Golf Course on Tuesday, with more than 30 people in attendance. The group began raising concerns in 2016 about the . . . Complete story »
Nation Rise Wind Farm project has first first CLC meeting
An attempt by a group of residents from North Stormont to try to quash the wind power project from being constructed ended in failure earlier this month, when the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal ruled it had failed to prove windmills would harm human health, local animal and plant life, or the environment. The process to arrive at a decision took several months, with hearings held in Finch and Toronto and with dozens of experts on both sides arguing about the potential impacts of the wind farm on people and the environment. The residents and their backers at Wind Farms Ontario, a provincial anti-wind farm group – have 30 days to review a request of the Jan. 4 decision and the group spokesperson said that was the intent. Complete story »
‘We heard you loud and clear on Bill 66,’ Premier Doug Ford assures rural Ontario municipalities
The premier, who was joined at the conference by many ministers and MPPs, stressed his government is “here to listen to you.” “That’s why we repealed the Green Energy Act — to help local communities have a say on energy projects in their municipalities,” Ford said of the previous Liberal government’s polarizing legislation on siting wind turbines and solar projects. “Today local communities have final say on these local planning decisions,” he said. Complete story »
Well water issues not being forgotten
Lambton Kent Middlesex MPP Monte McNaughton is defending his government in the face of accusations of feet dragging regarding a water wells health hazard investigation. Well water from the Pumfrey property on Bush Line, submitted by Water Wells First. Local residents affected by contaminated wells have grown impatient with the “promise made, promise kept” mantra from the Ford Government on other issues, since a health hazard investigation was a key plank in the local Conservative campaign. McNaughton says the government . . . Complete story »
North Stormont loses appeal to squash wind turbine project
Residents south of Ottawa are disappointed and concerned about the approval of a windmill farm, after the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal ruled that the Concerned Citizens of North Stormont failed to provide accurate evidence of harm. “[We need to] prove the project will cause [problems] – not may cause, not maybe involved with, not maybe implicated with,” says Margaret Benke, Spokesperson for Concerned Citizens of North Stormont. She tells 1310 NEWS they had originally thought if they had declared themselves an . . . Complete story »
Challenge to stop wind farm in North Stormont fails
FINCH – An attempt by a group of residents from North Stormont to try to quash a wind power project from being constructed in the area ended in failure on Friday, after the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal ruled they had failed to prove windmills would harm human health, local animal and plant life, or the environment. The Concerned Citizens of North Stormont had appealed a renewable energy approval the Ministry of the Environment had granted to allow the project, Nation Rise . . . Complete story »
Lack of responses sink study on wind turbine impacts
It wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of the Huron County Health Unit. But the health unit simply didn’t find enough people willing to participate in their study on the health impacts of wind turbines to conduct a valid study. Epidemiologist Erica Clark said they mailed out 5,000 letters to people within five kilometres of a turbine and her hope was to be able to look at environmental variables related to people who claimed to be bothered or . . . Complete story »
