Tag Archives: Algonquin Power

Nature Canada, field naturalists call for action to save Amherst Island

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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Nature Canada and the Kingston Field Naturalists are calling for action to save Amherst Island, near Kingston, from a huge windpower generation project which will not only devastate the island community, but also endanger thousands of migratory birds and other at-risk or endangered species.

See this posting from the Association to Protect Amherst Island, below. Be sure to look at the project map below, too—how does the government excuse this in the name of “green”?

Kingston Field Naturalists Nature Canada
Dear Friend,

A 27-turbine wind power project proposed for internationally recognized Amherst Island, an Important Bird Area near Kingston Ontario, may be approved soon by the Ontario government.

The many Species at Risk on Amherst Island include birds (Short-eared Owl, Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern Whip-poo-rwill, Barn Swallow, Golden Eagle, Least Bittern, and Red Knot), Blanding’s Turtles, and Milk and Ribbon Snakes.

Amherst Island has an international reputation as one of the most outstanding places in North America to see concentrations of northern owls and is an important stopover for bats on their migratory path across Lake Ontario. Bats are becoming endangered in many places and in April 2015, Canada, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement to protect the pathways of migratory bats.

A wind turbine installation on this small island, as learned from the nearby Wolfe Island installation, would result in loss of habitat for Short-eared Owl and serious and irreversible harm to local populations of Bobolinks, Barn Swallows and Eastern Meadowlarks, and to breeding population of Red-tailed Hawk, breeding and roosting Purple Martins, and Osprey. Additionally significant breeding population of Blanding’s Turtle, Wilson’s Phalarope and Whip-poor-wills are also at risk. No one is considering the cumulative impact of this project and the many others that are operational or proposed for this important migration route on the vulnerable populations of birds and other wildlife.

More information about the Project and the Island can be found at: http://www.protectamherstisland.ca

This might the last opportunity to convince the Province to make the right decision and put an end to this project before it enters the expensive and draining cycle of legal challenges. It is time that Ontario’s green energy policy is balanced with its international obligations to protect biodiversity and that decision makers demonstrate genuine respect for the wishes of the overwhelming majority of community members. Please send letters to those listed below, asking that the wind-turbine project for Amherst Island be stopped completely – and permanently:

Ontario Premier, Kathleen Wynne, premier@ontario.ca

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray, minister.moe@ontario.ca

Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, Bill Mauro, minister.mnr@ontario.ca

Director, MOECC, Sarah Paul sarah.paul@ontario.ca

Senior Project Evaluator, MOECC, Susanne Edwards, susanne.edwards@ontario.ca

CC Association to Protect Amherst Island protectai@kos.net

Thank you,

Kingston Field Naturalists and Nature Canada

 

Site plan for the proposed power project:

 

 

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Amherst Island wind project “not financially viable”

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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Wind power on Amherst Island: not financially viable

Posted on March 5, 2014

Members of the community on Amherst Island (who, it must be said, are doing anything and everything to protect their community from a proposed wind power plant) have undertaken a financial analysis of the power project.

Note that this is something the government of Ontario has never done, despite the Auditor General’s chiding of them to do this in 2011. The result of this analysis? Wind power doesn’t make any sense.

Read the report at http://freewco.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/wind-power-on-amherst-island-not-financially-viable/

Rick Conroy on Amherst Island wind power project: the terrible prospect

01 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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There are very few independent newspapers left in Canada. Most are now part of chains, and as a result, their editorial content follows whatever line the ownership decrees. Here then is the refreshing view of wind power in Ontario from editor of The Wellington Times, the “must-read” tab in Prince Edward County.

The Times

Last defence

The channel that separates Amherst Island from Prince Edward County is scarcely two kilometres wide. The island itself is tiny—just 20 kilometres long and seven kilometres across at its widest point. It is likely that in some ancient past Prince Edward County and Amherst Island were connected.

Now these communities share a common threat—a threat to the birds that stopover on their way north and south. To the animals that live here and make this unique habitat their own. To a pastoral way of life. And to the very health and well-being of the folks who who call these island communities home.

Earlier this month, the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) deemed complete an application by a company controlled by Algonquin Power to construct as many as 37 industrial wind turbines on this small and fragile island. Thirty seven turbines. Each soaring more than 400 feet into the air— blades sweeping the sky over a span of 10,000 square metres (equal to two acres of sky for each turbine).

Once erected— there will be no escape. No place to avoid the unrelenting thrum or flicker from blades swooshing overhead. No safe passage for migrating birds seeking to avoid the treacherous minefield of turbines stretching across the island.

The playground for the only elementary school on the island lies within 550 metres of one of the proposed turbines. Hydro One won’t allow wind turbines that close to its transmission lines for fear of damage—but the Ontario government deems school children less valuable, it seems.

The simple truth is that it is impossible to cram 37 turbines onto this tiny island and avoid putting humans, animals and natural habitat at risk. It is why the developer, in a report prepared by a consultant on the threat posed by this project to more than 14 endangered or threatened species, stresses that it will work to minimize the impact of its project, but that its first obligation is to “ensure the commitments of the contract” and “ensure renewable energy is delivered to the province”. The developer has made it clear what its priorities are.

We know too, from experience in this community, what the province’s priorities are. The MOE and Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is already running ahead to clear the regulatory path for the developer. Endangered species and human health concerns are merely check boxes on a form to be filled in.

Once the turbines are erected Amherst Island will be lost for at least a generation—disfigured and devastated for the duration of the developer’s guaranteed 20-year contract with the province. For species on the brink of survival, the damage may well be permanent.

Read the full article here.

The Ostrander Point power project appeal: winnable!

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in Health, Renewable energy, Wind power

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As you know, two community groups have appeal the Ministry of the Environment’s approval of a wind power project on the South Shore of Prince Edward County at Ostrander Point. The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) and the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County (APPEC) have both filed appeals, PECFN’s on the basis that the project will cause serious and irreversible harm to the natural environment, and APPEC on the basis of harm to human health. Wind Concerns Ontario was granted status as a participant and presented evidence on the potential harm to bats, and the resulting economic effects if this expensive and unnecessary power development were to be built. County Coalition for Safe Affordable Green Energy (CCSAGE)  is also assisting with fund-raising and other activities.

The Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) is continuing in the County and a great deal of evidence on the environment has already been presented.

Last week, the community groups hosted a fund-raiser Town Hall, which featured excellent speakers. Local humourist Steve Campbell was the MC for the event, a packed hall at the venerable Regent Theatre in Picton, said he regularly reads of strife for city dwellers in the form of crime, and gang wars, etc. “Here in the County,” he said, “we only have two enemies: the provincial government, and the federal government.”

For more details on the event, please read the story here (and note the new mascot Angry Bird!):  http://www.freewco.blogspot.ca/2013/04/ccsages-town-hall-event-on-wind-turbine.html

One of the most stunning pieces of information presented that evening was from business owner Carlyn Moulton who noted that the arts and services sectors bring in $400 million in revenue annually to the County while the proposed wind power development will bring–get this–$1-2 million in tax revenue. “Huh?” she said. “How does that make any sense?” Tourism to the County will be drastically affected by the Ostrander Point project, and another proposed wind power project the “White Pines.” A study done recently in the U.K., Moulton said, showed that 75% of the visitors to an area where wind turbines had been installed said they would “never come back.”

Among the handouts that evening (we were there) was a flyer on why the Ostrander Point ERT is “winnable.” The environmental testimony has been damning—botanist Paul Catling said the damage to the rare alvar environment will be irreversible and he scoffed at developer Gilead Power’s claim to be able to re-create the environment elsewhere—but this ERT is the first opportunity for a Tribunal to hear actual testimony from people already living with wind turbines and the environmental noise and infrasound they produce.

“APPEC’s appeal is the first in which Ontario wind victims will present evidence demonstrating that wind turbines cause serious harm.This proof meets the test required in order to WIN  and ERT appeal,” APPEC wrote in the flyer. “By invalidating 550-m setbacks the appeal will set a precedent that applies to every proposed industrial wind project. The Ministry of the Environment would have to determine a new standard to protect the health of Ontarians, and it could not continue to rubber-stamp projects in Ontario.”

Worth supporting, wouldn’t you say?

Go to www.appec.ca to donate or send a cheque to

APPEC Legal Fund

PO Box 173

Milford ON   K0K 2P0

If the government actually approves this wind power project in a “globally significant” important bird area, and where the destruction of a rare environment is assured, there is no hope of using the government’s process for any project.

FIGHT IT.

Ottawa Wind Concerns

p-o-bird-gb-pt-pec(A grey-blue gnat-catcher, photographed by a Prince Edward County resident)

How a few people can change life for so many

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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An excellent opinion piece appeared in this weekend’s National Post, written by a resident of beautiful Amherst Island. Just a ferry ride from Kingston, the island is a globally significant area for migratory birds and is especially recognized for its owl population. For more information, go to the Association to Protect Amherst Island website, here: http://protectamherst.yolasite.com/

The letter writer makes many points about how ludicrous a wind power development of this magnitude in this location is, but we like her point about just how many people are behind the decision to ruin the community and despoil the island, for profit. Seventeen.

In the case of the project proposed for the Ottawa area (in the North Gower-Richmond section) it is THREE. Three people have decided to make money, while exposing hundreds of homes to the environmental noise and infrasound produced by ten industrial-scale turbines.

She writes:

It’s a storybook setting.

Or at least it was, until wind turbines reared their ugly 507-foot-high heads, threatening to alter the lives of not just the 17 landowners that signed up to host them, but the 96% of islanders that didn’t. Now we’ve got a schism. And it happened before anyone knew it.

Rumours are ricocheting: that it was stealthily planned (“psst, wanna turbine?”); that contracts included non-disclose clauses (“psst, don’t tell anyone till it’s a done deal!”); that there’ll be a turbine right by the primary school (“don’t worry, the kids’ll be OK”); that the private power company salivating over the possible contract has offered the township a “donation” (taxpayer-funded) of $7.5-million that comes with a gag order.

The large and active No-Turbines side claims to have the support of the mayor, county council, Conservative MPP and MP, and 90 municipalities. And the Auditor General, Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Fraser Institute seem negatively disposed as well.

Apparently that’s not enough. This train with just 17 passengers aboard — and a crew that includes wealthy investors, a clutch of Liberal provincial government ministers, and a gaggle of lobbyists with Liberal party ties — is heading, full steam ahead, right for our heritage village.

Here is the Amherst Island letter in full. http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/03/30/turbine-foes-left-to-twist-in-the-wind/

Ottawa Wind Concerns is a community group opposed to the inappropriate siting of wind power generation projects close to people’s homes, schools, farms, and the natural environment. We are NOT a “willing host.” To view the proposed project go to http://www.prowind.ca and click on Projects, Marlborough.  The study map depicted there is not accurate, however; neither are the photos depicting what the turbines will look like.

E-mail ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Donations welcome for legal expenses and communications efforts. PO Box 3, North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

Amherst Island community tearing apart: “No way would anything this tall with this opposition be built in the city”

15 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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Amherst Island is a small community offshore from Kingston, Ontario, which if Toronto-based wind power developer Algonquin Power gets its way, will soon be populated by as many as 37 huge wind turbines.

The community has been ripped apart by the controversy, as is becoming typical for rural Ontario communities where farm owners want the revenue from leasing their land for the turbines, while other residents worry about health and property values.

Here is a feature article from this week’s Farmer’s Forum, by Patrick Meagher. http://www.farmersforum.com/DEC2012/p12.htm

 

The big chill

Eastern Ontario’s latest battle over wind turbines reveals another divided community

 

By Patrick Meagher

 

AMHERST ISLAND — Bruce Caughey is the only dairy farmer on the 20-kilometre long Amherst Island, a three-kilometre offshore ferry ride west of Kingston. In 1970, there were 28.

Times have changed. Looks like they’re changing again.

If Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has its way, there will be 33 to 37 new wind turbines, each standing 50 storeys tall, on the humble island. Contracts have been signed, so Caughey expects to see eight of them from his back window.

“This is not a popular project,” he said, noting that the year-round population of about 410 people (2011 census) are overwhelmingly against it. Some say the issue has defined people by who now waves to whom.

“You can have differences of opinion,” Caughey said. “Most people rise above that. There are lots of social things we still enjoy together. Most people get along.”

Amherst Island is the typical story of many small Ontario communities where ugly battles have erupted over a landowner’s right to do what he wants on his property versus the neighbour’s right to the enjoyment of his property.

Despite worry about killing birds, the biggest issues are health concerns caused by the turbines and having to look at them. You can see the turbines towering over neighbouring Wolfe Island from the grassy southeast. To some they look good. To others they don’t. To some who lease land for a turbine, they look like money, up to $15,000 per year. Others cynically said the island will become a factory. The ones on Amherst will be taller by 20 to 30 metres, reaching 150 metres from ground to the tip of a vertical blade.

Caughey visited a farmer with three turbines on Wolfe Island and was struck by the “haunting” afternoon shadow but also the noise. The farmer told him they can sometimes sound like a jet plane taking off. A neighbour and a visiting veterinarian said they have heard it too.

“The only people getting a return are the landowners but we’re all going to enjoy them or not,” said Caughey, who once considered signing up for a turbine.

The setback is 550 metres but Caughey agreed with others that setbacks from homes should be at least one kilometre.

Local councilor for Loyalist Township, Duncan Ashley, lives on the island and said that in 18 years in municipal politics this issue is by far the most divisive. “Without a doubt,” he said. “Nothing comes close. This is tearing the community apart.”

Farmers Forum conducted a survey of 200 of Wolfe Island’s residents last year and the most significant conclusion was that 28.5 per cent of respondents said that community spirit had gotten worse since 86 turbines were erected in 2009.

Even though Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a priority points system that sends projects that are not community-supported to the bottom of the list, Ashley said he has not seen any legislation that gives municipalities power to stop a project. “Municipality rights have been stripped,” he said.

Some road work has been done to bring in the wind turbines and the province is considering a multi-million dollar upgrade of the ferry but the wind project has yet to be approved.

The president of the Association for the Protection of Amherst Island, Peter Large, said that 15 to 18 landowners have signed a deal to get a wind turbine but 200 people have signed on with the association in protest, representing the “vast majority” of the year-round adult population.

Large makes numerous arguments but there are two that stand out: health concerns and lack of local autonomy.

There’s no way that a building this tall would be approved in a city with such overwhelming opposition from the community, he said, adding that there is no local input, no hearing and no appeal process. “This in itself is unthinkable.”

The many health concerns from existing wind projects are now being studied by Health Canada, which expects to reach conclusions in about two years.

One concern, which has rarely been discussed in the news media, is the shadow flicker or strobe light effect created by the setting sun passing behind the turning blades and casting long but interrupted shadows into homes. (Google “wind turbine shadow flicker” and see the shadow action for yourself.)

Loyalist Township planner Murray Beckel said that if the project is approved he suspects turbine construction will not start until 2014, as the company first needs to hold a second open house in the new year and then provide numerous reports to the Ministry of Environment and obtain various permits. The ministry will need about six months to respond to the report package, he said.

But while the opposition has the numbers this is far from a one-sided battle. The pro-wind group has the law on its side. It also has long-time residents, mostly farming families, said sheep farmer Dave Willard, who stands to gain from two wind turbines on his property. “Every traditional island family that has been here for three, four, five generations are all on side but one (dairy farmer Bruce Caughy),” he said. “I can’t think of one other long-term island family that is opposed. Almost everyone with 100 acres signed on.”

He added that some families signed on but didn’t get a turbine and will still earn $2,500 a year for the 20-year term of the project.

“I don’t like being dictated to by a group of newcomers (fewer than 30 years),” Willard protested. “They don’t have historical authority. They didn’t raise their kids here.”

Editor’s note: APAI is a sister organization to Ottawa Wind Concerns, as group members of Wind Concerns Ontario. http://www.windconcernsontario.ca