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Tag Archives: Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario

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

01 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Algonquin Power, Amherst Island wind farm, bird kills wind farms, James Bradley Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Prince Edward County wind projects, Rick Conroy, Wellington Times, wind farms and environment, wind farms and health effects, wind farms environmental damage, wind farms Ontario

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.

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It’s a bad time to be part of the environment in Ontario

06 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bald Eagles, bird kills wind power, dead birds wind farms, health effects wind farms, Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario, NextEra, Ontario Wind Resistance, Ottawa wind concerns, Port Dover wind farm

With the announcement of the approval of the nonsensical wind power project at Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County (Crown land, ought to be a conservation area, not a power project) and yesterday’s destruction of a six-year-old Bald Eagle nest to accommodate a wind power project near Port Dover in Ontario, it’s clear: it’s a bad time to be a bird or a bat or a human being living in rural Ontario.

Wind power profits are in, Nature is “out.”

And, with the Legislature prorogued, there is no public forum in which to decry these acts.

Take a look at the “optics” of the Bald Eagle nest removal: the approval was listed on the government website last Friday (an old trick, much used by this government, to make sure notice is served but at a time when nobody notices) and the removal HAD to take place this weekend. The explanation was that as the Bald Eagle nest was so near a turbine site, its removal would protect the birds. The tree, an ancient and rare Cottonwood, also had to come down, because it’s where an access road is to be built to construct the turbines.

The eagles will not be saved: that is their territory and they will nest elsewhere, and likely, eventually, be killed in the wind power project as so many raptors are near these projects. And, when you consider that raptors like this live as long as 20 years, what is also being killed is generation after generation of Bald Eagles that the dead one would have produced, had they been allowed to live.

It’s a bad time to be part of Nature; it must also be a pretty rough gig to be a public relations spin doctor for the wind companies and the provincial government.

We’re sad and disgusted at ottawawindconcerns@yahoo.ca

Pictures of the nest removal are available at Ontario Wind Resistance at: http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2013/01/05/wind-turbine-company-nextera-mnr-destroy-bald-eagle-nest-habitat/

BaldEagleNestDestructionHaldimand

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