Tag Archives: noise wind farms

Green Energy Act violates human rights, say lawyers

18 Monday Nov 2013

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

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Garth Manning, QC, has written an article for the Sun media network, accusing Ontario and its poorly thought out Green Energy and Green Economy Act of violating the human rights of Ontario citizens. He quotes human rights lawyer Julian Falconer of Toronto, who refers to the growing body of research into the health effects from the noise and vibration produced by the wind power generation projects.

The Ontario government heard from plenty of experts who warned them against the downside of rushing into wind power, Manning says, but they didn’t want to hear it.

Today, citizens are left with the option of using their after-tax dollars to take legal action, which they are doing, both at appeals of wind power project approvals by the government, and in private legal actions. Municipalities remain without local land use planning control, which was removed the by the act.*

Read the entire article here.

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com Donations for legal advice, and expenses welcome at PO Box 3 North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

*Last week, Ottawa City Council acknowledged a petition signed by North Gower area residents declaring themselves Not A Willing Host to a proposed wind power project, and passed a motion asking the province for a more substantive role in siting wind power plants.

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Ottawa concerned about closeness of proposed wind project in North Gower

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

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

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Here from the Ottawa Sun, a story by Susan Sherring, on the opposition to the proposed North Gower-Richmond wind power generation project.

No to wind turbines in North Gower

2

Susan Sherring

By ,Ottawa Sun

First posted: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 06:03 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 06:19 PM EDT

Wind turbines
Wind turbines at the Erie Shores Wind Farm near Port Burwell generate power. Similar turbines may be popping up near Ottawa. (CRAIG GLOVER/QMI AGENCY)

For years, Gary Thomas has run a successful 50-acre Christmas tree farm in North Gower.

And he does it right, a family event with horse-drawn sleighs, tractor-drawn wagons and a warm fire with hot chocolate and cookies waiting for you upon your return from the bush.

Don’t forget the sweet smells of fresh Scotch Pine and Balsam fir.

Idyllic? Absolutely.

Now picture the same Norman Rockwell scene with a 600-foot high wind turbine less than 1 km away.

Sort of jars the senses, doesn’t it?

And then picture the massive turbine casting a shadow over the scene every few seconds.

Thomas says he can barely believe the possibility.

But indeed, there continues to be a looming threat of a wind turbine project as his next-door-neighbour.

A company called Prowind has applied more than once to the province for permission to build the wind turbine project in North Gower.

And when the province opens up for bids again, there’s every expectation Prowind will submit a proposal again.

“We’re not very pleased with it for a number of reasons. Health, there’s the psychological aspect, and the flicker effect, with every few second have a shadow come in front of our house, this is crazy,

“I’m not sure customers having the old fashioned experience will like the shadow,” he said.

Agreed.

Thomas doesn’t just worry about the immediate effects of the turbines, but he and his wife have counted on the farm for their retirement — and if the giant wind turbines are erected, doesn’t know how that will effect the resale value of their home.

“We’re hopeful Watson and council won’t put them in the municipality,” he says, in an interview with the Sun on Wednesday.

The threat of a giant wind turbine farm in their community has galvanized residents of North Gower in opposition of the project.

“We really don’t need these wind power projects,” said Jane Wilson, the chair of Ottawa Wind Concerns.

The group is circulating a petition — which now has about 400 names on it — advising the province North Gower doesn’t want to be home to a wind turbine project.

“It’s a pretty big power plant, I’m not sure people understand that. It’s huge, these are really large machines, they make noise and the vibrations can be upsetting,” she said.

The group has the support of their ward councillor Scott Moffatt, who’s working with them and city staff to craft a motion asking the province to give municipalities a say in where the wind power projects can and can’t be located.

“The majority are against it,” he added.

……………..

Read more at the Ottawa Sun website and take the poll!

North Gower rally vs proposed wind power project

27 Sunday Oct 2013

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

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(Dear Tom Spears: they are NOT ‘farms’)

From the Ottawa Citizen

North Gower rally opposes possible wind farm

  By Tom Spears, OTTAWA CITIZEN October 26, 2013
North Gower rally opposes possible wind farm

Nearly 300 people came to the recreation centre in North Gower Saturday morning to oppose construction of eight to 10 wind turbines north and west of the village.

NORTH GOWER — Nearly 300 people came to the recreation centre in North Gower Saturday morning to oppose construction of eight to 10 wind turbines north and west of the village.

“They’re too noisy. They are really way to close to people for an industrial power plant,” said organizer Jane Wilson, of Ottawa Wind Concerns. “Far too close to too many people.”

She estimates that 1,100 homes would be within 3.5 kilometres of the turbines.

“A number of the homes are within two kilometres, which is … where you see most of the health effects,” she said.

Her group circulated a map of where it says the turbines would be sited, “and when people start looking at the map and see how close it is, it really makes a difference to them.”

Opponents of wind farms say sound waves that are at too low a frequency for the human ear to hear can cause insomnia, dizziness, headaches and other health problems. The industry says there is no health impact.

Construction could begin in the fall of 2014, she believes.

The proposal by Prowind Canada is on hold for now, but residents expect the company to go ahead eventually. The Prowind website estimates the size of what it calls the Marlborough wind farm at eight turbines, producing up to 20 megawatts.

Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod, who is also the Conservative energy critic, attended the event to support the protest.

“Rural communities are going to be assaulted by these wind turbine developments,” she said.

She said the Conservatives want a moratorium on new wind developments, and an end to subsidies “so that we can put them put of business.”

She also accused the turbines of being costly and inefficient.

Wind farms are common in many parts of Ontario, especially along the Great Lakes, but are not yet common in Eastern Ontario. In some rural communities they have pitted neighbours against each other, with some welcoming the revenue and some saying their health and property values are at stake.

“There are obviously some health issues that need to be explored and Health Canada is doing that right now,” MacLeod said.

Wilson said the Saturday rally collected 282 signatures declaring that North Gower is “not a willing host” to a wind farm.

Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre announced on Twitter that the social costs of wind farms are too high and added, “I will continue to stand with you.”

Click here for the map by Ottawa Wind Concerns.

tspears@ottawacitizen.com

Time for the Chief Medical Officer of Health to step up

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

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

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Wind Concerns Ontario announced today that it has formally requested the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Arlene King, to follow up on the numerous complaints of excessive noise and ill health, coming from people who are living near or among large-scale wind turbines in Ontario.

Dr King produced a report, which was a simple literature review, in 2010 which found no “direct” link between turbine noise and health problems. That report was widely criticized as being inadequate and based on industry-selected literature, but it has served the wind power development lobby very well, serving as a rubber stamp on health from the Ontario government.

A lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges since: the 2011 Environmental Review Tribunal decision noted that the government ought to keep pace with research on the health impacts, and review and revise regulations as needed—it hasn’t done that.

Dr King herself recommended more research, specifically on the noise. It hasn’t done that either and in fact while acknowledging that infrasound (vibration, sound pressure) could be a problem, it won’t even have guidelines for infrasound until 2015.

By that time, with the government continuing to approve two or three wind power projects a month, everything that is planned or proposed will be built.

Wind Concerns says the government has a duty to investigate the complaints coming from residents under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. With the current Environmental Tribunal concluding this week, after hearing from expert witnesses and actual wind turbine noise victims, it would be appropriate for the government to act.

It is especially important for the people of North Gower and Richmond, where a wind power project would expose hundreds of people–including the property owners leasing land for turbines themselves– to environmental noise and vibration, for the regulations to be revised based on the on-the-ground experiences.

See the news story and actual letter here: http://www.freewco.blogspot.ca/2013/06/wco-demands-investigation-of-noise.html

The wind power lobbyists get rich: David Frum

27 Sunday Jan 2013

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

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Excellent summary of what wind power in Ontario is really all about from columnist David Frum. Using the example of the egregious project proposed –and now approved–for Prince Edward County and Ostrander Point, Mr Frum says wind power is harming the environment, not helping it.

Add to that the health impacts for residents nearby wind power generation facilities (they’re not “farms”) and you have a lose-lose situation.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/01/26/david-frum-expensive-power-ruined-landscapes/

Expensive power, ruined lands

David Frum

Must we despoil Ontario’s environment in order to save it?

On Feb. 8, the Environmental Review Tribunal will consider an application to build nine large wind turbines on one of the most scenic points in one of Ontario’s most scenic places.

Ostrander Point Road bisects the small peninsula leading to the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area. The peninsula is an open area of meadows and wood thickets, bounded to north and south by the Lake. It’s a true beauty spot, but it also happens to get a lot of wind. Which is why the Ministry of the Environment has approved a project to generate up to 22.5 megawatts of electricity from wind turbines 200-300 feet tall.

This project is the first of many planned for Prince Edward County. This uniquely beautiful region of Ontario — now enjoying an economic revival thanks to winemaking, artisan farming and tourism — is to be spiked with turbines to realize the McGuinty government’s green-energy ambitions.

Moving Ontario off coal is a laudable aspiration. But moving to power that flunks the market test is no boon to the environment. Money is a limited resource, too, and money that is wasted on projects that don’ t make sense is money unavailable for other purposes: hazardous waste clean up, water purification, land conservation.

Wind energy continues to flunk the market test. Ontario buys wind energy at a price 50% higher than it would have to pay for electricity from natural gas. (A new natural gas facility can make money selling electricity at 7-8 cents a kilowatt-hour. Ontario buys newly installed windpower at prices of about 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.)

Worse, unlike solar power, windpower is not likely to become more economic in the future. The main items in the cost of wind are the cost of acquiring the ground underneath the turbines, the cost of wiring turbines to the grid, and the cost of maintaining those wires — in other words, land and labor. Solar power can at least promise to slide down a cost curve. Wind can’t.

Yet Ontario already has installed 1,500 megawatts of wind capacity and is committing to more. Why? There are cheaper and less landscape-blotting ways to go green. But a series of bad decisions in the past have pushed Ontario into a cul-de-sac demanding more and more bad decisions in the years ahead.

The cheapest and cleanest of all energy sources is hydropower. That was true in the past, and it remains true now. Canada has abundant hydro potential — and in fact Manitoba and Quebec have abundant hydro for sale right now.

But if Hydro is cheap in the long run, it requires big investments in the here and now: big investments not only in dams and other facilities, but also big investments in the transmission wires to move the electricity to market.

Those investments must be financed by debt, and Ontario flinches from piling new debt atop its terrifying mountain of existing debt.

Here’s the real beauty of windpower from the McGuinty government’s point of view: The higher cost of wind electricity can be hidden from view, tucked into Hydro consumers’ bills, hidden by gimmicks that few people notice and fewer people understand.

In exchange for receiving a higher price for his power — a much higher price — the wind power producer shoulders the capital cost of financing new electricity capacity. The transaction has the same loan-shark logic as “rent to own” vs. borrowing to buy: You pay more over the life of the product in return for not tapping your dwindling credit.

The bad decision is pushed along by a heavy seasoning of ideology: wind good! dams bad!

And of course lobbying and interest-group politicking exert their own sway over Queen’s Park: A power source that costs 50% more than its next competitor can always find a few hundred thousand dollars to hire and reward friends and supporters.

Wind enriches lobbyists. It satisfies certain varieties of environmentalists. And it protects the McGuinty government from awkward financial realities. That’s a win-win-win all around, except for the over-charged power customers (who won’t know what’s happening until it’s too late) and the people who live upon the brutalized landscape of Prince Edward County (and how many of them — us! — are there anyway)?

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