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Tag Archives: Not a Willing Host North Gower

North Gower readers write: “no qualms about suing”

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Brinston, Ed Shouten, Green Energy Act, health effects wind turbines, Kincardine wind farms, Not a Willing Host North Gower, property values wind farm neighbours, Prowind, South Branch, wind farm Amaranth, wind farm noise, wind farm North Gower, wind farm Richmond, wind farm Ridgetown, wind farms Europe

Many area residents wrote to Farmers Forum after last month’s edition in which North Gower resident and wind power proponent Ed Schouten made remarks about wind “farms.”

Four were published; we reproduce them here.

Will sue for property loss

I intend to get my house appraised now and re-appraised if wind turbines are erected. I will have no qualms about suing both the property owner and Prowind for loss of property value at the very least. I hope others will be prepared to do the same.*

Julian Hughson, North Gower

*Blog editor note, Oh, they are, they are. Ottawa Wind Concerns has legal counsel on retainer and we have already notified Prowind of the intent to take any and all legal actions available.

Need more wind power studies

It sounds to me like a match made in heaven. Companies offer always cash-starved farms substantial funds to be allowed to build windmills on their farms. They sell the power to Ontario Hydro for enormous amounts of taxpayer money. The farmer is happy with his steady income, the windmill company is happy with its profits. But there are a lot of questions that still need answers about the effects of these monsters. In Europe and the United States, most of them are offshore or in isolated areas. Let’s get some reports from other countries of wind farms located near homes, schools and farms.

J.A. Fournier, North Gower

Blog editor: first of all, the wind power developer had a contract with the Ontario Power Authority or OPA to sell power under the Feed In Tariff subsidy program (which is now halted–a new program begins this year). Second, the farm owners, many unwittingly, gave away many rights to their land as part of the contracts including first right of refusal. An Ontario mayor noted at the August AMO conference that in effect, farmers sold their land for the lease amount. The contracts also contain “gag” clauses so that if the farm owners experience health problems or are disturbed by the noise and vibration, they are not allowed to speak of it. Last, there are problems the world over with wind turbine noise. Denmark alone has 170 community groups, and citizens are opposed in the UK, Germany, France, and the US. The global wind lobby has gone to great lengths to discredit these groups, and currently has a campaign which is based on the idea that the activities of community groups themselves are causing symptoms among turbine neighbours.

My retirement affected by wind turbines

As a resident of the proposed wind farm in North Gower, I will be adversely affected as we will be one of the homes closest to the turbines (the minimum distance is 550 meters). I will no longer be able to enjoy my back deck as the turbines will be far closer to my home than the home of the farm planning on erecting the turbines. Along with the health issues associated with turbines, so will our planned retirement of selling our property be adversely affected. The farmer from this area who said keeping the wind farm small will have no negative effects is, oh, so wrong.

Turbines in Europe a dismal failure

I would never have purchased this home if we had known there would be a turbine so close. Never, never, never. Being of European background, I have kept up-to-date on the fall of turbine desire there. They are a dismal failure. Germany, a country on the front line of energy efficiency, has decided not to erect (more) turbines but is instead returning to coal-fired generation.

What more need I say?

Gerry Courtney, North Gower

North Gower wind project is too big

Farmer Ed Schouten’s comment that the Brinston wind power project (it’s not a “farm”) could be a test case for others is interesting: with 6,700 megawatts of wind power already contracted for in Ontario, I think we have quite enough “test cases.”

What we do have is people sick from the environmental noise near wind power projects at Kincardine, Amaranth and Ridgetown, to name a few. It’s really quite simple: if the noise is so loud people can’t sleep, they become ill.

1,200 of his neighbours signed a petition against the project, that was accepted by Ottawa

I disagree with Mr Schouten’s claim that keeping a wind power project small avoids problems. The one proposed by the  Germany-based developer for his farm was a 20-megawatt power plant with eight turbines close to 1,000 families. That’s not “small” in my books. It’s also the reason why over 1,200 of his neighbours signed a petition against the project, which was accepted by Ottawa City Council.

With lawsuits over property values on the rise, and concerns about the health of livestock exposed to the turbine noise and vibration, Mr. Schouten must have a few concerns he hopes the Brinston project will allay.

The question that remains, however, is why is Ontario doing this? Why are we paying millions for wind power projects that have such a high impact on Ontario communities, for power we don’t need?

Ontario never did a cost-benefit analysis on wind power, the Auditor General complained in 2011. That was the real “test case” we needed.

Jane Wilson, North Gower

Planner: citizens absolutely need a voice on wind power projects

16 Saturday Nov 2013

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Green Energy Act, May Gabbour, North Gower wind farm, North Gower wind power project, Not a Willing Host North Gower, Ottawa City Council, siting wind power

In today’s Ottawa Citizen, subsequent to the motion by Ottawa City Council this week, to ask Ontario for  more substantive role in siting wind power generation plants, is this letter from a  professional planner.

Cities should have a say

The city’s motion regarding windmill projects is to the point: it is only logical that municipalities and residents should be involved in the decision-making process relating to the location of wind power projects.

Windmills are significant structures that have a major impact on surrounding land uses. From a planning perspective, municipalities should have the authority to include the development of windmill projects in their Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw in order to minimize negative impacts and optimize the livability and sustainability of communities within the municipality. If it were any other type of development of a similar magnitude, there would be no question of this need.

Municipal governments and citizens absolutely need a voice on this issue.

May Gabbour, Ottawa

Registered professional planner

Ontario Professional Planners Institute

Online poll for Ottawa available now

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Not a Willing Host North Gower, Not a Willing Host Ottawa, Not a Willing Host Richmond Ontario, wind power petition Ottawa

Thanks to talented and dedicated volunteers we now have an online poll which will gather opinions from voters in the City of Ottawa, which we can take to Council along with our petition.

The link to the survey is HERE: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZSDL9N

Please go to the survey, and send it to Ottawa friends, relatives and co-workers!

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Donations welcome at PO Box 3 North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

Petitions due November 12; return by mail to the address above

Online poll coming soon!

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Health, Ottawa, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

North Gower petition, Not a Willing Host North Gower, petition Richmond

There has been so much interest in what we are doing with our petition, and so much support from Greater Ottawa—Kanata especially!—we are going to do an online poll for Ottawa residents to comment on the proposed wind power project.

With the help of a wonderful volunteer, it should be ready tomorrow.

If you can’t come to either of our signing dates, please download the petition here, and return it to us at PO Box 3, North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

ING-PETITION-final

 

Recent Posts

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  • North Stormont families await wind turbine court decision
  • The visible and invisible costs of wind power
  • Wind turbine noise complaints continue
  • Nation Rise wind power project in court next month

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