I see some Mothers in the protestor background! Esther’s battle is a battle for all Ontarians…it is a shame on Democracy when you are fighting your own government for a voice….
Tag Archives: wind turbines
Everyone – Esther Needs Us on Tuesday! The Liberal ERT’s are a FARCE!
Dear everyone,
I have spent months (since Aug 1) organizing the appeal of the Adelaide 38 turbine wind project to the Environmental Review Tribunal, that was approved in my township. Days on end (I had to quit working at the plant nursery), at the computer, the phone, from 6 in the morning til 10 at night. Appeals, witness statements, piles of disclosure, scheduling, motions upon motions….it just goes on and on. Incredibly intense. Like nothing I’ve ever done before. But I had a wonderful group of generous witnesses – brilliant, supportive people who put their ALL into this appeal. For this, I felt really humbled.
What happened was this: on a Thursday evening (Oct 10) a pile (foot high, I kid you not) of motions was dumped on me by NextEra and the Min of Environment – all aimed at eliminating almost every single witness I had carefully brought into the appeal. Amazingly, or maybe not, none of these motions overlapped with each other— NextEra chewed away at a specific list of witnesses, while the MOE ate up the rest. You’d think they would have some similar motions if they weren’t ‘working together.’ I was to respond by Tuesday (Oct 15) to this stack of papers. At the hearing I was able to get a whole whopping ONE day extension where I fought by teleconference for 3 of my witnesses. Two and a half hours on the phone; one hour of me speaking.
Yesterday evening, a day after the motions were heard, an order was issued that said I lost every motion. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to me or anyone (even the lawyers say we can’t win with the ERT anymore), but the reality of the ‘appeal process’ is pretty damn clear now. Something is rotting, and we are being told to eat it.
If you saw your witnesses be struck off like this, what would you do?
Dr. Sarah Laurie (Australia)– they have removed the “Dr.” from her name, even though she has a medical degree, and practiced as a doctor, but doesn’t now due to family illness – how does this make Ontarians feel that we have done this to Sarah?? Shouldn’t we be up in arms over this alone? No reasons have been given from the ERT for not qualifying her as a doctor, they just made the decision. She sits with her testimony, from other recent ERTs, in purgatory.
Mike McCann (Chicago real estate appraiser) – Struck off from being able to speak to the numbers that he sees showing human habitat destruction where wind turbines are installed. All because Nexterror argues humans aren’t animals…if we were turtles we would get a voice. I’m not exaggerating – this was the argument made, and amazingly won.
Ben Lansink (London real estate appraiser) – Struck for the same reasons as Mike.
Larry Swart – (resident affected by turbines) – Struck as a witness because he wouldn’t give the lawyers ALL of his medical records, prescriptions, doctor notes etc.
William Palmer –Professional Engineer Testimony limited. Not allowed to speak to health and safety concerns, even though as a professional engineer, he MUST alert officials if he sees a situation where harm is happening or will happen.
Rick James – (Michigan acoustician) – Testimony limited. Not allowed to speak to health impacts from noise, even though THAT is what acousticians do – calculate the noise that affects people!
Still on the chopping block and not decided yet:
Dr. Nina Pierpont (New York) – she WROTE the book Wind Turbine Syndrome – and yet, that doesn’t seem to be good enough for the other side. They want her testimony struck because she didn’t write out her testimony word for word, which isn’t required or necessary. Even so, I have no faith that the ERT will let her speak.
Harvey Wrightman, Larry Cook – to speak to wind leases – the stress caused by the wind developers on landowners, the unethical leases that bind people into contracts signing their health and their family’s health away. These will be struck too, on Tuesday, if I stick around.
Kathryn Minten (Organic Dairy farmer) had asked to have Party Status with 5 witnesses lined up. She was to speak to stray voltage. The ERT downgraded her to just a presenter – no witnesses allowed. This was only decided a few days ago — no explanation as to why.
That leaves us with 2 witnesses: me, and Muriel. No kidding. Do you believe this? Do. And I hope you are as spitting mad as me.
So do I slog through their system, just to say I did it, or do we throw it back in their face and call them out for the corrupt system they are? Remember — MONTHS of work was put into this appeal, doing it all ‘correctly’, with a budget of zero dollars and a lot of well written pro-bono work from these witnesses, and the ERT had the ability to throw out the vast majority of my testimony the day before the hearing starts, without any reasons noted.
We must protest. Don’t worry about me losing this appeal — they’ve killed it already.
I need your help on very short notice:
The first day of the hearing is to consist of Opening Statements, and more motion madness against our side.
Date: Tuesday October 15th
Time: 10:00am
Place: Middlesex County Office, 399 Ridout Street North, London MAP
Can you please come – bring signs, bring voices, bring cameras, video cameras – and let’s protest the ERT once and for all. No more worrying about offending the ERT, they’ve basically made their decision already. Unlike judges, they always get to make their decisions without facing the people, safely tucked away in Toronto — and save for Ostrander’s turtle, it has never been in favour of the people.
Many of you have been through unfair ERTs (I’ve been to many, and an appellant at several now.) Many are currently faced with them with all the new approvals in the last few months, or in the near future. How can we continue to have any faith in this brutal system? How can we continue to let this happen? When you are told, “You have an opportunity to appeal the Ministry’s decision,” is this what we call an “opportunity”?
Please help spread the word. We have nothing to lose anymore, and we need your faces there!!
Many thanks!
Esther
Bailey is suffering. I’m shelling out $500. Please join me (Vermont) – Dr Nina Pierpont
Another example of child victims – please help and donate to this family in need.
Oct 8, 2013
Bailey
.
—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD
Here’s the deal. Steve & Luann Therrien live off-grid in Vermont. On 50 acres of mixed hardwood which they’ve turned into a wilderness haven, complete with cozy cabin, wood stove, and all the good stuff Henry David Thoreau and John Muir rhapsodized over.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
—H.D. Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world.
—John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club)
God’s wildness got shattered two years ago by the noise and vibration of newly built gigantic wind turbines within a mile of their home.
The Therriens, mind you, were not notified of the impending wind plant. Nor did they oppose it when they noticed it being built, convincing themselves it would be a minor nuisance. (After all, they had lived here within earshot of the Interstate for 17 years.)
By the end of 6 months they admitted to one another that they were horribly wrong. That something weird and very wrong was happening to their health. And whatever it was, it was getting worse.
No, they did not read Dr. Pierpont’s book, nor had they heard of her or “Wind Turbine Syndrome” (WTS). (In fact, as I write this, they still have not read the book.) They had no idea of the public uproar that has been raging, for over a decade, over people suffering bizarre health effects from badly placed turbines.
All they knew is that they were getting more and more nausea, vertigo, headaches, problems concentrating, feelings of pressure in the head, tinnitus, anxiety, little to no sleep, awakening in the night in a panic, etc.
They were “living” Pierpont’s book—without the slightest clue the book existed.
I just got off the phone with Luann. I told her that they have “textbook” WTS. Since they are flat broke at the moment—a point I will come back to—I said I would mail a copy of the book, gratis. “You will be reading about yourselves, and will weep,” I warned. “Read it anyhow, to understand what’s really going on.”
It’s not just Steve & Luann. It’s Bailey (2-year-old daughter) and Seager (4-year-old son). Both children are suffering—except, with limited communication skills, their parents have difficulty pinpointing exactly how. Clearly there is fear in both children (seeking refuge in their parents’ bed at night). And at times pain. Head pain? Earache? And Seager refuses to get on the swing he used to love.
Seager
I have said they have classic WTS. Luann, who was a cook at the now shuttered King George School nearby, is having trouble remembering and following simple recipes. (Right out of Pierpont’s book!) Steve, a carpenter and master mechanic—the kind of man who can build and equip a sturdy cabin for his young family—had to quit his job at the wood-shop because he couldn’t follow directions and was in danger of hurting himself with the saws. (Right out of Pierpont’s book!)
They have to move. Flat broke, having spent what little money they had fighting this terrorism—the Therriens absolutely have to move. (Yes, they put their 50 acres up for sale—but no takers.) The wind energy company (First Wind), preoccupied by the lucrative business of saving the planet from global warming, refuses to acknowledge their illness and refuses to buy them out. The governor’s office and state agencies are indifferent, having drunk the Kool-Aid that “wind energy can do no harm.”
They have to move, pronto! This is northern Vermont; winter comes early to these boreal forests and mountains. All those trees lose their leaves in winter, making turbine noise & vibration worse than in summer. And in winter, the family is confined indoors much of the time, where the infrasound is demonstrably worse than outdoors.
Besides, they are discovering the horrific sequelae of WTS: one becomes increasingly sensitized to it. (Luann confirmed this on the phone a few minutes ago.)
This website has been at the forefront of fighting this scourge. It’s one thing to argue with the likes of Simon “Nocebo-effect” Chapman and Geoff “If-you-can’t-hear it, it-won’t-hurt-you” Leventhall. It’s another to provide emergency financial support for victims of WTS.
I’m asking for money. Your money. Sent directly to Luann Therrien. By check. Please.
It sucks asking for money. To try and sweeten this embarrassing task, Nina & I propose the following: We will contribute $500 to the Therriens if 20 other people each contribute $500—a matching funds proposition, with 20 other people. (Please, no checks over $500! I mean that.) If you’re not in a position to contribute $500, then I propose that you find someone you can pair up with so that, between you, your combined gift is $500.
Twenty people, or twenty groups, each contributing $500. No more than this. So these people can buy a crappy old mobile home (I’ve seen photos of the one they’re considering) and move it onto land belonging to Steve’s mother, nearby, where they hope to start life anew. (Unfortunately, they can’t just lock the door of the cabin and, traveling light, go live someplace else. Luann explained that all the cabins in their forest are routinely broken into and robbed and vandalized. Broken windows. Kicked-in doors. Trashed. Yes, even when the cabins are left—unlocked. No, they have to assume the cabin will be rendered uninhabitable in their absence.)
I don’t have $500 to give these people. You don’t either. But I’m doing it anyhow. And I hope you join me. Somewhere in this narrative, basic humanity kicks in, and we wind up doing things we’d prefer not to—because altruism is a primal human instinct. And because you and I have not forgotten that key ingredient of the “immense journey” of our species.
Do it this way, if you will: Send me an email (rushtoncanoe@aol.com) pledging your $500 or portion thereof. I will match up donors with others, so each chunk amounts to $500 in total. With 20 “chunks” of $500 each. When we’ve reached the $10,000 mark, I’ll contact Steve & Luann and tell them they are going to receive a bunch of checks. I will then contact you with their mailing address—along with their profound appreciation.
Instead of donating to your favorite environmental organization this Christmas, make an early Christmas present to these victims of “environmentalism” run amok.
Nina & I thank you.
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.
Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.
In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.”
—Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1988)
October 9, 2013 update: Here is the note we got from Luann Therrien the other day:
Please please please help us. We are a family of 4, ages 52, 44, almost 4 & 2, having children so late is whole other heart-wrenching story.
We live in Sheffield, Vermont by 16 wind turbines. The closest is under 3/4 of a mile, 5 are under a mile, and all 16 are under 2 miles away.
We are suffering terribly, my husband and I have all the signs of Wind Turbine Syndrome- (1) Sleep disturbance. Not simply awakened, but awakening in a panic (“flight or fight” response). (2) Headache. (3) Tinnitus. (4) Ear pressure. (5) Dizziness. (6) Vertigo. (7) Nausea. (8) Visual blurring. (9) Tachycardia. (10) Irritability. (11) Problems with concentration and memory. (12) Panic episodes associated with sensations of internal pulsation or quivering, which arise while awake or asleep. (This latter involving other, non-vestibular organs of balance, motion, and position sense.)
Have also been put on anti-depressants + sleeping pills + motion sickness medication, and as per our Dr. have been told to not even try to work.
The children are too small to articulate how they are being impacted. But when we get a lot of noise we see a definite change in their behavior and not for the better.
How long will we have to wait for officials to admit there is a problem associated with living in too close proximity to wind turbines? Needless to say they will not tell us if our still developing children will have long term damage. In the meantime we are getting more and more ill.
We desperately need to move. Wind Turbine Syndrome is no joke.
Our hope was to get into a reasonably decent home. That was why we original posted in gofundme asking for $90,000.00. In the hopes of covering the cost of a home, moving expenses, and all the other expenses that would be necessary.
Winter is coming and we have to get out of here. The worst of the noise for us has begun. With the hopes for a home slipping away from us we realize an older mobile home is more realistic, but at this point nowhere near in sight.
We have gone through all of our savings and are flat broke. We have reduced our goal to $40,000.00.
We HAVE reached the point of desperation. We HAVE to move for the sake of our health and sanity.
Please if you or someone you know could help us, we are desperate.
Please contact Nina Pierpont – Original Article Found Here: http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2013/bailey-is-suffering-im-shelling-out-500-please-join-me-vermont/
Wainfleet wind project gets final approval
Wainfleet wind project gets final approval
Five-turbine project a collaboration between Loeffen Farms and Rankin construction
Wainfleet wind project gets final approval
Toronto Star photo
The Ministry of the Environment has granted final approval to a wind turbine project in Wainfleet.
Port Colborne Leader
The Ministry of the Environment has granted approval to a wind turbine project in the township.
IPC Energy announced the approval Monday. The project, a collaboration between Loeffen Farms and Rankin construction, will see a nine megawatt wind farm built in the township. A total of five turbines will be built.
“We are pleased to advance this project into the long anticipated construction phase of development,” said John Andrews, president of IPC Energy, in a press release.
IPC Energy has been awaiting the final Renewable Energy Approval for months, and now that its been granted construction is expected to begin sometime this month.
The project is expected to create enough electricity to power 1,400 homes, producing 25 million kWh per year.
“It has been an extremely rigorous and complex process that will ultimately positively serve all Ontarians by investing in our future energy needs using private capital in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Tom Lewis, project manager at IPC Energy.
The project has been a controversial one, with staunch opposition from many residents and the township council. Earlier this year the township declared itself an unwilling host to turbine projects.
Turbines go up in Smithville despite protests
Turbines go up in Smithville despite protests – October 7, 2013 – The Spec
TURBINE
John Rennison,The Hamilton Spectator
Opposing wind turbines are Anita Merritt, Ed Engel, Anne Fairfield, Deb Murphy and Wendy Veldman. The turbine is going up next door to Veldmam.
SMITHVILLE After three years of protest, a group of Smithville neighbours are calling on Premier Kathleen Wynne in a last-ditch effort to stop wind turbines from taking over their rural community.
The first of five wind turbines slotted for a West Lincoln wind farm went up last Thursday — and had drivers rubbernecking on Twenty Road to take in the 140-metre structure.
Smithville resident Wendy Veldman doesn’t have to look far. The turbine sits just 550 metres (half a kilometre) from her house — the minimum setback distance in Ontario.
As a member of West Lincoln Wind Action Group, she has been protesting the turbine project for three years — and has a long list of outstanding health, safety, economic and environmental concerns.
“If these five go up, whatever, but I don’t want any more going up. I have resolved myself that there are probably going to be five here … but it’s not right,” Veldman said.
And with a Niagara company seeking approval for a larger project of 77 turbines — 44 of which would be in West Lincoln, she wants the government to intervene and give unwilling communities veto power against wind farms.
“The (gas plant scandal) is going to look like peanuts compared to the sham going in here,” Veldman said as the group looked out at the construction site across the field next to her house.
Last month, Wynne agreed the wind farm issue was a “lightning rod for discontent” with rural voters, but said the government had taken steps to address them.
“I want to hold her feet to the fire,” Veldman said Sunday. “We are not a willing host (for turbines) and we want it stopped. So come on Kathleen, stop it.”
The premier could not be reached for comment.
Veldman’s group tried twice to contest the project — first over concerns that the tall structures would be a dangerous interference to planes landing at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport roughly 20 km to the west.
Nav Canada (the country’s civil air navigation service) dismissed those concerns last year, saying the project is small enough for basic radar surveillance to ignore.
The group was also concerned the turbines would be anchored to the same bedrock that touches the wells supplying water to 244 families living within two kilometres of the wind farm. But they lost that battle too — even though they say three wells were ruined during the construction.
“We can’t afford lobbyists and big donations to political parties … they (the wind energy companies) can,” said frustrated longtime resident Ed Engel.
John Andrews, president of IPC Energy — the lead company behind the project — said none of the residents’ concerns has been proven.
“They have our beliefs and we have ours,” he said. “The benefit is that we’re producing green, clean renewable energy …(turbines) have been around the world for years and years … I don’t see a whole bunch of crazy people running around in Europe.”
He says he has heard from the community “hundreds of times,” but the company is going ahead with construction.
“We hope they’re all up within two weeks’ time. It will take some time after that to get them actually running but they will be up.”
A Human Species Habitat Witness Statement – Ben Lansink & Michael McCann
This is a Witness Statement done by professional real estate appraisers, who are experts in the human habitat of real estate. Effects of Turbines on those habitats are discussed.
Ben Lansink on “What happened in Melanchton”
Here is a video excerpt from the October 3 information meeting in Selkirk. The presenter is Canadian Real Estate appraiser, Ben Lansink, who also performed a study on Property Value Reductions in the Melanchton community.
PART 2-IWTs & Noise – Affects on Children and Fetus – Cheryl La Rocque
Couple WIN Wind Turbine Ruling
This is a true Victory, as a court has upheld property rights violations! Next stop, Ontario
October 2, 2013 – The Connexion – France
A WINDFARM has been ordered to demolish ten turbines and pay compensation and fines after it was successfully sued by a couple.
Speaking to Le Figaro newspaper, the couple’s lawyer, Philippe Bodereau, said: “This decision is very important because it demonstrates to all those who put up with windfarms with a feeling of powerlessness that the battle is not in vain, even against big groups, or authorities who deliver building permits, that legal options are available to everyone, that we have a right to live in peace and that people can do other things than suffer.”
The couple bought their 18th century listed property, the Château de Flers, in 1993.
A tribunal in Montpellier ruled that the couple had suffered due to the “degradation of the environment, resulting from a rupture of a bucolic landscape and countryside”. It also agreed the couple had suffered from the noise of the turbines and from the flashing lights.
“The situation, instantly out of place, permanent and quickly unbearable, created a problem that went beyond the typical inconveniences of neighbours and constituted a violation of property rights,” ruled the judgement.
The value of the property had no bearing on the ruling.
The wind farm owners, Compagnie du Vent, have been given four months to take down the turbines, which were erected in 2007 on two sites next to the property in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. It has appealed the decision.
“Our projects are in the general interest, following the Grenelle de l’environnement and not in the interest of individuals,” said the president of Compagnie du Vent, Thierry Conil. “However, it’s right that democracy should allow people to take action.”
The two sites are a €20m investment and produce enough electricity for 22,000 people according to the company.
In 2010 it was ordered to demolish four turbines near Narbonne after it was taken to court by four farmers who were granted €430,000 in compensation. However after appealing it reached an out of court settlement.
Le Figaro said that lawyers associated with these cases said that they were often resolved amicably out of court. “I don’t know an example in France where a demolition was ordered and followed through,” one lawyer told the paper.
– See more at: //www.connexionfrance.com/wind-farm-turbines-demolition-noise-nuisanc
Defining the rules for maintenance of wind turbines
By Mike Bridgen » – The Northern Echo – October 1, 2013 – UK
NATIONAL minimum standards for the installation and maintenance of medium wind turbines are being drawn up for the first time.
SETTING STANDARDS: Julian Martin, of Ice Renewables, is chairman of the body setting minimum installation and maintenance standards for medium wind turbines
Julian Martin, chief executive of Northallerton-based Ice Renewables, is chairing the body setting the standards.
At present, there are no defined rules or medium wind standards for installers or maintainance companies to work to and, consequently, the quality of services varies across the UK.
There have been nightmare stories of customers being left with turbines not working, no proper operations and maintenance contracts, a lack of turbine parts, installers who have walked away and manufacturers not set up to deal with the maintenance of their fleets of turbines.
RenewableUK, the trade body, has recognised this and is working with its small and medium wind strategy group, chaired by Mr Martin, to introduce a national MCS approved medium wind standard by 2014.
It wants an international IEC medium wind standard later next year for turbine design, site assessment, installation and operations and maintenance across the whole medium wind sector.
Ice Renewables is an established specialist in the small and medium wind sector, and is focused on setting and maintaining the highest standards.
It has launched its own unrivalled Complete Wind Solutions package, extending a specialist operations and maintenance (O&M) service to manufacturers, developers and customers in the medium and Megawatt wind sector.
The company was established in 2006 and has become a sector leader but, in its early years, it had firsthand experience with the issues of subcontracting to an external (O&M) firm.
“We were not happy with the level of service we received for our customers and soon realised the turbines were not being well looked after and our customers were unhappy,” said Mr Martin.
“Because of this, we took the decision to bring the service in-house. We haven’t looked back and currently operate and maintain 12 Vergnet medium wind turbines, with our last quarter availability rate being an average of 99.6 per cent.” With a fleet that extends from Edinburgh to Cornwall and from Suffolk to Newark, Ice has a proven record for the delivery of these specialised services, Mr Martin said: “Our customers want good communication, fast response time to minimise their turbines down time, well-trained engineers, a good relationship with the manufacturer, and a set of complementary added value services, such as high voltage maintenance work and blade repair, so that they do not have gaps in the service of their turbine.”
He said a good O&M strategy was increasingly a priority for manufacturers, developers and customers, as it can extend the turbine’s lifetime, reduce costs and increase availability.
Mr Martin advised potential wind turbine owners to think carefully about who they choose to construct their turbine and ensure they work with reputable companies with a local presence who are dedicated to the long-term support of their wind project.
Original Article Here: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/archive/2013/10/01/10709580.Defining_the_rules_for_maintenance_of_wind_turbines/
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 