Country Live:  Posted June 6, 2016

The County’s Blandings turtles, and nature in general, are victorious in the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists’ more than six-year battle to protect the south shore of Prince Edward County.

The Environmental Review Tribunal in the Ostrander Point industrial wind turbine hearing has decided “remedies proposed by Gilead Power Corporation and the Director (MOEE) are not appropriate” and has revoked the Renewable Energy Approval for the nine turbine project.

“The tribunal decision says that no matter how important renewable energy is to our future it does not automatically override the public interest in protecting against other environmental harm such as the habitat of species at risk,” says Myrna Wood, president of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists. “This was the basis of PECFN’s appeal. This decision not only protects the Blanding’s turtle but also the staging area for millions of migrating birds and bats and the Monarch butterflies.”

In their decision, ERT vice-chairs Heather Gibbs and Robert Wright state “The Tribunal finds that to proceed with the project, when it will cause serious and irreversible harm to animal life, a species at risk and its habitat, is not consistent with the general and renewable energy approval purposes of the Environmental Protection Act, protection and conservation of the natural environment and protection and conservation of the environment, nor does it serve the public interest.

“In this particular case, preventing such harm outweighs the policy of promoting renewable energy through this nine wind turbine project in this location.”

They also state the project would be located entirely within a Candidate Life Sciences Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI), which extends from Prince Edward Point to, approximately, Petticoat Point, and is roughly 2,000 hectares. “According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, it is a “candidate” ANSI due to “the combination of size, extent of shoreline, known species diversity and special features that make this site unique in the site district.”

“The tribunal decision reminds the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of its ‘Statement of Environmental Values’ that “As our understanding of the way the natural world works and how our actions affect it is often incomplete, [government] staff should exercise caution and special concern for natural values in the face of such uncertainty,” said Woods.

The Naturalists began their opposition in 2007 believing the south shore of the County “is the wrong place for wind turbines” – an important area to migrating birds, to bats and butterflies. It contains areas of natural and scientific interest, provincially significant wetlands, globally imperilled Alvar habitat and is the home and breeding grounds of avian, reptilian and amphibian species at risk.

“It’s been a long awaited decision and represents the efforts and determination of PECFN’s quest to protect the environment,” said Prince Edward County Mayor Robert Quaiff. “Congratulations to them. It further solidifies what everyone has been saying that the south shore of PEC is not a suitable location for industrial wind turbines.”

Todd Smith, Prince Edward Hastings MPP has also long campaigned that the south shore of Prince Edward County is the wrong place for wind turbines.

“It has taken a lot of time, money and effort to finally get to this point. My hope is that the Liberal government will actually listen to its own Environmental Review Tribunal that has ruled the south shore is a terrible location and that damage to the local environment outweighs any possible good that a wind turbine project could achieve,” said Smith. “Hopefully, this is the end of the Gilead proposal at Ostrander Point…Ultimately, this was not and is not, about the viability of wind power. This is about protecting the ecosystem of the South Shore of Prince Edward County. On that score, science and biodiversity won the day… The County is best served by being naturally green.”

Decisions with the White Pines project, also on the south shore, and the project at Amherst Island are still to be made.

READ AT: http://countylive.ca/blog/?p=60865

TRIBUNAL DECISION: http://www.ert.gov.on.ca/english/decisions/index.htm

By Greg Walcher
Friday, June 3, 2016

Wind energy continues to be controversial, which seems surprising. Most people rightly think of the wind as not only renewable, but free. However, the technology needed to turn that free and renewable resource into usable electricity is not free, and we continually learn more about its unintended impacts.

For 30 years energy companies, utilities, government researchers, and academics have been studying the harm wind turbines can do to birds, and working hard to develop different machines that will not kill so many. The first megawatt wind turbines (on California’s Altamont Pass) were fast-spinning propellers that many environmentalists nicknamed “Raptor-matics,” and “Condor Cuisinarts.” More modern turbines are much larger and turn much slower, generating power without looking like airplane props. Yet despite design improvements, wind generators still kill thousands of birds every year, including eagles and endangered migratory birds.

Renewable energy advocates for some time thought solar energy might be a preferable alternative to wind, since it does not require moving parts. Then it turned out that the giant solar towers built in the Mojave Desert, surrounded by an array of mirrors, actually kill birds, too. Several months ago in this space I wrote about how the light from those installations attract millions of bugs that attract birds, which can literally be fried in midair — in much the same way that young boys fry ants with a magnifying glass. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is actively investigating the problem, so such solar installations may not become the preferred alternative to wind after all.

The deaths of thousands of birds was one reason energy companies began developing off-shore wind farms, often miles away from land. But it turns out that offshore wind farms may also cause collateral damage, in a big way. Conservation groups are now discovering that these giant wind machines may have a devastating effect on marine mammals, especially whales.

These are not your grandfather’s windmills, but huge 8-megawatt turbines that rise 650 feet above the water, with rotating blades more than 500 feet in diameter. Such gigantic rotors create pulsating sounds well known to anyone who lives near them on land. They can attract bats as far as nine miles offshore, and the noise travels through the water, as well as the air.

Near the world’s largest concentration of offshore wind farms (in the North Sea and English Channel), researchers have documented dozens of beached whales — and are reaching alarming conclusions about the relationship between whale deaths and wind farms. They cite ample evidence that noise from the machines interferes with whale communication and navigation, sometimes with deadly results. In one month, 29 otherwise healthy sperm whales (an endangered species) were stranded and died on English, German and Dutch beaches.

READ MORE:  http://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/articles/whale-of-an-unintended-consequence#.V1LXS7yxx04.facebook

What to do when the grade 7 science project is to “Build a Wind Turbine”

Courtesy of:  Esther Wrightman

May 27, 2016  The Times

Promising investigation into health impacts of industrial wind turbines halted after Medical Officer of Health was dismissed

Huron County hugs the shoreline of Lake Huron between Amberley and Grand Bend. At its centre is Goderich. The county reaches inland across mostly flat farmland about 75 kilometres. It is home to about 270 industrial wind turbines. Twice that many are planned.

As more turbines go up, more people complain the machines are affecting their health and the wellbeing of their children.

As the complaints piled up Huron County’s Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Dr. Janice Owen felt she had a duty to investigate. She had been appointed just a year earlier after considerable turmoil amid the governance and administration of that county’s Board of Health. That turmoil had ultimately led to the dismissal of Dr. Owen’s predecessor, Dr. Nancy Cameron.

Dr. Owen knew she was embarking on rough political waters when she began to propose a health investigation into complaints that industrial wind turbines were making some people sick. Several of the municipalities and councils share in the revenue from these projects. Furthermore, the Board of Health is composed exclusively of sitting council members and one former councillor.

So Dr. Owen was careful. She proceeded slowly—explaining every step to the board along the way. She told them that she was proposing an investigation—not a research study. It would look at complaints and determine if there was a public health issue. It would not look at causality. She explained that it was her legislatively-defined duty in response to the volume of complaints.

In February, Dr. Owen outlined her proposed investigation to the Board of Health. In March, she explained to the board the structure of the investigation before a crowded meeting. About 80 residents filled the 45 seats in the chamber and spilled outside.

In April, Dr. Owen was fired.

Tyler Hessel is chair of the Huron County Board of Health. He is also Mayor of Bluewater, one of the lowertier municipalities that form Huron County.

He confirmed to the London Free Press that the Huron County Board of Health and Dr. Owen had parted ways, “but everything is going to continue moving forward as usual,” he said.

Hessel said that Owen’s departure was unrelated to the wind farm issue and that work would be carried on by health unit staff according to the London Free Press account.

That was five weeks ago.

READ MORE: http://wellingtontimes.ca/silenced/

Wind Turbine Study Not Dead

There is audio for this story. click to open MP3 version or click the play button to listen now.

Testimony sent to Friends Against Wind on May 23, 2016

“Badgers suffer from stress caused by wind turbines. Yes. Humans do, too.”

I contacted Powys Environmental Health department twice in January 2015 and followed it up with a tracer letter in May. I had two concerns:

1. the flickering, not ‘shadow flickering’, of the Dugwm Farm turbine; and
2. because of my hearing, I will either have to put up with the headaches and other discomforts of the turbine with my hearing aids in, or, with them out, try to lip-read what people are saying.

On his request, I called the local Environmental Health Officer, Dan Stykuc, on 23rd September 2015. He said that since it is not a “noise” I am experiencing, it has got nothing to do with him or his department. He asked if I have contacted Public Health Wales, my GP or audiologist.

That I did not complain about “noise” invalidated all my concerns. Mr Stykuc said that the possibility that my symptoms (headaches, imbalance and sleep disturbance) and my husband’s symptoms (headaches, dizziness, insomnia and sleep disturbances) are related to the Dugwm turbine cannot be investigated because they are not “noise”.

One thing is certain: I experience none of them when the turbine is switched off or when I go beyond Stepaside (just under three miles away at the end of the valley), and all of them if the turbine is switched on when I return home.

17th September, 2015 was a memorably disturbed night. The blades were going around, woke me up at 02:30 and kept me awake until after 05:30. In the end I escaped by car, parked it in the middle of town (4.5 miles away) and rested for 3 hours. After that, I spent a long week-end in a wind turbine free area just to get some sleep.

The non-audible “sound” is not much of a “sound” as in music, traffic or an alarm clock. It is more of a super-low murmuring restricting band over my ears; like a colander over my head that somebody is tightening on.

The discomfort, headaches and imbalance are not continuous but appear in waves. I wake up to it most nights when the turbine is switched on and keep me awake during the hours when “deep sleep” would normally take place.

One of the GPs was so concerned about our disturbed sleep that he visited our home and its environs. He agreed that it is not a noise audible to human ear but something “uncomfortable”’ in the garden (the blades were rotating very lazily at the time). He also remarked on the possible sound waves, like a radiation, which might be the cause of this.

Another turbine on the opposite side of the valley, fully visible from anywhere in the front of the house, triggered my sister’s epileptic fits on 20th August 2012. On her return home, she attended her local Clinic, lost her drivers’ licence, her gun licence, her home, and her dog (which she had to kill off). There was no shine observable from this distance, just the rotation.

The shiny Dugwm Farm turbine became operational in January 2015. Because of its position dead-on skyline (against Powys Council guidelines) and in the beginning of a valley, nobody can get to our front door without seeing it. Consequently, my sister can never visit us again.

A grand-daughter (age 2 at the time) visited on 26th October 2015. She got cranky, restless and wiped over her ears. She was awake between 02:00 and 04:00 (she has never suffered from interrupted sleep, not ever, not anywhere else). Her parents are not aware about my symptoms.

I have contacted my council, all departments I can possibly think of contacting. I have had my health checked and declared (reasonably) sane.

On the grounds that even those of us living near a wind turbine have got a right to enjoy family life, home life and peaceful sleep, my next step will be Liberty. Bargers cannot do this.

With good wishes,

A Powys resident

READ: http://en.friends-against-wind.org/testimonies/wind-turbine-stress

My grandaughter asked her dad what Grandma would like for Mothers Day. He said “flaming turbine”.  So she made me one.  Here is what she presented me with.

Wondering what will Grandpa be asking for on Father’s Day?