The Listening Room Experience

PORT RYERSE – Port Ryerse residents fighting against wind turbines slated to go up beside their village are protesting because of the certainty the project will harm them, an environmental tribunal hearing heard.

Sleeplessness, sickness, loss of birds, and falling real estate values have hit every community that has ever hosted turbines, Port Ryerse resident Heather Walters testified.

“These are not guesses,” she said. “It is 100% predictable.”

Walters said she is not normally an outspoken advocate for causes and only took up the case against wind power once she heard about the project and started researching it.

“We are not activists,” she said. “I’ve never been involved in anything like this.”

Wednesday’s hearing was held in the council chambers at town hall in Simcoe in front of lawyers representing residents and the project.

The two-person panel hearing the case has the right to put a halt to the project. Last fall, construction was pushed back after a barn owl, an endangered species, was spotted next to the site.

The hearing also heard from Cayuga resident Grant Church, who cited a number of international studies that suggested wind turbines cause illnesses in people, even well beyond the 550 metre setback the Ontario government has set.

A tool and die maker by trade, Church said there are numerous examples of people being made sick by infrasound created by turbines, sometimes from as far away as 2.2 kilometres.

read more: Daniel R. Pearce, Simcoe Reformer Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Credit:  photos courtesy of Larry Monczka

Port Ryerse, Ontario

Boralex Wind Project http://www.boralex.com/projects/portryerse

 A Funny thing happen this morning at the Environmental Tribunal Hearing. Biddle v. Ontario, 14-063 (Environmental Appeal)

It was another town and was supposed to be just another hearing against a wind  turbine project in southern Ontario.  The day was cool and the sun shone bright. The sky was clear blue and shimmered as the first blush of summer touched the landscape.  Port Ryerse  is a beautiful small village located on the shores of Lake Erie.  The peace and tranquility of  village life is threatened by a wind project that would see industrial wind turbines installed and not all of the people are welcoming the development.  It is land use that they have no planning veto over.   There are to be two appeals filed against the project.  The health and environmental hearings are planned to be held at separated  times and today’s hearing was the in person start to the health section of the legal wrangling.

Wednesday June 3, 2015 the task for the morning was a site visit.  All were to meet in the municipal Council Chambers of Norfolk in the town of Simcoe and start the  frantic speed style administrative steps, filings, counter motions and move on to what is now a predetermined outcome.   Wind takes and those who oppose lose.  This particular project has hit some speed bumps on its way as this is the wind project that has been halted by the presence of  a pair of rare nesting barn owls. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is now  scrambling to come up with a way  to be consistent and not to say no to this  particular renewable energy development.  It needs to create a new exemption that does not favour habitat or individuals from a species at risk.  Inconvenient for a wind developer and MNRF as that those darn those barn owls do exist and these birds are a nesting pair of less than 20 known adult individuals in the wild in Ontario.  The exemption  permit is necessary in order to side step species at risk legislation and to allow the wind project to proceed unimpeded.  Renewable energy is Ontario’s unflinching policy of the day.   That said on this day things didn’t go as it was supposed to.  On that day a funny thing happened at the Tribunal.  The citizens  didn’t play their expected roles.  That day as the hearing got under way it was a thumb down to Ontario and was about the residents taking back control of a process that guarantees they lose.   It was a small thing but it was the whisper of the people who have been shouting to be heard.

Early in the schedule of the day things went as expected as the Tribunal panel  members arrived and  lawyers began to gather for and against the project. After settling in, papers shuffled, microphones checked and the court reporter plugged in and  all was ready to proceed it was  becoming apparent something expected was missing.    Where were the people?

Not a single member of the public was present. Not a single witness present to hear the matters of the Tribunal.  Not a single member of the residents who had filed the appeal.  No one, not one person.  Lawyers, Tribunal panel members were confused and perplexed, even the appellant lawyer did not have knowledge or an explanation.  Despite the lack of an apparent audience things needed to get under way and a lack of members of the public must not slow down the process and the site visit was to occur.  Everyone headed out to the project site to meet up as prearranged for the tour.  This is the place where the barn owls live and the known nest of the local Bald Eagles is near. The Eagles had successfully fledged their eaglets in the previous season.

Unknown to all of the  lawyers  the people of Port Ryerse had other plans and had met each other on the shoulders of the dead end road that leads to where the turbines are supposed to be built.   Visiting and bird watching on such a beautiful day.  The people chose to speak by not sitting in a dry,  bland judicial process and used action as a protest to signal a way to bear witness to the invasion of their homes and community by unwanted industrial structures powered by the wind.  Today the voice of the people spoke well.

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OPEN LETTER

Dear Parliamentarian,

Tomorrow, the Bill to change the Renewable Energy Target (RET) will be debated in the Federal Parliament.

Consequences

If you vote for the Bill as currently proposed by Minister Hunt, you will be allowing continuation and expansion of serious harm to the health of Australian rural residents, from unmeasured and unregulated infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN) from large industrial wind turbines.  This health harm includes turbine hosts, and results from ILFN from 600kW and larger turbines, extending out to at least 10km¹

The two inevitable long-term consequences of the failure to measure and regulate ILFN are health damage to many more families, including children, with a risk of permanent health damage and lifelong sensitization to ILFN, regardless of the ILFN source which will restrict where some can work, live and sleep; and the creation of acoustically toxic homes that are valueless and uninhabitable, leading to the creation of rural ghettos.

Wind turbine noise is not the only source of industrial ILFN urgently requiring safer regulation – but the subject matter of this particular Bill will not result in harm to human health from industrial noise and vibration from coal and gas fired power stations, coal mines or CSG field compressors².  These sources also cause similar serious harm to physical and mental health, well known to the Federal Department of Resources & Energy³. Continue reading Deliberate Harm to the Health of Rural Australians, via the RET, Enabled by the CER, via Parliament →

MPP says province should protect endangered species

QUEEN’S PARK — Tim Hudak says the minister of natural resources must decide which is more important to Ontario: industrial wind turbines or endangered turtles.

Hudak called on MNR Minister Bill Mauro last week in legislature “to do the right thing” and protect Blanding’s turtles whose habitat is threatened by the onslaught of industrial wind turbines. The Blanding’s turtle is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The most significant threat to this reptile are loss or fragmenting of habitat, motor vehicles, racoons and foxes. Another threat is poaching for the black market.

Hudak said a provincially-approved wind development in his riding puts the turtle at greater risk.

The 40 trucks loads of cement and 540 metres of steel required for each of the 77 wind turbines Niagara Region Wind Corp. has been approved to build puts the Blanding’s turtle in jeopardy. Twenty of the project’s turbines are slated to be built in known Blanding’s habitats.

Grimsby Lincoln News By Amanda Moore May 31 2015

For Immediate Release 

HIGHEST COURT IN ONTARIO DECLINES TO HEAR WIND APPEAL

FARM FAMILIES DISAPPOINTED

May 29, 2015

On May 28, 2015, the Court of Appeal for Ontario denied leave to appeal to the Drennans, Dixons, Ryans, and the Kroeplins, in respect of their Charter Challenge to the current legislation for the approval of wind turbine projects.

These farm families had been seeking the opportunity to argue that the Environmental Protection Act provisions approving renewable energy projects exposes them to a reasonable prospect of serious harm to their health and therefore does not comply with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Health Canada Study Summary Results released on November 6, 2014, showed an association between wind turbine noise and annoyance, and an association between wind turbine noise annoyance and sleep disturbances, migraines, tinnitus, dizziness, and measured blood pressure and hair cortisol.

Shawn Drennan commented on the Court of Appeal’s decision: “We are disappointed with the Court’s decision not to hear our case. No one has been able to tell us that the turbines are safe.  We are being told that we have to wait to be harmed before we can do anything to stop them. The Court has given us two choices: leave the land my family has farmed for three generations, or be a guinea pig for the government and the wind companies.”

Lawyer for the farm families, Julian N. Falconer commented: “This decision will leave people like my clients, who face massive wind development projects across this Province, in an impossible position. The Health Canada Study has already shown an association between the turbines and serious health effects. My clients and other families in rural Ontario will now have to suffer these adverse health effects before they can seek any relief from our court system. It won’t surprise anyone that my clients are frustrated with a process that seems to be stacked against them.”

While this decision may restrict these farm families from pursuing Charter remedies for these harms, they are committed to exploring the other legal options available to them and to holding both the government and the wind turbine companies accountable for the failure to protect their health.

Concerned citizen groups throughout the Province remain committed to seeking justice for those in rural communities affected by industrial wind projects.

For further information, please contact Odi Dashsambuu of Falconers LLP at

416-964-0495, extension 248

PLYMPTON-WYOMING – A legal challenge from Suncor Energy has prompted town council to back away from a noise bylaw the municipality enacted last year to limit local wind farm development.

Suncor, a developer behind the 46-turbine Cedar Point wind project under construction in Lambton Shores, Plympton-Wyoming and Warwick Township, recently filed a court application to quash Plympton-Wyoming’s bylaw, said town clerk Brianna Coughlin.

The municipal legislation sought, among other things, to limit wind turbine-produced noise lower than 20 hertz — infrasound: the normal limit of human hearing. Wind turbine opponents argue exposure can negatively impact people’s health.

Complying with the bylaw would have made it impossible to operate the 100-MW wind farm, expected to be operational by late 2015, Suncor spokesperson Jason Vaillant said Thursday.

“We are committed to complying with and operating within the limits that are set out for us by the province,” he said, noting noise limits for wind farms are provincial territory. “And we felt that the municipality just didn’t have jurisdiction on this particular matter.”

Based on legal advice that the town’s bylaw would likely not survive a court challenge, council decided Wednesday to repeal it, Coughlin said.

Suncor, Vaillant said, is pleased with the decision and will withdraw its legal challenge.

“Certainly the relationship with the community is important to us,” he said. “We know that this project will be part of the community for 20 years or more, so we want to ensure that we develop and operate the project in a way that addresses the needs and concerns of Plympton-Wyoming.”

read more: By Tyler Kula, Sarnia Observer Thursday, May 28, 2015

Schedule for Port Ryerse ERT Irvin v. Ontario, 14-064:

Location:  Norfolk County Council Chambers   in Simcoe at 50 Colborne St. South, Simcoe. (Talbot St. entrance near Town Centre mall parking lot)

Wednesday June 3, 2015:

10 am  – Opening Statements

11 am – 12:30 pm   Site Visit

12:30 – 1:30 pm   Lunch

1:30 pm on Appellant’s 2 witnesses:  Ms. Walters and Ms. Andrews and the Presenter Grant Church

Monday June 8, 2015:

10 am – 11 am    Adam Rosso

11:15 am – 1: 15 pm   Dr. Mundt

Lunch

2:15 pm  – 4:15 pm

Dr. Baines

The Tribunal  is poised for another resident stand-off  in the ongoing opposition to wind development. The Port Ryerse wind project (Boralex) appeal hearing  is set to start on Wednesday June 3, 2014.

  This is the wind power plant that will invade the known nesting Barn Owls that have created major delays while the MNFR figures out how they can yes to creating another exemption for a rare species.   The hearing has split the health and environmental portions.   The health appeal is proceeding and the residents have sent some photos and the following message  which makes for very sobering contemplation.

Port Ryerse, on the shores of Lake Erie Ontario:

“Save these photos…. it may not look like this soon.”

Photography courtesy of:  Earl Hartlen Photography www.earlhartlen.com

Resident suggestion for the Site Visit scheduled for June 3, 2015 1130 am:

“I sent in my recommendations for a site visit to start at the pier in Port Dover for all to look at the cliff towards Port Ryerse. I would also suggest that they go to the Port Ryerse pier and look toward Port Dover to see the ugly wind turbines. On a clear day you can count 36 of them miles away. The view of Port Dover can be seen in Turkey Point also 25 miles from Port Dover carried over the inner bay towards Long point. Here are more scenes of our serene beauty from Earl Hartlen, a local photographer.”    

Where were YOU? MPP Tim Hudak asks Minister of Natural Resources

Yesterday, MPP Tim Hudak rose to ask a question about the Blandings turtle, which is an officially endangered species in Ontario, and whose habitat is now threatened by the approved Niagara Region wind power project.

Here is the record of the exchange:

Mr. Tim Hudak: My question is for the Minister of Natural Resources. Minister, Blanding’s turtle is a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Where it exists in Ontario, it lives in shallow waterways and wetlands, including the Niagara peninsula. They are uniquely vulnerable to extinction because it takes 20 years before females start to reproduce.

The Ontario courts made the decision recently that set a precedent: When choosing between industrial wind turbines and a threatened species, Blanding’s turtle, they sided with the turtle, tossing out a wind farm application. It was the right decision. It was the right thing to do.

My question simply is, if it’s right in Prince Edward county, shouldn’t we protect the Blanding’s turtle environment everywhere in the province of Ontario?

Interjections. Continue reading Where were YOU? MPP Tim Hudak asks Minister of Natural Resources →

Commentary ERT Case No. 14-096 Decision: Mothers Against Wind Turbines

By Carmen Krogh, BScPharm May 25, 2015

To Whom It May Concern Re: ERT Case No. 14-096 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW TRIBUNAL IN THE MATTER OF an appeal by Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc and Renewable Energy Approval No. 4353- 9HMP2R issued by the Director, Ministry of the Environment, on November 6, 2014 to Niagara Region Wind Corporation.

This Commentary is public and may be shared. I declare no potential conflicts of interest and have received no financial support with respect to the research and authorship of this Commentary.

read entire commentary here: Commentary_Ontario ERT Appeal Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc May 25 2015 FINAL