Dear Counsel, Parties and Participant

On January 23, 2015 the Tribunal issued the following order following the preliminary hearing:

(o) If the Tribunal decides that oral closing submissions are necessary, they will be heard on March 25, 2015 at a time and location to be fixed by the Tribunal.

The hearing panel has decided, after reviewing the parties’ written submissions, that it will not require oral submissions onMarch 25, 2015.  The hearing date scheduled is now cancelled. If you have any further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Eva Pietrzyk

Case Coordinator | Planner

Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario

Environmental Review Tribunal | Niagara Escarpment Hearing Office | Office of Consolidated Hearings

655 Bay Street, Suite 1500, Toronto ON M5G 1E5

Tel.: (416) 314-4712 | Toll Free: 1(866)448-2248

Email:eva.pietrzyk@ontario.ca | Alternate Email:ERT.NEHO.OCH.Case.Manager@ontario.caWeb:http://www.ert.gov.on.ca/english/home.html

The ERT is experiencing problems with fax service. If you wish to fax something to the ERT, please send it to (416) 326-5370.

We are committed to providing accessible services as set out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.  If you have any accessibility needs, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator at ELTO@ontario.ca as soon as possible.  If you require documents in formats other than conventional print, or if you have specific accommodation needs, please let us know so we can make arrangements in advance.

From Windaction.org:

The following letter was written by Jane Harper, Tipton County Indiana Commissioner from 2009-2012.  In addition to dedicating part of her life to public service, Jane is also a farmer.  She originally wrote this letter to warn the Howard County Indiana officials about the many pitfalls of wind energy development, but it’s message is equally applicable to Huntington County as well. This letter was also read directly to the members of the Huntington County Plan Commission on Wednesday, March 11, 2015, by HCCC Attorney Steven Snyder.  Huntington County Commissioners Larry Buzzard and Rob Miller were also in attendance, and heard this letter read into the official record.

Dear Howard County Commissioners and Council Members;

I am writing to you all as a former commissioner colleague who aided in the negotiations and agreements with E.ON Climate Renewables with Tipton County in 2011. From the onset, I was open to windfarm development in a small section of Tipton County because the commissioners had received no opposition and I felt that the landowners wanted it. My own family was offered an opportunity to lease land to E.ON and we declined because my husband did not care to farm around the towers, and I just didn’t want to look at them. I set my own personal views aside and made decisions based on what I felt the majority of the public wanted. I was outspoken enough, however, to say that I would never support a plan to cover a large portion of the county with wind turbines. As it turned out, the problem was that when the decisions were being made to build “Wildcat I”, the commissioners were not hearing from the “majority”. People really did not know this was happening, or if they did, they did not perceive it to be as “invasive” as it was. As you know, public notices are small and often overlooked in the newspaper, so not much resistance was present……………until the towers went up, and people saw how enormous and intrusive they were. The red blinking lights even disturb my own summer evenings and my home is 6 miles from the closest tower….. !!!! You don’t have the time to read what all I could tell you, so in a nutshell I just want to say that I wish I had the knowledge then that I have now. However, what I can do, is to try to pass some of what I know onto the elected officials in the neighboring county so that perhaps you can gain some wisdom from what I learned in the school of hard knocks. Continue reading Meet Jane Harper – Board member who regrets voting pro-wind →

It’s being hailed a world first by some… The study into the Cape Bridgewater wind farm in Victoria’s south west could have far reaching implications for South Australia’s wind energy industry…. A breakthrough that may hold the key to solving a mystery… others however, have labelled it an atrocious piece of research

follow link to watch video report:  http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/stories/cape-bridgewater-report

“People are willing to tolerate, approve, and contribute to the torture of their neighbors with the ill effects of wind turbines simply because they have been told by public officials, the media, or green zealots that it is necessary to ‘save the planet’ from global climate change.”

By Curt Devlin

It is easy to forget just how essential sleep is to health and happiness; until of course, you yourself have been deprived of it for a night or two. Firsthand experience of sleep deprivation, even for a few days, is a powerful reminder of how mentally and physically debilitating it is. Even the ongoing disruption or restriction of sleep for a relatively short period of time can have devastating health consequences. Medical research has clearly shown that sleep is essential to human health and wellbeing. Prolonged sleep deprivation has been linked to memory loss, hallucination, weakened resistance to pain, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, impaired immune response, extreme anxiety, stress, clinical depression, and suicide. In the most extreme cases, animal experimentation suggests that lack of sleep can kill you.

Sleep deprivation has long been recognized as torture by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT), and the United States War Crimes Act. Depriving someone of proper sleep is torture, regardless of whether it is perpetrated by the CIA against suspected terrorists, OR by reckless planning authorities who permit the wind industry to site industrial-scale wind turbines in residential neighborhoods, or by noise pollution regulatory authorities and health authorities who ignore consistent reports of sleep deprivation from neighboring residents. When authorities deem developments “compliant” with regulations, or wind developers effect specious mitigations; they are inflicting torture. They are violating fundamental human rights.

Recently, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released what has come to be known as the Torture Report. It reveals that sleep deprivation was one of the frequently used CIA “enhanced interrogation” tactics. The use of prolonged sleep deprivation led Committee Chairman, Diane Feinstein to conclude “…that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured.” She goes on to say “…that the conditions of confinement and the use of authorized and unauthorized interrogation and conditioning techniques were cruel, inhuman, and degrading.” The same can be said of the practice of siting industrial turbines too close to homes. Failure to take action to stop excessive noise pollution, or to enforce existing legal limits on “noise nuisance” whenever noise-induced sleep disturbance or deprivation is reported by wind turbine neighbors, hosts, or their families is full complicity with torture.

read more: Friends Against Wind, Curt Devlin 12 mars 2015

 DACE is heading to a judicial review over the endangered species the Redside Dace.    They went through the ERT and are now moving on and up the system.

Important Notice

West Grey is going to court on Thursday, March 19th.

They have a Judicial Review with the Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry.

Why didn’t the MNRF study their endangered species, a little fish called the Redside Dace?  Join them in court to find out. Numbers much appreciated!

Date: Thursday, March 19th, 2015.

Time: 10:00  (arriving early at 9:00 or just after)

Place: Brampton Divisional Court,

7755 Hurontario Street,  Brampton, ON

Please support your wind brothers & sisters.  See you there in court.

Team of DACES (Durham Area Citizens for Endangered Species)

And a BIG Thanks!

How Green Is This?

Leading doctors have called on the Government to reduce the noise levels of wind turbines — which they claim are four times that recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

The Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association also said the set-back distance of 500m is not enough, that it should be increased to at least 1,500m.

Visiting Research Professor at Queen’s University, Alun Evans and lead clinical consultant at Waterford Regional Hospital Prof Graham Roberts have both expressed concerns over the current noise levels and distance of turbines from homes.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly is currently reviewing the wind energy planning guidelines and the group is calling for both issues to be examined closely in the interest of public health.

The association has called for the introduction of a maximum noise level of 30 decibels as recommended by the WHO and for the set-back distance from inhabited houses to at least 1,500m from the current 500m.

Prof Evans said the construction of wind turbines in Ireland “is being sanctioned too close to human habitation”.

“Because of its impulsive, intrusive, and sometimes incessant nature, the noise generated by wind turbines is particularly likely to disturb sleep,” he said.

read more: By Conall Ó Fátharta Irish Examiner Reporter, March 12 2015

for pdf: Canadian research boosts Cooper¹s case on turbines _ The Australian

Canadian research boosts Cooper’s case on turbines

GRAHAM LLOYD THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 24, 2015 12:00AM

ACOUSTICS expert Steven Cooper has expanded his legal action to include vocal wind farm advocate Simon Chapman, as independent research was produced to support the findings of high­level infrasound at Cape Bridgewater in Victoria.

The Australian yesterday reported Mr Cooper was considering legal action against the ABC’s Media Watch and its portrayal of him and his research on the effect of the Pacific Hydro wind turbines on
local residents.

Participants in the Cape Bridgewater study, which was designed and financed by wind farm company Pacific Hydro, are considering joining the legal action against Professor Chapman over published comments which questioned their integrity.

Professor Chapman, from the University of Sydney completed his PhD on “Cigarette Advertising as Myth; A Re­Evaluation of the Relationship of Advertising to Smoking”.

He has argued that health complaints by some residents living near wind farms are the result of psychological concerns rather than physical impacts. Continue reading Canadian research boosts Cooper’s case on turbines | The Australian →

• John Vanderkooy1 and Richard Mann2
• Department of Physics and Astronomy1 , Department of Computer Science2
• University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L 3G1
• jv@uwaterloo.ca,
• mannr@uwaterloo.ca
• Date posted: 2 October, 2014

Abstract

To extract the optimum coherent infrasound signal from a wind turbine whose rotation is not precisely periodic, we use an optical telescope fitted with a photodetector to obtain reference blade passage periods, recording these together with the microphone infrasound signal. Signal processing of the quasi-periodic microphone signal is then used to obtain periodic data, which are analyzed by an appropriate length DFT to extract optimum values for the fundamental and harmonics of the coherent signal. The general procedure is similar to order domain analysis for rotating machines and is thoroughly explained and illustrated with measurements and analysis from a number of different wind farms. If several turbines are measured by a single microphone with blade passage periods obtained from several separate reference tracks, it may be possible to retrieve separate useful coherent signals from multiple turbines by appropriate processing.

read entire paper : coherent_wt_measurement_0

read entire report here : http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/assembly-business/committees/environment/reports/report-on-the-committees-inquiry-into-wind-energy/

“34.During the course of the inquiry the Committee has been assured by the wind industry that turbines are a safe form of technology, with instances of physical damage caused by turbines occurring only rarely. Committee members saw at first hand the level of computer-controlled monitoring relating to a wind farm which allows for remote monitoring of the operation of the machinery. However, a recent incident in West Tyrone when a wind turbine collapsed, scattering debris across the surrounding area, has given the Committee cause for concern. The Committee therefore recommends that the investigation of the incident should be concluded as swiftly as possible, both by the owners of the wind development and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland, and that any lessons learned should be implemented as soon as possible.”