The following was posted on “Victims of Wind Turbines” Facebook Page.   No introduction required….

2014 Mandate letter: Energy

Premier’s instructions to the Minister on priorities for the year 2014

• Continuing to lead our government’s commitment to renewable energy, with the aim of having 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy online by 2025. You will continue to monitor progress toward targets for wind, solar, bioenergy and hydroelectricity as part of Ontario energy reporting.
• Continuing to work with the ministry’s agencies to implement a new competitive procurement process for renewable energy projects larger than 500 kilowatts that will take into account local needs and considerations.
• Continuing to respect the contracts that have been signed with energy producers, while always ensuring that these contracts enable the delivery of sustainable, affordable energy to Ontario’s ratepayers.
• Working with the ministry’s agencies and with municipal partners to ensure that municipalities participate meaningfully and effectively in the decision-making process for the placement of renewable energy projects, including wind and natural gas.
• Ensuring that timelines for meeting the LTEP’s energy storage procurement targets are met and that they address the regulatory barriers that limit the ability of energy storage technologies to compete in Ontario’s electricity market. As well, you will explore opportunities to build on the pilot projects through additional procurement.

Via: Ontario Wind Resistance

“Cary was forced to live next to wind turbines, he has finally sold his house… A loss of 40% over county appraisal.”

Cary Shineldecker

Well after 3 1/2 years for sale, we have an offer on our house that we accepted. $139,000. We pay taxes on $230,000. But it looks like we are finally going to leave. Currently we have no real plans on where we will be in the short term. But in the future we will be moving a few miles away from the nearest turbine. I know some will say we should leave the country but where is safe?

Victims of Industrial Wind (Face Book)

The members of Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc.  sends out congratulation to  former director, Shellie Correia on her recent meeting  with Prime Minister Harper.

 It is an important message being carried by mothers,  grandmothers and parents.  

We are not just one voice, but many who are  advocating for the protection of our children from the harms of Industrial Wind Turbine emissions.

Well done from Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc.

A Federally Registered Non- Profit Organization

The round of applause in the packed London courtroom was just one small sign of how jangled nerves are in rural Ontario when it comes to wind farms. During arguments when three farmers were asking a judge to stay renewable energy approvals — and effectively shut down construction for the time being — for projects near St. Columban and Goderich in Huron County, the lawyer for one of the corporate interests suggested the court’s decision could have wide-reaching effects.

“If you follow the logic, you should shut down the wind farms across the province,” said Christopher Bredt, lawyer for the K2 Wind project near Goderich,

There’s nothing the crowd who came to London from as far away as Windsor and Ottawa wants more.

The drive for renewable energy has set up a David-and-Golaith storyline, pitting farmers against corporate giants.

On Monday, the struggle was back in court with the request to stop the renewable energy projects until constitutional arguments can be made before the divisional court Nov. 17.

“It’s just my wife (Trish) and I and some community members,” said Shawn Drennan, the representative challenging the K2 project near Goderich.

Drennan is facing the prospect of 140 wind turbines built in his neighbourhood. He’s already next door to a 24-hectare substation pumping station, he said.

Any public consultation, he said, “was all about telling us what they wanted to us hear and they really didn’t care what we had to ask them.

“Trish and I both came to the conclusion that this is a fight that has to be fought. There’s more here than just the Green Energy Act.”

Drennan is supported by Safe Wind Energy for All Residents (SWEAR) who gathered up people for a small protest before court and invited fed-up farmers from across the province.

“The idea is to stop it so all these turbines don’t decimate the land and the people while we’re waiting on the court decisions,” spokesperson Dave Hemingway of Bayfield said.

“If you put up 140 turbines before you make a decision whether they’re legitimate or not, how do you get rid of them?”

Several other communities are watching the decision closely in hopes of using it as a precedent in their cases.

There are 6,800 turbines in Ontario and 1,900 along the Lake Huron shoreline from Sarnia to Tobermory, Hemingway said.

The crux of the constitutional issue is the potential for serious harm to human health that comes with the approvals made in July by the Energy Review Tribunal.

The lawyer for the farmers, Julian Falconer, said Health Canada is conducting a study, but the health concerns have yet to be proven.

“Money shouldn’t be used to trump public interest and health allegations,” he told Superior Court Justice Lynne Leitch.

“Should my clients be the lab rats while this constitutional issue climbs through the courts?” he said.

Low frequency noise and vibrations from the construction and ultimately the turbines potentially can cause sleep problems and various health concerns, Falconer said.

Bredt, the lawyer for K2, said the motion should be dismissed “on both a factual basis and a legal basis.”

The court doesn’t have the jurisdiction to stay the order, he said.

There’s a mechanism to place a stay on an approval with the Energy Review Tribunal that wasn’t used, Bredt said.

The appellants have to prove serious health problems, he said, and they haven’t met that onus.

Bredt argued the companies have spent millions of dollars already and there’s no basis in law to stop the work until a constitutional issue is resolved — a court case that could take years.

Bredt said that it “might be one or two turbines that could cause an issue.”

He was met with a courtroom of groans.

By Jane Sims, The London Free Press Monday, September 22, 2014

Noise Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Waterloo Wind Farm

Kristy Hansen, Branko Zajamsek and Colin Hansen, School of Mechanical Engineering
University of Adelaide May 26, 2014

This report by the above authors describes the results of their concurrent full spectrum acoustic monitoring conducted at a number of homes located between 2 km out to nearly 10km from the Waterloo Wind Development. This monitoring was independent of the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (SA EPA) and was requested by Mrs Mary Morris and other concerned residents in the Waterloo district. The monitoring occurred during the period of the South Australian EPA Acoustic Survey, conducted in mid 2013.

The results in this independent survey as well as the conclusions are in marked contrast to the results and conclusions of the SA EPA Acoustic Survey report, and reinforce the Waubra Foundation’s opinion expressed at the time the initial SA EPA report was released that there were serious problems with the methodology used by the SA EPA in its acoustic survey at Waterloo. This report provides further evidence that the current SA EPA Wind Farm Noise Guidelines do not protect the health and sleep of the neighbours to these wind developments, out to nearly 10km from the closest wind turbine, because they do not regulate the acoustic emissions to protect health, and most importantly, the sleep of the neighbours.

Emeritus Professor Colin Hansen has advised that he sent the report to the EPA, requesting their comment. To date, three months later (19th August, 2014) no comment or feedback has been received by the Adelaide University researchers from the SA EPA responsible public officials.

Extract from the Conclusions:

“Therefore, the results show that there is a low frequency noise problem associated with the Waterloo wind farm. Therefore, it is extremely important that further investigation is carried out at this wind farm in order to determine the source of the low frequency noise and to develop mitigation technologies. In addition, further research is necessary to establish the long‐term effects of low frequency noise and infrasound on the residents at Waterloo. This research should include health monitoring and sleep studies with simultaneous noise and vibration measurements.”

Key Extracts from the report are reproduced below, and the report is downloadable from the link beneath.

Waubra foundation

We are the Therriens of Sheffield. Many already know our story. Yes, we live near the interstate. The interstate is quiet at night unlike the wind turbines that make noise 24/7 more often than not. The interstate does not make a repetitive noise that wakes you then keeps you awake, night after night.

From proposal to construction we did not oppose the Wind Project. Not until the project began operating, only when we experienced the noise firsthand, did we begin to understand and wonder just what we were facing. About six months in we realized the project is impacting us. We started connecting the sounds with how we feel. Hardly believed it was true until we started reading up on wind turbine syndrome. The same symptoms are echoed world wide!

Facts about wind turbine noise and health have been known a long time and totally ignored by our government. Our elected people in charge of protecting the public have chosen to blindly believe big wind developers while turning a deaf ear to towns and residents impacted by industrial power plants.

Health studies should have been done before big wind turbines were put close to people. Instead we get literature reviews done by people with financial ties to the wind industry who claim there are no “direct” health effects. Also it has been spread far and wide that anyone opposing clean green energy (laugh) is a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) or that people are only seeking financial gain by falsely claiming to being negatively impacted. Positive outcome studies are funded by Industrial Wind and they hand pick their experts.

The non-positive studies are done by honest hard working individuals facing public persecution and possibly the loss of their jobs if they go public with their negative findings. Just ask Dr. Henrik Møller of Denmark, a highly respected academic noise researcher fired after exposing the Danish government’s role in covering up health risks caused by wind turbine noise pollution. Kind of says a lot right there doesn’t it?

Problems have arisen, yet they are still largely ignored because no one knows how to solve any problems pertaining to industrial wind power plants.

The Public Service Board held workshops to try and hear both sides of the story. You would be led to believe that both sides would be given equal time to be heard. No, not true. We will never participate in another unless it is to protest. It is that much of an insult.

Three years into this nightmare and we are no closer to a resolution than we were on day one. We asked First Wind to buy us out for $150,000. This prompted a meeting where we were told of a possible option to buy our house and only two of our 50 acres for $45,000, but it was not an official offer. We expected to be low-balled but not to this extreme. and they wanted us to sign a nondisclosure for this pittance!

Wind developers are well schooled in the art of approaching a town, promising that the project will cause no harm — while quietly buying/paying off select home/land owners

It is long past time for First Wind to buy us out so we can protect our children. $150,000 and no gag order and we will move on with our lives.

Luann Therrien lives in Sheffield.

Burlington Free Press, Luann Therrien September 21, 2014

*LONDON: The stay application will be heard on Monday starting at 10:00am and will be heard in Courtroom 20 on the 14th floor.

Just FYI although the address is 80 Dundas Street, the entrance is on Queens Avenue.

Protest outside of Courtroom in London on Sept. 22nd before the hearing. Hearing starts at 10:00, aim for 9:00am for protest!

 

 

The first court phase of a legal fight aimed at scuttling what would be one of Ontario’s largest wind-energy developments kicks off Monday with a farm family trying to force an immediate stop to its construction.

Documents filed in support of their request show Shawn and Tricia Drennan are concerned about the potential harm the 140-turbine K2 Wind project near Goderich, Ont., could cause them.

The Drennans are asking Divisional Court for an injunction against the ongoing construction of the facility pending resolution of an appeal against the project. They note Health Canada is currently doing a study to understand the impact industrial wind projects have on nearby residents.

“In effect, our government has relegated the appellants to guinea pigs in the name of green energy,” their factum states.

“The fear and anxiety with being a guinea pig is only further heightened by the knowledge that the Ontario Ministry of the Environment has placed a moratorium on off-shore wind turbines because the environmental impact on the fish is not known.”

Joining them in the construction stay application filed in London, Ont., are the Dixon and Ryan families, who are fighting the 15-turbine St. Columban wind project near Seaforth, Ont. The Dixons argue construction noise will hurt their eight-year-old daughter, who suffers from hearing hypersensitivity.

read more: COLIN PERKEL TORONTO — The Canadian Press Published Sunday, Sep. 21 2014,