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
CHCH News
Wind is fairly new and controversial in this province with some saying it’s a much needed clean source of energy, while others — many of them in communities around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie — are saying ‘not in my backyard’. Considerations with wind turbines include the environmental mark they make and the environmental benefits they offer, as well as the financial implications.
There are five wind turbines in West Lincoln now but there will be many, many more as soon as they pass environmental approvals. Ontario Power Authority says wind is an important part of its energy portfolio — it’s expanding infrastructure for all the power Ontario produces and the province wants a mix of sources so they balance each other out — especially now that they’ve phased out coal. But in West Lincoln, people say their rural way of life is being destroyed, and there’s nothing they can do to stop it.
The wind turbines in West Lincoln don’t seem to make noise, but Zlata Zoretic has lived in their flickering shadow since they went up a year ago: “Just whomp, whomp all day. It’s terrible.”
The sound is on YouTube. People living near wind turbines complain of headaches, inability to sleep, ear ringing and diminished property values. Nellie Dehaans is terrified of this. For decades, she’s lived on the other side of Smithville: “It’s going to look much different. I’ve got turbines coming that way, that way, that way. West Lincoln’s getting 44, the whole project is 77 plus three extras in case.”
The wind farms are expected to stretch from Smithville to Wainfleet. And the turbines will be much bigger — the size of a 60 storey building.
Wind power can cost almost twice as much per kilowatt hour as gas or nuclear energy. But there’s no power when there’s no wind — like in a muggy summer heat wave.
Wendy Veldman lives next to a turbine: “They produce it when we need it the least. They are not reliable. The wind is blowing today. But, there are some days when they sit still. What are we going to do when that’s happening. But, there always has to be backup power.”
If there is too much wind, the power has to be sold off at a loss, or the companies are paid not to produce. But, we don’t pay when there’s no wind. Read rest of article here.
Watch local windwarriors being interviewed here. http://www.chch.com/wp-content/plugins/projekktorvm/embed.php?id=15253&poster=http://www.chch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014-0924-WindEnergyEN6.jpg&long=&noad=false#rdzutabx
Activists protest against the expansion of open-pit coal mines in Germany’s Lausitz region on Aug. 23.Getty Images
By Vanessa Mock Wall Street Journal, Sept. 3 2013
The European Union prides itself as the being the world’s green crusader. It is fighting climate change with a set of ambitious targets to reduce future carbon-dioxide emissions and boost the use of renewable energy, such as solar and wind, by setting an example to the rest of the world.
But a revival of coal as an energy source across Europe is leaving a dark spot on the EU’s green credentials, according to a new report by several environmental pressure groups. Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels in terms of CO2 emissions. EU countries are under pressure to phase out coal as part of EU-wide goals to cut emissions and boost the development of renewable energy sources.
At the center of Europe’s coal renaissance is the region around the German-Polish border, already home to five of Europe’s most polluting coal plants, says the report, which was compiled by CAN Europe, WWF, the European Environmental Bureau, the Health and Environment Alliance and Climate Alliance Germany. Swedish power firm Vattenfall GmbH is now planning to expand the number of open-cast mines in the Lausitz area to exploit its deposits of lignite, a particularly polluting type of coal.
Read the real story on the German Energiewende or Energy Transformation. The Cinderella story is really about……coal and not wind and solar.
“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
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.
“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.”
Three Ontario families want to stop a massive wind farm from going up near their town.
Sun News Video Report : ONTARIO FAMILIES BATTLE WIND FARM
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.
*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 o
f 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,
MAWT Inc. is again hard at work educating the Public and Raising money to go towards West Lincoln’s Legal Fund in the fight against the NRWC wind project.
They will be at the Wainfleet Fair today again, Sat. Sept 20, so you still have time to get your ticket(s). The draw for the raffle is Sat. Sept 20 at 2 pm. The top prize now exceeds $600 (12% of the intake).
Lots of good events Saturday – Ironman Farmer Contest, Horse Show, Pet Show, Wainfleet Idol and more.
So gather up the kid and head out to the Wainfleet Fair and don’t forget to drop by and say hi to MAWT Inc.
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 
