Blenheim ERT update: awesome witnesses

The Environmental Review Tribunal continues on the appeal of the South Kent wind power project by Platinum Produce,  vs the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and South Kent Wind.

  Platinum Produce Corp has been allowed to continue on with this challenge even though it is not an individual with Charter Rights, and Mr. Tim Verbeek has been allowed to testify on behalf of Platinum Produce's 50 workers, most of whom are migrants from the Philippines and Thailand. As you may rrecall from earlier reports, the lodging for the workers falls within the setback distance, and the employer, Platinum, is concerned for its employees' health, if they are exposed to the environmental noise and vibration produced by the industrial-scale wind power generators.

  Arguments too place about medical records, and now, the Michaud family will be testifying as to their experiences, living with turbines adjacent to their farm.

  Nikki Horton was "awesome" with her testimony.

  Rescheduling of this weeks' hearings is currently taking place, but still to come is the cross examination of Mr. Tim Verbeek, testimony of Roger Oliviera and  Dr. Sarah Laurie.  Then the MOE and South Kent Wind have witnesses to call.

  The Ministry of the Environment is trying a new gambit: they claim that the original project was approved and its original appeal was denied, so how could the amendment, which consists of moving a turbine farther from a receptor and de-rating a few more, could not be approved.

Chatham-Kent Wind Action Group

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Environmental devastation on Manitoulin Island

Here from today's edition of The Sudbury Star, an opinion piece by Ruth Farquhar on what the wind power project at McLean's Mount means in terms of the environment. Excerpt:

Have you ever felt heartsick? That's what I call it when I see something I can't really do anything about but you know in your core it's just wrong on so many levels.
   I took a tour of the work that is happening on MacLean's Mountain to install the industrial wind turbines.      As I looked at all of the land being destroyed, the wetlands being filled in, truck after truck of gravel going up and down the back roads, blasting the rock, that's how I felt -- heartsick.
   If you want to see the beauty that is McLean's Mountain and surrounding area I would suggest you visit now because it is going to be long gone in just a few short months.
   I find it fascinating that people have been shrugging off the project and still seem surprised when anyone talks about how it may affect the Island and its peoples. They seem to think the turbines are plunked down without the connecting lines to the transmission line that will take this highly subsidized energy off the Island.
   Each of the 24 turbines needs to have clear cutting to take the connector lines to the transmission line, imagine if you will a spider web of lines all over the mountain and going down Greenbush Road to Harbor Vue road and then underwater to Goat Island. When I was there, a barge in the North Channel was laying down the submarine cable. At the end of Harbor Vue road they are building a transition station, which according to one source, was not part of the original plan.
   It seems many people are getting more than they bargain for with this project. Even the transmission line poles are not like any hydro poles I've seen. They are from 25 metres to 32 metres tall and the ones I saw and took pictures of were oozing some kind of treatment while lying in the ditch waiting to be put up.
   A couple of weeks ago, an environmental review tribunal overturned the province's earlier approval of a wind turbine site in Prince Edward County due to the rare Blanding's turtle, saying the required access roads would cause "serious and irreversible harm" to the rare reptile.
   But the province is challenging the findings and it is being appealed to divisional court. The craziness continues.

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