I hope that the response made in the news media is that of only from the Mayor and the municipality’s chief legal officer and not an official response from all of the Municipal Council.
I trust that the council members would all agree that if they had to do it again they would have placed conditions on the hosting of windfarms and not to do it the same as before.
In the press, it stated that the decision was made to rely totally on the ‘Golder Report’ and no other available information. Have they ever considered that the report could be in error and the esteemed people that they named did not use proper information in their report.
What if accepting the wind developer’s Golder report the Mayor and Mr. Norton put all of Chatham township’s property at risk from an environmental stigma? A stigma that the aquifer below would be contaminated with vibrations and is no longer capable of providing safe clean water. You think your property won’t drop like a stone in value? Think again.
What if accepting the Wind developer’s Golder report the Mayor and Mr Norton allowed pile driven turbine foundations that increased the heavy metal concentrations in the source water – the water in the aquifer below Chatham township? What price do you put on your families health?
Do you think if a Mayor that really cares about his Municipality’s property values; about his community’s health and well-being would have so easily accepted a developer’s report without having an outside engineering firm provide him and his council with a neutral third party review. Where’s the oversight?
Not this Mayor. Not Mayor Hope. He didn’t ask for a review. If he’s handed a report from the wind developer it’s as good as gospel to him.
If this matter only affected himself then it is his choice to go with a developer’s report. Skip the due diligence required of the office.
But when he is in the Mayor’s seat, the decision he and that of his lawyer Mr. Norton affect all of us.
Think Mayor Hope before you act. Think Mr. Norton, not of protecting the Corporation of Chatham-Kent first but the people to who you serve and are ultimately accountable to.
Why did the Mayor and Mr. Norton look only at the ‘Golder Report’ from the Wind developer side and not at the qualified experts and the sworn affidavits and studies that Mr. Jakubec, the appellant in the North Kent Environmental Review Tribunal, brought forward.
Common sense would have had our Mayor and Chief Legal Consil look at Mr. Jakubec’s work with these experts to try to understand why reports of well damage in Dover township as far back as 2012 were going on.
Mr. Jakubec assembled a prestigious team of world class experts. It was only because the MOECC Tribunal Branch refused a time extension to let Mr. Jakubec bring in well test results from Dover into the Trubunal’s final hearing did Mr. Jakubec make the best of Tribunal process and took what gains he could get from the mediation.
Ask Mr. Jakubec if he stopped investigating Dover. Ask Mr. Jakubec if the Tribunal process is fair and that everything is neatly wrapped up now as Mayor Hope and Mr. Norton would want you to believe.
Ask Mr. Jakubec if the Tribunal was the end of the matter. He’ll tell you he’s only beginning.
Did the Mayor and Mr. Norton miss completely Dr. Buckingham’s report that North Kent 1 will cause ground vibrations?
Why did they not talk about that?
Was it too pricey for Mayor Hope and Mr. Norton to have both Mr Jakubec’s experts and studies and North Kent Wind experts and studies reviewed?
How much money was spent by us to have Mr. Norton join the North Kent 1 Tribunal as a party?
Didn’t Council direct Mr. Norton to join the Tribunal to gain access to both parties disclosure documents?
Wasn’t that the point in joining the Tribunal?
It couldn’t have been so nefarious to join as a party just to take the side of the wind developer in a project that the municipality has a financial stake in?
Funnier things have happened under this Mayor and council.
Our Chatham-Kent Council has no problem committing support to the Capitol Theatre for over $500,000 per year, approximately the same for the Bradley Convention Centre and maintenance cost to our 28 miles of railway that goes nowhere and yet cannot find or commit funds to study the cause for the change in performance of several water wells in the vicinity of the last set of turbines erected in the former Dover Township.
How can the mayor say, “Of course, no amount of money would justify a negative impact on our citizen’s water”, when you have done nothing to counteract the harm done to those wells.
It is not the wells that are bad, it is the SOURCE water that these wells draw into our homes.
The aquifer, our source water, is the same to us as Lake Erie is to the water system of the Municipality. Can the wind companies go and put turbines near your water intake, stir up the water and drive steel piles down to the rock? Would you let them pollute your source water?
Several Dover wells have been affected. That is obvious now because of the turbidity and the black particulates in the water. My water still looks clear, but is affected by a dramatic increase in heavy metals.
I had done a water test of my well in 2012 and compared those results to the test that I had done in late November of 2016.
My water changed dramatically.
Keep in mind that nothing has changed around here in that time frame, except the construction and operation of the wind turbines. No explosions, no bombings and no earthquakes. What, through the process of elimination, do you believe caused these changes in our source water?
Could it possibly be the 1,540 holes driven through the Kettle Point Black Shale bedrock when the steel piles were driven down to support the wind turbines?
I believe that to be the cause. I also believe that the vibration of these operating turbines is going down to our aquifer and is keeping particles, some large and some of sub-micron in size stirred up in the water.
I hope that the Ombudsman does come and does a proper investigation of the circumstances here in our municipality.
I hope that the Ombudsman holds those responsible who contaminated the Dover wells and that the Ombudsman has the power needed to punish those who were derelict in their duty at the Municipal and Provincial levels.
I suggest to all Ontario families who have wind turbines around them to get their well water analyzed whether it looks clear or not.
Find out if the groundwater is safe; if your home is on top of the Kettle Point Black Shale bedrock and near a wind turbine you particularly want to get your well water tested.
Heavy metals contamination is a possibility. Kettle Point Black Shale is one of the most heavy metal laden shales in Canada.
A point Mayor Hope and Mr. Norton don’t appear to have a clue about.
So let me educate you Mayor Hope and Mr. Norton… our entire C-K Municipality sits on top of Kettle Point Black Shale.
As for testing your well water. It may be like mine, looks clear but has several harmful heavy metals.
If wind turbines are planned for your area, make sure you have a comprehensive analysis done of your well water so when the change comes to your water you will have a proper base line, something that was not done in Dover.
What does the Canadian Wind Energy Association say about this? Back in June 2016 when Water Wells First raised the alarm the wind wndustry said they didn’t know anything about Dover well problems.
On the Canadian Wind Energy Association website they say they promote clean water.
Then I have three points to make:
1. Have the two wind companies in Dover released the gag contracts of all of the people in Dover with damaged wells; gag contracts imposed for water filtration equipment is shameful; let them speak about their problems.
2. To Mayor Hope and Council: show us the ‘full legal agreements’ you have signed with every wind developer in the county; lets see how a transparent and accountable a government to the people you are; lets see if you imposed any restrictions on the windfarms to safeguard our county’s natural resources. Put documents, Mr. Norton, not your opinions in the press.
3. To Mayor Hope and Council: Give our poor chief medical officer Dr. Colby some of the municipality’s reserves, free up some of your multi-million dollar reserve and do some of your own scientific exploration so you can make a positive decision rather then say, “the water is likely safe to drink”.
We demand it.
Until now the Mayor, C-K Council, C-K Public Health and MOECC have done nothing.
It is time for someone to get off their butt and find a solution to the source water contamination before we have a drinking water related fatality.
Peter J. Hensel
Dover Centre
Everybody who is concerned about their well water needs to either call or email their Ombudsman. The number is 1-800-263-1830. The email is info@ombudsman.on.ca. Tell the Ombudsman that you want an investigation done on the Mayor and Counsel of Chatham-Kent. There is a conflict of interest. The Municipality of. Chatham-Kent is receiving monies from North Kent Wind Facilities. Of course they are going to favour a report that states that there is no concrete evidence that the wind turbines are destroying our well water. Act now!