Representatives with the Otter Creek Wind Farm say preliminary reports show the ‘Golder Report’ has some comparable findings between the North Kent Wind project and their own project planned for north of Wallaceburg.
Marc Weatherill, project manager for the Otter Creek Wind Farm project told reporters during a media briefing on Monday afternoon that a preliminary report was given to them from GHD, a professional consulting firm they hired to look into the issue.
“We’ve gotten a preliminary review from them of the ‘Golder Report’ from North Kent #1,” he said.
“Basically they’ve said they believe the ‘Golder Report’ is viable as far as its methodology, as far as the assumptions that they’ve made and that it is also applicable to the Otter Creek Wind Farm, simply because we are not very far away. So the underlying stratigraphy is equivalent enough that it is applicable.”
Adam Rosso, director of project development in Ontario for Boralex, said it is up up to the experts they’ve hired to determine if this “desktop study” is applicable or not.
“The way they do the desktop study is by applying known closed form solutions,” he said.
“Basically the mathematics that is universal and can be applied anywhere in the universe applies presumably, to the rock underneath our project and in North Kent. Hydro-geology is not something that is not well understood, vibrations from turbines is well understood. The analysis that Golder went through is to say ‘look, is there enough vibration from a turbine to cause the effects that people are seeing in their wells’. They provide professional, engineering and scientific opinion on it, based on methodologies and mathematics that is well understood and established.”
Investigating claims about water well impact
Weatherill said they want to determine for themselves if there is a potential impact from turbines on water wells.
“It is something we are looking into on our own behalf to get a better understanding of the issue and really try and make sure that we try and understand the claims that are being made about potential impacts and make a judgement based on science, engineering data,” he said.
“It’s important for us to make decisions based on demonstrable fact or at least well-known, if not proven theories about hydrology and how the turbines work. That’s something that we are in the process of doing. We have a third party engineering firm (GHD) that is assisting us with this and giving us their opinions on this issue.”
Weatherill said they have met with the Water Wells First group on two occasions to discuss the project.
“They declined to provide us with the materials that they’ve based these claims on,” he said.
“There have been some studies that they are drawing parallels with to try and help substantiate the claims. We did ask if they have done any studies on their own that they could share with us… they said that they have not, which to be honest is a bit disappointing. Given the degree or strength to which they are making these claims, to be speaking that strongly about this without actually having any studies of their own done, we don’t think is quite right.”
Rosso said Boralex and the Otter Creek Wind Farm Project would never do anything to intentionally harm the environment.
“None of us here want to impact a water well,” he said.
“We do this because we are environmental stewards, we do this because we are a green energy company. If there was something where we felt we were doing wrong or that the science backed up, we’ll consider that obviously with everything we do in regards to the implementation of our programs and our projects.”
Open to discuss
Weatherill said they are willing to discuss the issue with the public, and have on multiple occasions.
“We’ve had discussions about this topic many times,” he said.
“Boralex and the project is committing to the project that whatever information we provide is accurate. We believe very strongly in facts and science, making ourselves available. So that is not only having this engagement centre here (in Wallaceburg) but the community liaison committee is a requirement during construction. It is a requirement that we have four meetings during construction. We’re going to be continuing those meetings after construction into the operation phase of the project… that’s not required, but that is something we think is important to do particularly given the fact that the concerns around this issue in part are related to the operation phase of the project.
Weatherill added: “We want to make sure people understand if they do have an issue, or believe they have an issue that there is a forum for them to come and speak with us about that.”
Weatherill said they are focused on active listening when it comes to feedback from the public.
“Filling out a form and putting it in a box somewhere to be eventually answered, it’s part of what we have to do, but it is a bit of a stilted process to be fair,” he said.
“That is partly why we opened this facility (in Wallaceburg) is to be able to have a dialogue with people, to be able to have genuine conversations with them on an on-going basis. We’ve had people come visit us multiple times, who have come back and we’ve answered questions they’ve addressed before, they come with new questions, we answer those. It’s a dialogue, at least that’s what we are trying to create an opportunity for.”
For more information about the project, visit: ottercreekwindfarm.ca
* Editor’s note: The Otter Creek Wind Farm held a public meeting on Monday night in Wallaceburg. The meeting was attended by a large contingent of Water Wells First supporters. We’re working on this story and will provide it as soon as possible.
