Many residents in our small…

Many residents in our small cottage resort neighbourhood of Gobles Grove in Saugeen Shores supported the municipality when they opposed the siting of the Unifor industrial wind turbine. The OMB approved the turbine based on FALSE AND MISLEADING expert testimony by Unifor consulting engineer Jade Acoustics. Evidence was given to OMB that illegal noise levels would not occur off of the Unifor property.
Over 4 years during which time MOECC did not enforce their Approval Director Dumais’ written requirement calling for noise level compliance testing the residents filed over 600 noise and health complaints. The municipality issued a motion for Unifor to cease operations based on 6 families coming forward testifying at council to the harm done. Unifor ignored this order while refusing to formally hear residents’ complaints without OWNING the complaint and preventing its use at hearings, tribunals or court.
Finally forced to test for compliance the Unifor turbine was found to be operating illegally proving that the OMB Approval was based on false evidence and should be rescinded thus complying with the original municipal position not to allow this project to proceed. Jade Acoustics performed the final testing to establish noise compliance which resulted in the Unifor turbine’s power output being reduced from the original 800 kW to 300 kW. Given the fact that the Unifor turbine was approved under false pretences and went untested causing the suffering of so many residents for so many years it should not qualify for “grandfathering “ approval under these new government changes but should be used as the rationale for instigating a new health hazard investigation into wind urbine induced harm to health.
At the heart of why this investigation must be held is the body of evidence of harm already submitted in the form of thousands of noise and health complaints. The Unifor turbine evidence shows that the noise modelling software used to approve turbine siting in Ontario underestimates thecreal world noise levels people are exposed to.
This harm cannot be grandfathered to continue or the government has failed in its duty to protect citizens. Simply put the government should rely on the may cause harm clause in our EPA to make the wind industry prove the safety of its product through 3rd party epidemiological testing citing citizen evidence to instigate a health hazard investigation.