Group in Digby Neck worried about health effects of living close to turbines
Six Digby Neck residents will visit Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau Wednesday in Halifax to ask a few questions about a planned wind turbine park.
"We’re trying to find out his reasoning for approving this turbine site in the first place," Evelyn Hayden said Monday.
"We’re just a group of concerned citizens that are trying to protect the health of everybody down here."
A 30-megawatt development consisting of 20 turbines is planned for Digby Neck by Skypower Corp. of Toronto and Scotian Windfields of Dartmouth. Each unit will generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity.
Ms. Hayden said one of the turbines may be as close as 600 metres to her home. She said she’s worried about adverse health effects to people who live too close to big wind turbines, and she is not alone.
Basil Stewart, the mayor of Summerside, P.E.I., has asked federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to look into the matter.
As president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Mr. Stewart cited a resolution asking Ottawa to study the potential health risks of wind turbines.
Digby municipal council was expected to discuss that resolution Monday evening.
A wind bylaw for the Municipality of Digby has been in the works since last year and is the only planning document in the municipality.
But municipal councillors decided last June to delay the passing of the plan to regulate wind turbines.
Some senior executives of the proponents spoke at a public planning hearing in council chambers, urging councillors to kill a draft version of the bylaw.
Corey Basel, vice-president of Skypower Corp., said his company did not support passing the bylaw in its present form, which he said was ambiguous.
"Any ambiguity in a bylaw could certainly affect future development. . . . It can signal to outside investors, banks or developers that there is not an opportunity for investment or development in a community," said Mr. Basel at the time.
In the end, councillors voted to table the draft planning strategy and bylaw until they could discuss it further. The bylaw was to be addressed again during Monday evening’s meeting.
Ms. Hayden had earlier asked Justice Minister Ross Landry to issue a stop order because of alleged health risks.
A source from the Justice Department wrote back to tell her the minister could not interfere with the decision to allow the wind turbines.
"We’re not going to give up," said Ms. Hayden.
Her group will also meet Wednesday with Liberal environment and energy critic Andrew Younger.
Among the questions the group has is why the province has not established some kind of guideline or minimum setback for municipalities that don’t have rural zoning restrictions pertaining to wind turbines.
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