To say the least we are disappointed with that result, but there are various avenues where this can be addressed.
Council was concerned that here had to be something in place. A delay of a couple more weeks when all Council Members could have attended the meeting wouldn't have been a problem. They were also concerned that a 1km setback would have killed a wind farm already approved for Tantramar Marsh. If turbines will be closer than 1km to residences, maybe it should have never been approved in the first place.
Councilors were split 4 to 4 on the issue but one of them who had been campaigning for a greater setback ended up voting for the motion because he felt something was better than nothing. Another Councilor who has been very vocal in his opposition to wind turbines being too close was not able to attend the meeting yesterday. So it goes. At least they did accept an amendment of a minimum of 500m yesterday which is better than a potential 360m from a 120m turbine.
A mountain of evidence shows that people living within 1km of a turbine is detrimental to health and affects property values. As one Councilor said, if the setback is too close it will be impossible to later on increase the distance whereas the setback could be easily later decreased if deemed necessary.
Including Development Agreements and/or increasing the setbacks to 1km would have been too large a change in the proposed amendment that would have meant the whole process would have had to start all over again. Well, if that's what it would take to obtain a sensible, acceptable and legal setback, then that's what should have happened.
I don't know how long this links last, but for the next few days check out the Halifax Chronicle Herald at http://www.herald.ns.ca/NovaScotia/9003008.html
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4 comments:
It is rather disappointing to see Council disregard so much important information regarding the health risks of siting wind turbines close to residential uses. People are moving away from wind farms in Pubnico and on Prince Edward Island at the same time that this Council is accepting the industry's position that close is OK. Of course, the developers and shareholders do not live anywhere near the wind farms.
Council's decision in this case reminds me of Council's decision in the 1990's to accept unsorted garbage from Halifax into our landfill in Little Forks. At that time, folks from Halifax came calling with lots of money and Council of that day sold us out.
Perhaps it is time for NS Power to take a position. Is it really Green Power if the electricity is generated at the expense of the health of people living near the wind farm?
I enjoy the comments on this site, especially from the anonymous folk who won't include their names.
Thanks . . . Alan Huestis, Wentworth
I always find it amazing how in North American society the individual's needs tend to far outweigh those of society as a whole. We have spent countless numbers of hours with politicians, beaurocrats and lawyers alike making sure that the policies that we make don't upset anyone individual or small group of people. This tendency may lead some to believe that we live in a socialist society or a socially democratic one at least.
We will never know if some of the legal policies that we have made in the past were good or bad for society as a whole, all we do know is that we have tended to appease the temporary desires of a boistrous group of people representing there own individualistic interests.
This same rule applies to the current issue around the erection of a wind farm in Pugwash. On one hand we have the desire for society to reduce its carbon footprint. There is no need for me to get into the science behind why or how it is that this will be done all we know is that something has to be done. In the same token we have Nova Scotia, which if it weren't for the Tantramar Marsh, would be an island with no more than 90 Km separating land from water at any given point. With that there comes some very attractive characteristics for the development of wind farms. Now on the other hand there has been growing opposition to the development of wind farms all over North America. The NIMBY movement has grown in proportion to the amount of wind farm sites that have been developed or proposed in recent years. The growth of this movement is in no way shape or form proportionate to them being right, because the means to which this movement grows is not altruistic in any sense of the word. The NIMBY movement is based on falsehoods and in a general sense is very misleading. So in one hand we have the desire and means to improve the environment in which we live. On the other hand we have opposition to this change.
At this point I am not going to attack the general NIMBY movement, but I will advise why this particular movement against the Pugwash Wind Farm is off its mark. I first want to address the mountain of evidence that shows that people living within 1 Km of a wind farm will suffer detrimental affects on their health. When I think of a mountain of evidence I would think that if I were to consult something like the American Medical Journal or similar medical doctrines and publications, that it would be easy to find this evidence. The truth is, there is none. There has never been a documented medical case of any sort of negative health implications as a result of living within a close proximity to a wind farm. The other mountain that I am looking to is the one where property values are impacted negatively. On a personal note relatives of mine have had a cottage in Lorneville for over 20 years and never have they ever assumed that a great windfall was coming there way with property values in the surrounding area. The truth of the matter is that without Fox Harbour this region would remain depressed. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but when you are talking about property values tanking in an area that is already depressed it is an oxymoron. However to address the issue in a general sense you should look at what increases or stabilizes property values in this region in the first place. Two factors are oceanfront views and distance to the beach both of which would not be affected by the wind farm. Peace and tranquility could also be a selling feature and to insinuate that the sound of these machines would have an impact leads me to believe that you have never sat next to a wind farm for a long period of time. In fact the cars that travel that road constantly would drown out the sounds of these machines. Aside from that you talked in other articles about people, in the plural sense, in Pubnico moving away because of the wind farm, which again is not true. As far as I am aware there is only one person who I am sure sits on the same fence as you, that has moved as a result of the wind farm. It is probably more in protest for his own individual desire for opposition than for any altruistic purpose. The last issue that I want to address is flicker. Now the last time I checked the sun rose in the east and set in the west. The last time I drove near Pugwash I remember the road upon which the wind farm would be facing going west to east or vice versa. In order for flicker to occur and for these migraines to happen that you talk about there would have to be sunlight directly behind the turbine and in line with another house. I am no physicist but I can visually draw a triangle in my mind, whereby only for a very brief time (less than a few minutes) at sunrise and sunset could there be a possiblity, albeith a slight one that the sun would rest behind a turbine in direct line with another house. At any other point in the day the sun would be high in the sky and well out of line of any turbine.
I believe my opposition to your own position is now clear and I think that if you believe as you have mentioned in other postings that we do have to reduce our carbon footprint than it is time for you to accept the fact that 500 metres is plenty of space between a turbine and house. You may think that by protecting your little neck of the woods that you are doing a great service to your community. This may be true and we may never know, but what I do know is that you are doing a great disservice to Nova Scotia, Canada and the whole renewable energy community. Because if we continue to say on one hand that we do have a problem that needs to be fixed with renewable energy projects, but on the other hand we can only address that problem if every little flower, tree, bee, farmer, beachcomber, fisherman etc..... are happy with how we address that problem, than nothing will get done. So if the words of various scientists are right and we don't build these wind farms and other renewable energy projects, because of opposition like your own, than your little stretch of beech will be gone anyways and you will have nothing to look at other than ocean and swampland, minus the turbines of course.
its disgusting to see a number pulled from a hat out of political/legal conveinience rather than to address the health concerns of the people and every little bit of living matter in this area that will have very low frequency ultrasonic vibrations that they can't hear giving their biology a shake on occasion-
the longterm mental/physiological effects of which are unknown!
perhaps if we were to reduce our carbon footprint by rebuilding our collective intelligence as a society to depend on less electrical juice we wouldn't have to create as much of this type of problem.
common sense doesn't create any co2,doesn't cost any money,and doesn't destroy nature.
With regards to the very low frequency ultrasonic vibrations, or infrasound as others would refer to it, that anonymous refers to above please refer to a study done for DEFRA by a Dr. Geoff Leventhal, where he implicitly states: "I can state quite categorically that there is no significant infrasound from current designs of wind turbines. To say that there is an infrasound problem is one of the hares which objectors to wind farms like to run. There will not be any effects from infrasound from the turbines." The website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf/lowfreqnoise.pdf is where this report is published. Please refer to it and then readjust your comments relative to the biology of every creature being shaken up by the proposed wind farm at Pugwash. Or perhaps publish a study that you know of that can clearly debunk this study.
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