Scaled-down wind farm granted permit

Number of turbines reduced, but area landowners 'generally don’t like these things’
RAISSA TETANISH
Amherst Daily News

AMHERST – With many residents along the Gulf Shore opposed to the idea, a 17-turbine wind farm for the area was recently granted a development permit.
Originally, the proposed Pugwash Wind Farm was planned with up to 30 turbines, but scaled back to 17 after concerns from some of the area residents.
“The main reason we scaled it back would be in order to move it back (from the shoreline),” said Clair Peers, director of Cobequid Area Wind Farms Inc., a joint venture company owned by Atlantic Wind Power Corporation Ltd. and Cobequid Wind Power Inc.
Cumberland County Municipality has a bylaw in place restricting wind turbines to be placed within 500 meters, or three times the turbine height, from a residence. Cobequid Wind Farms Inc. took the bylaw one step further.
“Even though we were in compliance with the bylaw at 500, because there was still a lot of concern with them being too close, and people were asking for as much as a kilometre, we said that when we would scale it back, we would look at that, and we did,” Peers said, noting one of the property owners negotiating with the company backed out, leaving them with less property.
Following the development permit approval, Peers met with several people with concerns, including Lisa Betts.
“Certainly the people who were meeting with (Peers) made it very clear that even this amended project was not what we were looking for,” said Betts.
“By trying to move a few turbines back by a few hundred meters is not paying attention to what we are saying — that this affects the whole neighborhood, not just the immediate people.”
Betts said the wind farm will affect everyone, directly or indirectly.
“It is our contention that people generally don’t like these things and certainly wouldn’t choose to build a house or retirement home, or come on holidays to an area that has these things flapping around in the background.
“This is ultimately going to affect our economy.”
Although the project has been granted a development permit, a buyer for the power has yet to come on board. Peers says Cobequid Wind Farms Inc. did not make an application with Nova Scotia Power for this project.
“We felt the timing was not right and that we were not suitably prepared. We took the extra time to revisit our plans and make some adjustments,” he said.
“We were really unsettled with the public consultation process. There were a lot of unhappy people and we weren’t sure what the real consensus was with the property owners here.”
Next for the project, says Peers, is another public consultation with property owners involved. He acknowledges a petition started by Betts and other concerned residents, but feels surveying the property owners will paint a better picture for the company’s purposes and the purpose of the environmental assessment.
Betts says of the 1,200 signatures on the petition, those that didn’t sign in opposition to any wind farm, not just the amended proposal, are those property owners involved, their friends and neighbours.
“Of all the people that live in the area and live along the Gulf Shore, we have about 70 to 80 per cent that don’t want this wind power. Take those (property owners, friends and neighbours) out of the picture and the percentage gets even higher,” Betts said.


http://www.amherstdaily.com/index.cfm?sid=168968&sc=58

Gulf Shore Association remains opposed to controversial wind farm project

Darrell Cole
Amherst Daily News
September 2

Lisa Betts is not surprised the backer of a controversial wind farm on the Gulf Shore is not ready to throw in the towel.

Then again, her association isn’t ready to back down either.

“We’re not surprised, but he has to say the project is going ahead,” Betts said of news that Atlantic Wind Farms is still planning a scaled back version of its wind farm near Pugwash.

“As much as he says he’s going ahead with it, the more our resolve to stop it.”

Betts’ Gulf Shore Association waged a bitter battle against Charles Demond’s wind farm project that would have seen between 20 and 27, 100-metre-tall turbines erected between the Gulf Shore Road and the Irishtown Road on the outskirts of Pugwash.

The battle that pitted grassroots residents against Demond’s corporation garnered national headlines when Anne Murray entered the fray against the wind farm.

Murray has a cottage along the Gulf Shore, and while the turbines would have been a considerable distance from her property, she felt she had to speak out against it.

Betts is questioning Demond’s claim that his project still has a lot of support in the Pugwash area. A petition circulated along the Gulf Shore opposing the wind farm had the support of 80 per cent of the population.

Even if Demond’s company brings forward a proposal with fewer turbines, Betts said her group would likely oppose it because it doesn’t feel the wind farm belongs on the Gulf Shore.

“What’s going to happen is people who own property there are going to sell it, and those who are considering buying property there won’t,” she said.

“It will be ruinous to the local economy because the people who spend their summers there won’t come back.”

As much as she continues to oppose the project, Betts said she is willing to sit down with Demond and representatives from Atlantic Wind Farms to clear the air.

However, she said, that doesn’t mean her group will back down any time soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This article seems to be missing from the Amherst Daily News website archives. I was able to find it on Windwatch at http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/09/02/gulf-shore-association-remains-opposed-to-controversial-wind-farm-project/

CAWF gets Development Permit

Cobequid Area Wind Farms Inc (CAWF) has been issued a Development Permit by the Municipality of Cumberland County.

The next part of this two step process is to produce a plot plan for this 17-turbine wind farm.

Yesterday there was a meeting with Clair Peers of CAWF and representatives from the Gulf Shore Preservation Association, the Village Commission, The Pugwash Chamber of Commerce and a County Councilor. The provisional map of the current manifestation of the wind farm was for our viewing, but not for copying.

It is, ostensibly, the same farm as it looked after properties were bought that reduced the number of turbines from 27 to 18. The only difference is that it is pushed back by a whopping 200-300 metres across the Irishtown Road and towards the Miller Road and involves more property owners.

These turbines would be over 400 feet high. Pushing them back a few hundred feet across a fairly flat landscape isn't going to make one hill of beans difference in their effects on the area generally.

All of those attending the meeting made the point (again) to Clair that this is simply the wrong location for an industrial power plant complex.

This is a residential, recreational location which is a destination tourist and retirement area. The local economy is highly dependent on our summer residents. These people are not the one-time drive-by tourists the wind company claim would be attracted to the area. Those people are not likely to stop for any more than a few minutes.

Our seasonal visitors are here for weeks and months at a time. They buy locally. They employ trades people to build and maintain their retirement homes. Most local stores and businesses operate on a very narrow profit margin and cannot afford to lose any summertime income. It cannot be overstated how important these people are to us and our economy.

Our petition of 1200 ,which includes 70-80% of the Gulf Shore property owners, very clearly demonstrates that visitors, year round and seasonal residents oppose this plan. Their opposition is for all kinds of reasons, but in the end all that matters is that an overwhelming majority does not want this to happen to their treasured part of the North Shore.

The drivers of our economy oppose the plan. We cannot afford to lose what they bring to our area. Please don't drive them away from here.

EarthFirst troubles

EarthFirst Canada Ltd, owner of the Nuttby Mountain wind farm project, is in financial difficulties with share prices plummeting from $2.10 in May to a recent low of 22 cents. As of today, this has rallied to 40 cents.

EarthFirst, a subsidiary company of CrestStreet (the original primary investor of Pubnico Wind Farm), bought the Nuttby project from AWPC in March for $75,000 and $374,00 in shares. At today's share price, those same shares are now worth around $76,700.

Although both EarthFirst, NSPI and AWPC claim that the Nuttby project is going as planned, this project has to be in some jeopardy.

EarthFirst also invested in the 180MW Dokie 1 wind farm in development in BC, which is reported to have already overrun costs by as much as $230 million.

EarthFirst has retained independent financial advisors and legal counsel. Robert Toole has been replaced as president and CEO.

Last year NSPI put out an RFP for 130MW power and accepted projects this year with the potential for about 240MW. Nuttby is rated at 45MW. If Nuttby were to be cancelled, NSPI would still have at least 70MW wiggle room to comply with the required 130MW for end of 2009.

Democracy from the ground up

Fighting city hall is always an uphill battle, but grassroots movements are still possible

By SARA JEWELL
24 August 2008

SOMETHING HAPPENS — a company wants to extract aggregate next to an asparagus farm, a mother of two is killed on a section of highway known for deer crossing, a community realizes it needs a new fire hall — and there is reaction. "I should write a letter," someone might say. "I should call the newspaper," says someone else. "This needs to be addressed for the sake of our community," neighbours decide. "What can we do?"

Most of us barely muster up the conviction to follow through on writing a letter, let alone join a group. Interest diminishes and people move on to something else. But what happens when something is too important to let go? All it takes is one person who says "This is what I think we should do" and a grassroots movement — the banding together of ordinary citizens to deal with an issue affecting their community — is born.

When a wind metering tower suddenly appeared behind her house on Nova Scotia’s northwest coast, Lisa Betts began asking questions. "I had a couple of friends involved in putting that tower up and they knew it was the wind farm people seeing if it was a good spot. Everyone else thought it was a cellphone tower."

That prompted Betts to begin researching wind turbines. In the beginning, her interest was entirely personal because she didn’t want a wind turbine so close to her home but soon she realized it was going to have an impact on the entire Gulf Shore community where she lives. "The more I found out about them, the more I believed them not to be good for this community. My vision of this whole thing got broader and broader."

To get information out to her neighbours, Betts posted notices around the community announcing her new blog. "My point of view was to get the information out there, not to try and persuade anybody to change their mind. Another part of my policy was if I’m the lone voice in the wilderness, if no one else agrees with me, I’m not going to be the crazy person running around by myself. But I never had to worry about that. I had nothing but support."

As interest in — and opposition to — the proposed wind farm grew, Betts began to seriously consider an idea she’d had for years: that the Gulf Shore Road, which stretches between Pugwash and Wallace, needed a residents’ association. As with many grassroots movement, this one began at the dining room table. "I called some friends who were actively interested in this. Three of us sat down and kicked around some ideas." The first official meeting of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association drew almost 80 people; there are now 450 members.

"I was a little disappointed at how complacent people were at first," Betts says, but adds she was more surprised by the degree of enthusiasm once people got involved. "This place has great meaning for those people who have been coming here for 40, 50 years. There was no way they were going to take this lying down."

Change to a community is unavoidable but when that change threatens a special way of life, it brings out the passion in people. For a year, some residents of Mahone Bay have been battling a development they say will "change the character of this Nova Scotian treasure forever" as it’s put on the website for the Friends of the Mahone Woods and Field. When a developer announced plans to turn a soccer field and a 16-acre wood into a high-density housing project, Valerie Hearder felt that the whole underpinning of her life and commitment to the community would be eroded.

"When I realized this was happening, I thought, ‘It’s development, you have to live with it,’ " Hearder recalls. Then she said to herself, ‘No, I don’t. I’m actually going to lose something so profound here that I felt compelled — even if I was the only one to speak up — to go on record as saying I protest this.’ I also had somewhat of a romantic notion: Who speaks for the woods?" There came a moment for Hearder when she realized she had to put herself out there publicly and make her opinion heard. And like Betts, she didn’t want to be the only person out there fighting this.

"I sat down and wrote an open e-mail. I really agonized (over it) because I felt quite exposed — I was going to put my opinion down and send it out to as many people as I could. I very carefully said, ‘To my neighbours and fellow citizens, I’m very concerned . . . I feel I must reach out and find out if anyone thinks like me.’ I felt as if I had no option, that I had to do this."

On the other side of town, a woman who would be unaffected personally by the development found herself outraged by the process.

"What got my attention was the first public meeting," says Sue Bookchin. "The mayor said that whoever would like to speak could stand and then he called on people. At nine o’clock, the mayor ended the meeting while people were still standing — and I was one of those people."

Bookchin calls that the trigger for her involvement. "The idea that there are people at the front of room who have the power and decision making control and they’re not listening. I felt frustrated. I had things to say that others had not contributed. The idea that this would go through without any say by the public made my sense of justice rage."

That’s how a grassroots movement gets started: there is a trigger.

"Citizens want to be involved," explains Dr. Christine Saulnier, the director of the Nova Scotia office for the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "They don’t just want to vote, they want to do something else. They want to feel like they can take part in the way our society is being shaped."

For Bookchin, her involvement was an issue of democracy.

"It’s public land. As far as I’m concerned, the councillors do not own that land. The citizens of this town own that public land. Just because we elected these people doesn’t mean they can do what they want. I believe that once you are elected, you must continue to listen to your constituents and represent their desires, not your own."

That, according to Dr. Saulnier, is the basic impetus for any grassroots movement in our society: the limitations of representative democracy. "We have to think about the limitations of our current system of democracy. You’re looking for ways outside the system to influence the system and one way to do that is to come together with others who have similar concerns in a specific area. As an individual, you can call your MLA, your MP, and make those concerns heard but numbers — we’re talking about having a critical mass of people coming to consensus, ideally, on an issue and making those voices heard or making changes themselves."

Hearder and Bookchin worked with others to create Friends of Mahone Woods and Field, which is not a formal association but a website that, like Betts’ blog, is meant to provide information.

"This community is a pretty quiet, community-minded, lovely tourist spot and I think we were all asleep. We got complacent," says Bookchin. "This public meeting woke a lot of people up."

Grassroots movements can also focus on creating something. Elaine Cook is the chairperson of the Friends of the Pugwash Library (FOPL), a group formed officially over a year ago to raise funds to build a new library to serve the eastern part of Cumberland County.

"I’ve got a desire for a new library here because I’m a library user," Cook explains of her decision to get involved. "I noticed we needed a new library when I went into the children’s section and saw books piled in boxes because there is no shelf space."

Since it draws on the ordinary person, passion for a cause often transcends skill. Cook admits she is hampered by her lack of fundraising experience.

"I’m just playing it by ear," she says. "I read, I network, I pick people’s brains."

One of those brains belongs to editor and children’s author Norene Smiley, a new resident to Pugwash and the co-owner of a local café. She chose to volunteer with the FOPL because she too sees the "dire need" for a new facility.

"I think (the FOPL) is a good example of what can be done with a bit of effort and will," says Smiley. "They don’t have the decision-making power to make this happen alone but they do represent concerned citizens. They are a good example of how a small group can make a difference."

Or is that just the sustaining myth of grassroots movements? When ordinary citizens get together to battle government and corporations, to try to make their voices heard above the din of development and expansion, does it really make a difference?

Despite the obvious need for a new library, Cook finds the greatest frustration with the various levels of administration involved. Cook says "getting the interested parties together to form a plan to get funding" is the big roadblock the FOPL faces.

According to Lisa Betts, the wind farm plan on the Gulf Shore seems to have fizzled, the companies searching for more welcoming, or at least less obstructive, communities. "We’re not going to have the satisfaction of an ‘Aha! Gotcha!’ moment," Betts says with a hint of regret in her voice.

In Mahone Bay, debate over the high-density housing project remains active. "We’re still waiting for the other shoe to drop," Valerie Hearder admits.

"Council has asked the developer to go back and draw up another proposal for the woods and fields."

When asked if there has been a backlash against those opposing the development, Hearder replies with an emphatic Yes.

"Suddenly you have a neighbour upset with you because they don’t agree with what you’re doing," she says. "No one sets out to divide a community but that’s the way it unfolded."

Sue Bookchin adds, "I’m not against change and that’s how it’s been interpreted. But that’s not what it is for me. Change just for change’s sake — without thinking about what you’re sacrificing — is foolish."

Bookchin’s motivation for being involved illustrates the importance of grassroots movements: "I feel like I need to contribute to being part of how change happens."

Editor's Note: One of a series of stories marking the 250th anniversary of the province’s legislative assembly. Freelance writer Sara Jewell lives in Port Howe.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/1074928.html

Wind turbines blamed in deaths of migratory bats

BY BILL GRAVELAND The Canadian Press

CALGARY — New research is blaming tall wind turbines for the deaths of hun­dreds of migratory bats in the foothills of southwestern Alberta’s Rocky Mountains.

Robert Barclay, a University of Cal­gary biology professor and interna­tional bat expert, began a study in 2006 after large numbers of the flying mam­mals were found dead on wind farms near Pincher Creek.

More and more giant windmills tow­er over the landscape in southern Al­berta and across the country as Cana­dians look for greener sources of elec­tricity. But the swooping wind-catch­ing blades are proving fatal to bats.

The study says roughly 90 per cent of the animals that were found dead had severe respiratory injuries consistent with a sudden drop in air pressure that occurs when they get close to turbine blades.

“A large number of the bat carcasses we found had no (visible) injuries. It didn’t look like anything had happened to them," said project leader Erin Baer­wald.

“They were lying on the ground — no broken wings or injuries you would ex­pect to see if they were struck by these large blades."

The blades are 40 metres long and their tips can move at a speed of 250 kilometres an hour.

“We started looking inside and what we found was a large proportion of these bats internally had severe hem­orrhaging, so they were full of blood."

A veterinary pathologist found blood vessels in the bats had burst and the lungs were filling with blood.

“What happens when you fly through an area when the pressure drops dra­matically . . . is the lungs overexpand and it causes breakages in all the small vessels around the lungs," explained Baerwald.

The results of the study were to be published in the Aug. 26 online edition of Current Biology.

There are nine species of bats found in Alberta, three of which migrate through the province each year. The majority of bats killed by wind tur­bines are migratory and roost in trees. They include hoary bats, eastern red bats and silver-haired bats and have been known to migrate from as far away as Mexico and the southern Unit­ed States.

Bats typically reach ages of 30 or more and produce only one or two off­spring at a time, so researchers fear the deaths could have far-reaching conse­quences.

“Slow reproductive rates can limit a population’s ability to recover from crashes and thereby increase the risk of endangerment or extinction," said Barclay in a news release.

He said all three species of migratory bats eat thousands of insects, including crop pests, and large-scale losses of the nocturnal animals could have an im­pact on ecosystems along their routes. Prior to 2005 there were few bat deaths near the turbines, but the older units were about 20 metres lower than the towers now being erected.

Baerwald said there is no obvious way to reduce the pressure drop at wind turbines without severely limit­ing their use. But since bats are more active when wind speeds are low, one strategy she suggested might be to in­crease the rate at which turbine blades rotate during the fall migration.

Wind project not dead yet

Controversial Gulf Shore project may return
DARRELL COLE
The Amherst Daily News
21 August 2008

AMHERST - Despite failing to secure a contract with Nova Scotia Power, a controversial wind farm project proposed for the Pugwash area is not dead.

"We have not abandoned our plans to pursue that project," Atlantic Wind Power Corporation president Charles Demond said Monday. "We're still interested in building a wind farm there. It may be scaled back a bit from what we were proposing, but it will still be a very good wind farm."

Atlantic Wind Farms originally planned to develop a wind farm with between 20 and 27 100-metre tall turbines in the Gulf Shore area. The proposal was opposed by a group of neighbours and Gulf Shore area residents including Anne Murray, who felt the turbines would be too close to homes and cottages and would spoil the natural scenery of the shoreline along the Northumberland Strait.

Demond said the project still has support in the community and the company remains convinced that the Gulf Shore area is ideal for a wind farm. However, it's unlikely the project will be as big as the one submitted to Nova Scotia Power for consideration last year.

"We're no different than a lot of other developers that are moving ahead with things but don't have a contract at this point," he said. "We're continuing on with things like assessment work in the background. When the time is appropriate we'll announce specifically what we're going to do."

When Nova Scotia Power awarded wind power contracts late last year and earlier this year, it opted for another project near Amherst that will include 20 turbines. Construction is expected to begin next April and be operational as soon as five months later.