A group of concerned residents plans to make their voices heard loud and clear at an upcoming public meeting for a proposed 10-turbine wind farm southwest of Arthur.
About 15 to 20 people – most of them Mapleton residents who live nearby the proposed wind farm – have been meeting regularly and making plans for a rally on Nov. 30 at NextEra Energy’s second public meeting at the PMD Arena in Drayton.
Calling themselves Stop Mapleton Wind Farms (SMWF), the group has scheduled a rally (starting at 6pm) to oppose NextEra’s planned 23-megawatt Conestogo Wind Farm.
“Our community doesn’t want these things, our [current] council doesn’t want them and our new council doesn’t want them,” said group member Dunc Lamond.
A farmer on the 16th Line in Mapleton, Lamond said the group has many concerns about the NextEra proposal, including the possible effects on human and livestock health and the lack of input and approval authority given to municipal governments under the province’s Green Energy Act.
Local organizers hope the Drayton rally will draw as many participants as the one in Fergus on Oct. 26. SMWF members have met with organizers of that rally to get their input, and they expect Oppose Belwood Wind Farm members to attend the Drayton rally for support.
“We are expecting quite a few people from all over Ontario,” said SMWF member John Krul.
He said details of the rally still need to be finalized, but the basic idea is to “express our disappointment with the way the [provincial] government is doing this.”
Krul called the planned NextEra Energy study zone a “very sensitive agricultural area,” adding half of the dairy producers in Wellington County are located in Mapleton Township.
He said some experts have stated wind turbines have adverse health effects on one in seven humans, and he wondered if the same can be said for the thousands of chickens, cattle and other animals located within two kilometres of the planned wind farm.
Both Krul and Lamond noted the irony in that the wind farm is planned in the riding of Perth-Wellington MPP John Wilkinson, who is also the Minister of the Environment.
“We hope to get the message across to John Wilkinson,” said Lamond, who lives “across the road” from the NextEra study area. He said Wilkinson always claims the Liberal government listens to people, but “so far he hasn’t been listening to us.”
Particularly, Lamond said the provincial government “doesn’t seem to want to admit to” the effects that low frequency “infrasound,” like that allegedly generated by wind turbines, can have on humans and animals.
NextEra officials have refused to comment on how many landowners have signed on for their project, but Krul said there are a half dozen or so, two of whom do not even live on their land in the township.
“How can six people determine what is going on in this community without the input from the rest of us?” Krul asked.
Lamond noted three of those landowners are confirmed as “willing hosts” for the 80-metre turbines.
His group is hoping everyone interested or concerned about the proposal comes out to the PMD Arena on Nov. 30.
The NextEra Energy public meeting is from 5 to 8pm, while the protest will begin around 6pm. Anyone wanting more information can visit the Stop Mapleton Wind Farms website at www.smwf.ca.
