When it comes to the safety of our water supply, be it from municipal treatment plants or aquifers that feed private wells, someone has to be responsible.
To leave private well owners with the responsibility and financial burden of testing their water and begging someone, anyone, to care that a well is contaminated with potentially toxic levels of heavy metals is shameful.
These are established wells in Dover Township that we’re talking about; ones that have gone from supplying clean, clear water to belching out sludge.
We don’t live in a Third World country where we have no choice but to accept dirty water and all the diseases that come with it. We live in Canada, in Ontario, where we pay plenty of taxes to ensure our government monitors and ensures the cleanliness of our water supply.
Just test the water. If the aquifer supplying the wells is contaminated because of vibrations from the wind turbines then fix it. Make the wind companies put vibration dampening equipment on the turbines. Shouldn’t our government make the companies actually find out what is under the area where they want to put a turbine before they start pounding into the ground and stirring up bedrock known to have heavy metals in it?
It’s not rocket science, but it is science. In our rush to accommodate green energy and the wind turbines, we can’t ignore the problems that are now coming to light.
It’s like the saying goes: when you know better, you do better. It is time to make the wind turbine companies do better before they dig.
Water Wells First members will tell you they are not anti-wind, and they are not against turbines in Chatham-Kent. What they are against is turbines built over Kettle Point black shale with vibration levels that cause particles of the shale to enter the water aquifers and contaminate wells in Chatham-Kent.
Not one more shovel should go in the dirt for a wind turbine in Chatham-Kent until they test the water in Dover to determine the levels of heavy metal, investigate the vibration issue as a contaminant as set out the Environmental Protection Act, and come up with a mitigation plan acceptable to private well owners who may have to turn to municipal water lines for their property.
No more excuses and passing the buck. We are a municipality in a First World country. Let’s act like it.
It would be easy for the Mayor and Council to hold the Wind Turbine Company accountable for every damaged well. It is written in the Contract Agreement that the Turbine Company must rectify every well problem at their expense. They are supposed top do a water test before and after the installation of the turbine, and if their is any impact on the quality of the water, THEY PAY! Council has not figured this out yet!