Local grassroots advocacy group Water Wells First (WWF) is upping its game, launching what they promise is the first of a “very active protest campaign.”
According to WWF spokesperson Kevin Jakubec, the group intends to give out the first of several Shame Awards Monday night to Boralex, a partner in the Otter Creek Wind Farm project currently in the works for north of Wallaceburg.
“The Shame Award is intended to draw attention to a company that says they are interested in protecting water but, in fact, the opposite is true,” Jakubec said in a statement. “By awarding the Trojan Horse Shame Award, we are reminded of what a Trojan horse from myth represents; a thing intended to undermine or destroy from within.”
Jakubec said Boralex also operates the Marsh Line wind farm in the former Dover Township, where he says the construction of the wind farm coincided with a number of water wells becoming turbid and now containing black particulates.
WWF intends to give the Shame Award to Boralex at a public meeting the wind farm company has scheduled for Monday night near Wallaceburg at the former Baldoon Golf and Country Club on 7018 Dufferin Rd.
“This is just the beginning. We will have Shame Awards for people, be it municipal or provincial government officials who don’t stand up to protect our water resources,” Jakubec added.
The size of the proposed wind turbines for the Otter Creek project are also an issue for WWF, said Jakubec, who questions why the bigger industrial turbines, which measure 129 metres (423.12 feet) from foundation to hub, with 66.7 metre (218.78 foot) blade length. He is concerned the larger turbines, which are twice the size of turbines in Dover Township, will create even more vibrations, deeper into the footings in the ground.
