By Michael Bennett
Local Journalism Initiative
The Ridgetown Independent News
“Know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any easy way out once these things get built, so you have to be prepared then to suffer the consequences.”
That’s the message a packed house at the Br. 243 Ridgetown Legion heard from Dr. Keith Benn at a citizens’ information session recently concerning a proposed wind turbine farm in Howard and Harwich townships.
Capstone Infrastructure Corporation went public in June with their plans to build the Crossfield Wind Farm, tentatively planned in an area between Communication and Duart Roads to the west and east, that would come close to Ridgetown, Highgate and Moraviantown.
The company hosted an open house in Blenheim earlier in the summer that residents felt they left with more questions than answers, which prompted the CK Concerned Citizens Group to host its public information meeting.
Benn, a professional geoscientist from Port Lambton, chaired the meeting, which featured members of the Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns organization as well as residents sharing their nightmarish experiences of their private water wells being contaminated as a result of ground turbulence created by the installation and operation of industrial wind turbines in Dover and Chatham Townships in the 2010s.
Benn served on the Ministry of Health’s all-hazard expert panel investigation into the cause of the contaminated wells and has been critical of not only the provincial government’s lack of action after the study was completed, but also the way they conducted the tests.
He told the audience that the province only tested the water, but not the sediments in the water.
Local landowners hired a private hydrogeologist to collect water and sediment samples from nine impacted water wells, which showed arsenic, barium, cadmium, cobalt, lead and mercury.
However, the province never tested the sediment samples for potential toxicity.
“The Ministry of Health did not complete this all-hazards investigation properly,” said Benn, who got the Ontario Ombudsman involved in November 2023.
Almost two years later, they are still waiting to hear why the Ministry of Health investigation didn’t include testing the sediment samples.
Christine Burke, who with husband Terry has lived on his family’s century farm for 42 years, told the audience at the Legion how their issues began in 2009 after the first turbines were installed in the Mitchell’s Bay area.
She talked about a mysterious black substance in the water that caused her washing machine and dishwasher to break down, prompting her husband to replace the pump and holding tank.
After the problem slightly subsided, it ramped up again in 2012 when another wind farm was built in the area.
“A black powdery substance started appearing in our tap water, and gradually it got worse and worse again,” she said.
The Burkes rebuilt the entire plumbing system in the house and changed the water line from the well, thinking a crack in the galvanized steel line was allowing sediment to get in their water.
“We did everything under the sun to resolve what we thought was a maintenance issue,” Burke said.
It wasn’t until they started seeing Water Wells First signs popping up around the area and attended a community meeting that they discovered they were not alone with their well issues.
Denise Shepard, representing the Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns organization, warned the audience to be wary of Capstone representatives when they come knocking on your door with their financial offer.
Shepard said she takes “a grain of salt” to claims by Capstone representatives that they already secured 10,000 acres of land and have signed contracts with 70 landowners for the Crosswinds project.
Diana Cornelius, of the WAWC, told the audience about health studies that have been conducted with people who live close to wind turbines.
“There have been many reports of dizziness, motion sickness, sleeplessness, ear pressure, vertigo, irritability, problems of concentration, memory, and more,” Cornelius said. “Some people react to the inaudible, low-frequency noise so severely that they can’t sleep in their home at night.”
Rhonda Jubenville, who made it clear she was speaking for herself and not as a Chatham-Kent councillor, shared some of her experiences on the water wells and windmill controversy since her election in 2022.
In May of 2023, she received unanimous support from council, directing administration to write a letter to the Ministry of Health to put the province on notice for not completing the All-Hazard investigation.
“After 45 days, we did not hear anything from the Ministry of Health, so we sent it again,” Jubenville said. “And to this day, we have not heard a response from this resolution to ask the Ministry of Health to reopen this investigation into the water wells in North Kent.”
Jubenville entered another motion on July 15, 2024, directing the municipality to reject any new wind turbine projects in Chatham-Kent and advise the IESO (Independent Electrical Systems Operator) and any potential applicants “of our decision that that ‘we don’t want you,’” she said.
She said 159 other municipalities had already passed resolutions to be “unwilling hosts” of wind turbines, and she hoped that after the nightmare in Dover and Chatham Townships, Chatham-Kent would follow suit.
Her motion, however, failed 11-3, paving the way for any industrial wind turbine corporations to consider Chatham-Kent, which Capstone has done.
Jubenville said Capstone will be coming to Chatham-Kent council in September to request permission to apply to the IESO for procurement to begin the process of establishing their Crossfield Wind Farm.
Is there a way to request what reading and literature Dr. Keith Benn (or other community members) have digested? I’m interested in what peer-reviewed information is available online, or elsewhere.
I’m asking from an objective point of view – this is new information for me and I’d be interested to hear more on the science and factual side of things! Interesting testimonies from community members.
This said it ALL.
“Know what you’re getting yourself into.”
This article about the wind farm cought my eye. I lived on MCPHERSON While the turbines went up we had the same black stuff in our well after the started not right away but I would say by year one or two. I thought it was from the well pipe. Our filters caught most of it and the water tested fine. Don’t allow them to put the turbines in your area. And yes why was this not identified at testing or was it covered up? They have the addresses of the homes near the Wells to check . Send in your samples this was not in the water before the towers went in. The wind tower companies should pay all the home owners for damage , health and free water. As it was a healthy resource on their property which they paid to have equipment installed to use it for personal and farm use.