Protesters will be out in force this morning as construction of the North Kent Wind 1 project has officially begun.
Water Wells First spokesman Kevin Jakubec was on hand yesterday morning as the first piles were driven into the ground off Darrell Line, just north of Chatham.
He says an information picket will begin this morning to help educate construction workers at the site.
“We need to let them know that on this particular construction project, you’re putting our water at risk and our families’ health at risk,” Jakubec says. “We’ll give them literature in the form of postcards that have pictures on them and try to educate them. We won’t try to stop them from entry into the construction site.”
However, Jakubec says if need be, Water Wells First members are willing to step up their tactics to include non-violent forms of civil disobedience.
“If it means that we have to handcuff ourselves to the pile driver hammer, we’ll do that, if we have to go to blockading an access road so that more piles can’t be delivered to that site or a pile driver delivered to that site, we’ll do that.”
Water Wells First believes pile driving from wind turbine construction is responsible for increased sediment and contamination in some wells around Dover.
Jakubec says if the group doesn’t get the answers it wants from North Kent Wind and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, members will expand protests to MOECC offices and even a so-called “slow drive” along the 401 to Queens Park in Toronto.
