Officials working on the North Kent Wind project are confident that the recent turbine construction is not at fault for problems with local wells.
At the North Kent Wind Community Liaison open house last night at Countryview Golf Course, Golder Associates Geotechnical Engineer Storer Boone said though they’ve seen similar issues before, it was under different circumstances.
“The complaints that are actually related to construction involve shallow wells that are in very close proximity to construction – a few metres to 10-20 metres, not hundreds of metres away”, says Boone.
He says in the North Kent area, the wells are much deeper, and several hundred metres away from construction site.
“Our different companies have seen [this] before, but under quite significantly different circumstances”, Boone explains.
According to Boone, the North Kent area has a history of well issues, similar to the ones being experienced now, that they’ve heard of both anecdotally and through public well records.
“There’s a public database that anyone can go on. The whole area is known for wells being drilled that [experience problems and are abanonded, then new wells are drilled and are dry or have cloudy water], and this goes on from the records that go back to the 1940s. So there are decades of issues in this area that long preceded this kind of work”, says Boone.
Since the project began several months ago, several residents have come forward with well concerns after finding sediment in their water. Officials with the North Kent Wind project have stated before that these issues are not caused by wind turbine construction.
