A local activist group is throwing its support to a number of other organizations across Ontario in a lawsuit against the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
Representatives with Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns met Thursday morning with a group from Dutton-Dunwich to announce that a judicial review application has been filed in connection to provincial regulations and directives limiting the amount of noise any residence in the province should have to tolerate from a wind project.
Denise Shepherd with WAWC says, “We all feel that we have a duty of care for the residents in all of our towns. Today, together with them, we’re making a statement loud and clear – people first, health first. We’re going to do whatever we can for the residents that we share our community with”
Spokesperson for Dutton-Dunwich Opponents of Wind Turbines (DOWT) Bonnie Rowe says five communities have wind projects in various stages that were recently awarded contracts.
Rowe says, “On January 23rd, 2018, a judicial review application was filed against the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change in the Divisional Court in Toronto. DOWT is named at the Applicant on the application. We are alleging that the MOECC has failed to protect our communities from industrial wind turbine noise”
“The MOECC has allowed companies promoting at least 5 large-scale wind projects to ignore new government regulations,” says Rowe. “The result is hundreds of Ontario residents near these planned turbines could be living next to turbines that produce noise out of compliance with government regulations”
According to the group, this action will halt wind projects that are in the REA process in the communities involved in the suit, while the suit goes through the courts.
The 5 large-scale wind turbine projects in question are:
– Eastern Fields Wind Power Project – Municipality of the Nation and the Township of Champlain, United Counties of Prescott-Russell
– Nation Rise Wind Farm, Township of North Stormont, United Counties of North Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry
– Otter Creek Wind Farm, Wallaceburg, Municipality of Chatham-Kent
– Romney Wind Energy Centre, Town of Lakeshore, Municipality of Chatham-Kent
– Strong Breeze Wind Power Project, Municipality of Dutton Dunwich, Elgin County
