Local activists are taking the issue of water well safety into their own hands.
Spokesman Kevin Jakubec says Water Wells First is in the process of installing several monitoring stations at homes in the Dover area to find proof of a connection between water quality and wind speed and direction.
“The water coming through the aquifer then goes through a turbidity meter, I wonder what the turbidity readings were in that time, I wonder what the wind conditions were,” Jakubec explains. “On the anemometer, it has a little propeller and it picks up wind speed and direction, and so by comparing all these different data points we can start detecting patterns.”
Jakubec says this is the same type of testing the group has been asking the province to conduct to prove a connection between vibrations from turbines and well water, with no success.
The monitoring equipment can cost as much as $15,000, but Jakubec says local retailers have been working to help keep the price as low as they can.
Jakubec says about 20 residents in the Dover area have reported declining water quality since the turbines were built, but across Chatham-Kent there’s the potential for it to affect close to 700 homes.
