Lucknow Sentinel, 2009-05-06, Page 2Lucknow
Ontario Ag
Minister visits
Lucknow...
!ind tur
For Sandy MacLeod
and= a group of l l neigh-
bours living in the Ripley
industrial. wind turbine
project, it's. been a very
.long 18 months. They just
want the healthy home
environment they had
enjoyed for some three to
32 years retur e4i
"We ,lust want' it to' be
over," said MacLeod.
The SiMple request goes
out • to the companies
Acciona ` and Suncor that
own the project: and to the
provincial Liberal govern-
ment who approved the
a - standards.. The
up t o includes Joh
Brenda and Glen Wylds,
Helen and Ross Forster,
Barbara Basser, Melissa
Cammaert, Kent Wylds
and their daughter Keiara
plus David Colling who
has been helping the
group by testing electri-
cal pollution at their prop-
erties.
In a recent interview, at
the MacLeod residence,
all made it clear that the
familys' environments had
two changes occur psi simul-
taneously in November of
2047.. First there was a
change in' the hydro con-
figuration to their homes
enabling electrical pollu-
tion to enter via a cross
contamination from the
wind turbine high voltage
collection lines. The sec-
ond change was the repet-
itive sound, both low fre-
quency and audible from
the blades of the industrial
turbines that began rotat-
ing close to and above the
height. 'of their homes.
Since these .two changes,
all began. experiencing
. sleep deprivation, hum-
ming in the head and ears,
stress, anxiety, heart palpi-
tations, increased blood
pressure, vibrations in the
chest, earaches,
headaches, an increased
Wednesdas
May6,2009
.., •
Week 19- Vol. 136
gst included
Publications Mail Registration
No. 07656
.,. • ...
Bringing Together
Huron & Bruce
ines still a health concern for group
Photo by Gait Reid
The group that calls themieives the Victims of Wind -The Ripley Group is seen
here at the residence of john. and Sandy MacLeod *stone can see the proximity of
the wind turbines in the distance. From left to 01 are Brenda WyIds, Glen Wylds,
Davi CoU I g, Melissa CamMoert, Sandy john MacLeod and In the front
are Mut WO*, his deur Kelaru Wy ds and Barbara Basser. Absent from the
picture are Helen Forster, Ross Forster and Erin MacLeod.
sensitivity to noise and was the 'Cadillac' of tur- Wylds. During time away
sore eyes. It gets- worse bines and if there was a from the harmful environ -
when thewinds increase. health problem that the ment . all stated that their
Before the development companies would work symptoms began to
was up and running they forward to resolve the decrease. This huge life
had questions. "In May problem. upheaval continued until
2007 we had set up regu- The problems got the cofnpanies had the
lar monthly meetings with worse. Between May to homes disconnected from
representatives from both July of 2008 the Forster, Hydro ' One and put on
companies to answers our MacLeod and family stand alone generators for
concerns about health, members became so ill months to determine if the
property values, construe- they. were billeted in electrical pollution could
.tion problems, and the hotels, motels and board- be a factor.
bird population," said ing homes in Kincardine This action helped, as
Helen Forster. paid for by the wind corn- did burying two sections
At each meeting they pany. of high voltage collector
asked the mind developers That's when David lines, but, it wasn't back to
to produce the protocol Coiling, an electrical pol- 100 per cent. There were
they used if a "stakeholder lution consultant and the a lot of so-called delays
er" had health problems in wind representative found and some • people did not
one of their other wind another group . of victims get back into their home
projects. No protocolowas in the Wyld's family. "We until, the Friday before
ever produced. They too began to be billeted in Christmas. Nothing was
were - assured over and Kincardine for the next six done for others.
over that the E-82 turbine months," said Glen After .an . underground
line failure and winter
winds, severe health prob-
lems forced Glen and
Brenda Wylds to purchase
and move to another resi-
dence in Kincardine.
Sandy MacLeod experi-
enced heart attack like
symptoms and was
ordered to have an altema-
tive place to live and a
health leave from work.
More recently, in April,
Kent, Melissa and their
daughter Keiara Wylds
have been billeted in a
IKincar .dine motel by the
oil company/wind devel-
oper. Today,_two families
have, at their own
expense, been forced to
modify their residence.
'hese who continue to
reside in their homes con-
tinue to experience* sypp�
toms on a regular basis.
After about an hour or
twoof being out of the
area, Glen Wylds pretty
much' stops . feeling the
symptoms until he gets
near fluorescent lighting.
"1 have documentation on
electromagnetic hypersen-
sitivity (EHS) and what
they. are experiencing is
like a peanut allergy," said
David Colling. "Every
time they go back into a
similar environment their
symptoms will reappear
and EHS will likely be
with them for the rest of
their life."
In a recent response
from Acciona, Eric
Schneer, the director of
communications for North
America, said, "We can't.
find any co -relation
between their health con-
cerns and the . wind farm
project. We have 208 wind
farms in 14 countries and
have never had these type
of problems. I don't want
to dismiss their symp-
toms, but it's not common
to wind farms."
Continued on page 2