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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