Huron Expositor, 2009-06-10, Page 11,r -
Exposits r • June 10, 2009 Page 11
News
Huron Federation of Agriculture is not opposed to
wind farms as long as they're safe, president says
Da•n Sehwab
411111111/11111111.
The Huron County Federation of
Agriculture sent documents to the
councils of Huron East, Bluewater
and Ashfield Colborne Wawanosh
last week, highlighting some con-
cerns about wind energy projects
and their potential affects on farm-
ing operations in the county.
"The bottom line is, the HCFA and
the Ontario Federation of Agricul-
ture are not opposed to wind tur-
bines or other alternative energy
development formats," says Wayne
Black, president of the HCFA. "What
we require is proper regulations to
protect the health and safety of the
residents of Huron County"
Black says he is concerned about
an incident of stray voltage due
to improper construction of power
lines at EPCOR's Kingsbridge wind
farm.
"Now that we think we know what
caused it, let's fix it and move on,"
Black says.
The documents received by local
municipal councils are based on
suggestions presented by the OFA
to the legislative committee review-
ing the Green Energy and Green
Economy Act back in April.
They suggest that stray voltage is
caused by "having power collection
wires for a wind farm too close to
distribution power lines serving a
house or farm."
The OFA recommends increasing
the minimum separation distance
between collection lines and distri-
bution lines from five to 30 metres
and increasing the capacity of col-
lection wires from a typical 32 kilo-
volts to 50 kilovolts.
The OFA noted at its board meet-
ing in March that while wind tur-
bines are providing an economic
stimulus for some farmers in On-
tario, there have been concerns of
stray voltage and noise affecting
some farmers. Some of these cases
involve wind turbines that are set
back greater than the government
regulated distance of 450 metres.
At that meeting, the OFA drafted
a resolution that the organization
"work to initiate a humanand farm
animal impact study of existing On-
tario wind turbine areas so that the
OFA can develop potential turbine
regulatory amendments that pro-
tect farmers and farm businesses
from negative consequences (of
wind turbines)."
During a public open house for the
St. Columban .wind energy project
in Brodhagen last month, residents
were told that wind turbines don't
actually produce stray voltage.
Jim Salmon, of Zephyr North, the
company hired to study the poten-
tial noise levels created by wind
turbines, told some St. Columban
residents that there is already stray
voltage in the system, which would
exist without the construction of
turbines.
"If a gas plant was there instead,
the same thing would happen,"
Salmon said, referring to an in-
cident of stray voltage on a farm
nearby a wind turbine.
Salmon did agree however, that
wind turbines can amplify the pos-
sibility of stray voltage occuring.
The OFA says it has promoted the
idea of a Green Energy Act because
the farm organization believes
"there are real problems associated
with the Western addiction to fossil
fuels."
But when it comes to wind energy,
many local farmers are still con-
cerned about the level of noise the
machines would generate.
"This is an ongoing issue with
some farmers," Black says. "A cou-
ple of farmers have stated the lon-
ger you live with the noise, the more
it bothers them. So, a passerby may
not notice the noise as being an is-
sue, but stay for a week and they
will start to notice it.
Black says he's also heard from
a farmer about the need for more
noise testing done at all hours of
the day, instead of just a selected
time slot.
"I think there are a lot of un-
knowns out there still and until
they are answered we would like
to see the distance separation from
wind turbines and residences in-
creased."
Black adds that there is some mis-
conception that the HCFA supports
a moratorium on wind projects be-
ing planned for Huron County,
which it does not.
He says the farm group supports
green energy applications, but only
if it can be proved they will not
be harmful to residents' health or
farmer's operations.
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