Hub Staff
To identify if the UNIFOR Industrial Wind Turbine has been operating in compliance with the Noise Guideline for Wind Turbines or the Amended Certificate of Approval, UNIFOR will be conducting an acoustic audit in the spring of 2016, with results set for June.
During the council meeting February 29, the face of Saugeen Turbine Operation Policy (S.T.O.P.), Greg Schmalz, addressed council and reviewed recent developments from their expert noise consultant report.
The report from Novus Environmental “provides evidence of why the UNIFOR turbine should have been classified as Class 3 at a max of 40 dB (decibels) not Class 2 (current classification) which is a max of 45 dB during nighttime limits,” said Schmalz.
The characteristics of being categorized as Class 3 are as follows:
-Small community with less than 1,000 in population (population of Gobles Grove is 583)
-Agricultural area
-Rural recreation area such as cottage or resort area (Gobles Grove Beach)
-Wilderness area (Shipley Trail)
Schmalz surmised that Gobles Grove, just 50 metres from where the turbine sits is a small cottage resort beachfront community - with signage indicating so - is used for rural recreation and is surrounded by agricultural land “which result in natural acoustic sounds that correspond with a Class 3 rating”.
Schmalz stated, “if Class 3 had correctly been assigned to Gobles Grove community (the then) CAW turbine could have never been built.”
Town CAO Larry Allison and town staff counted that 583 people dwell in the Gobles Grove area, which is below the 1,000 contained in the Class 3 factor list.
Despite Saugeen Shores being given a written commitment from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) that annual audit testing would be done within the first two years (2013-2015); and that the commitment is laid out in the CAW Clean Energy Noise Monitoring Plan, currently no acoustic audits have been completed or made public.
In his deposition before council, Schmalz included instances of e-mail back and forth between contacts at the MOECC but summarized that UNIFOR had been given a written directive by MOECC - Owen Sound to do audit tests, making it mandatory rather than voluntary.
Following Schmalz’ deposition, council discussed the importance of the acoustic audit, with it making sense to Vice Deputy Mayor Diane Huber. “I think it’s about time that we asked for it and demanded it. It seems to be in the works, but if it doesn't happen then we remind the Provincial Government that it’s within your right to demand it. And we need that information,” said Huber, adding that it was “glaringly obvious that there are not any realistic numbers (on which) to base any kind of assessment”.
Mayor Mike Smith said it was “disturbing” that the town had made requests years ago for this type of information from the CAW (now UNIFOR).
Following council debate a motion was passed with no contest for a request that would see UNIFOR inform the public of the dating of the upcoming acoustic testing; that the public be informed of changes to the turbine’s operation that may be required to successfully complete the acoustic audit; and that the results of the acoustic audit be made known to the Town of Saugeen Shores as well as the public as soon as the results are available.
Town Council also requested that the MOECC hold UNIFOR’s results accountable; and that once the findings from the audit are known to the MOECC, that the Ministry inform the public of the conclusion as to whether or not the turbine is operating in compliance with the acceptable Guidelines and Approvals.
The last request to the Ministry from Town Council is to make the testing monitory for UNIFOR. And if not completed by September 1, 2016 that the acoustic audit be made mandatory according to the Amended Certificate of Approval.
