A ‘hole’ lot of reason for concern
Administrator | May 31, 2011 | Comments 4
A picture is worth a thousand words. Is this what the people of Prince Edward County want to happen all over their County?
Remember this is a picture of the hole for just one turbine. Massive destruction of our land. Multiply this by the number of turbines that might be placed in the County.
What do you see?
Think about it people.
Doris Lane
Picton
Filed Under: Letters and Opinion
I suggest the next hole should be at 1795 Kilborn Avenue
Ottawa. Perhaps McGuinty would pay attention then.
That ‘Hole’ is getting deeper – I see a lot of carbon and green house gases going into the atmosphere, The trucks driven by the surveyors and construction workers travelling to and from the worksite, The coke fired steel plants in Asia or Mexico or wherever the turbines are built (not in Canada). The transportation by sea then diesel truckers to bring the pieces here, and the huge machinery need to construct the pieces are brought here by truck as well. Yes, roads will be built and old roads damaged. Concrete and asphalt will be required, crushed gravel as well. Let’s see, concrete uses coke (dirtiest of all fossil fuels) not sure what rock crushers burn but I bet it’s another fossil fuel. All the large machinery burns more fossil fuels and emits more CO2 gases. The fracturing of the rock will impact ground water and if done in winter will ‘harass, maim or kill’ any nearby hibernating creatures such as the endangered turtles. Of course, there will be no bodies to count above ground, so it will be a case of ‘see no evil’.
The jobs, yes there will be some short term local jobs as in any large construction, but the planners and project managers and the operators of these special machines will be the ones going from project to project, and when all is done, there maybe 1 person here to oversee the daily operations. More likely for 9 turbines it will be a part-time job.
And how do you re-landscape an alvar region? Do you recommend planting tulips for the spring, day-lilies for the summer and flowering kale for the fall? It won’t matter to the wildlife since they will be gone and the fences will keep the people out.
OK, maybe I am being a bit cynical here – I’m sure Gilead will do just as good a job as the oil sands are doing on reforestation and keeping the ducks off the tailings ponds in Alberta. Because the alternative, being fined a few dollars, is completely unacceptable.
It’s a pretty small hole, compared to a coal mine, or the start of a new nuclear plant.
I also see a bunch of jobs created during the construction of these. The surveyors plotting out the locations of the turbines, and the roads going to them. Heavy machinery operators building the roads. Local haulage delivering the materials needed. Concrete mix companies supplying for the footings and foundations. Concrete workers building the footings and foundations. Steelworkers tying the rebar in said concrete and erecting the turbines. Crane companies placing the towers upright. Some of this work can be done by local companies. And if done by outside workers, they will probably stay locally and spend some money in our community during the construction.
I imagine, after the turbine is up, they will probably re-landscape the area around the turbine.
Well I don’t see any green.
It is an environmental disaster … Dalton should be ashamed of what he is doing to our rural communities.