Wallace continues fight to protect water

January 7, 2015 · 0 Comments

Green Party candidate Karren Wallace says she will carry on her fight to protect Dufferin County source water from possible contamination by Dufferin Wind Power transmission poles despite the December dismissal of her request for a hearing by the Environmental Tribunal panelled by Justin Duncan and Dirk Vanderbent. “I am however going to continue using a different tactic,” says Wallace, “I am taking my cue from NDACT and Site 41. They never gave up.”
The Environmental Tribunal decision dismissed Wallace’s request on the grounds “the Appellant’s appeal must relate to the Project design changes which the Director has approved. The Tribunal does not have the jurisdiction to consider, in this proceeding, other approvals, orders or decisions made by the MOE.”
Wallace told the Free Press: “The request filed by DWP (at the preliminary hearing in Shelburne, December 2nd) was for them to be excused from having to go to a public hearing because they were doing minor variations from what was originally approved at a public hearing last December. This was a condition of their original approval; any major changes must go through a public process. So my question is why file for an exemption for a MINOR variation, but a major deviation like remediating 316 penta treated poles did not go through a hearing and a public process? Instead it was left up to a bureaucrat and DWP to decide how to fix the mess. The fact DWP and the MOECC won’t release the remediation plan is extremely concerning.”
The Environmental Review Tribunal is an independent body that hears public appeals including the Environmental Act. Proceedings December 2nd were to confirm procedural directions for the main hearing that was to have been held in the coming year, but is now dismissed. Opposing Wallace were DWPI lawyers John Terry and Denis Mahony and Sylvia Davies the lawyer for the Director of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Control (MOECC).
Citizens in the Township of Melancthon, Wallace’s home turf, have grave concerns about the safety of the chemically treated poles when it comes to their drinking water. They are looking for assurance from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) that the penta chemicals will not leach into source water and that deep bore holes that penetrate the bedrock will not act as conduits for groundwater run off containing fertilizers and other containments.
David Thwaits is one such citizen; a retired litigator, he has supported Wallace and Melancthon neighbours in their concerns and voiced his to Gary Tomlinson of the Guelph office of the MOECC in a December 8th letter, after bearing witness to the preliminary hearing:
“I am aware that Dufferin Wind Power has continued to refuse to disclose to concerned citizens how DWP is “addressing” the impact of the project on the people, the land and the environment. I am aware that the MOE has determined to frustrate like disclosure and has also determined not to disclose to the Township the mitigation plan choosing rather to rationalize the non-disclosure by blaming the present appeal and also to postpone disclosure until the whole project is done (thus in effect preventing those with concerns from having any input). Why has the MOE simply not provided timely real disclosure since July, 2014 rather than simply providing a letter of rationalization…?
I am aware that Dufferin Wind Power has professed an interest in transparency but refused to mediate the concerns raised in the existing appeal and has furthered that block to transparency by bringing a motion before the Tribunal that might totally close the door to any disclosure.”
Thwaites was correct in his assessment and says that from his perspective “the MOE has simply facilitated and condoned the approach of DWP rather than fulfill its mandate owed to the citizens of Ontario.” Thwaites, a new comer to politics, lost his bid for Mayor of Melancthon in the recent Municipal election to the former Deputy Mayor Darren White, but like Wallace, continues to step up to speak for the citizens of his Township. “The MOE apparently has its own timetable and perspective which has and does differ from those of many in Melancthon as to issues that arise from wind projects,” says Thwaites.
Wallace said from the outset that the environmental review process was “heavily weighted against the average citizen,” and expressed her gratitude to the Melancthon residents “who single handedly kept pursuing the penta issue for months and months with the MOECC until they finally admitted there was in fact a problem.”

By Marni Walsh