SAMSUNG: 14th water well complaint filed . . . .

SAMSUNG: 14th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:15 am

Thirteenth complaint filed against Samsung wind turbine project for water well interference in Chatham-Kent

[ https://canadians.org/media/thirteenth- ... terference ]

Media Release September 27, 2017

(PHOTO: Black Shale Contaminated Water . . . at end of Blog)


Chatham, ON – Thirteen Chatham area well owners have now filed water well interference complaints following the start of construction on a 34 turbine wind power project near their farms. The Council of Canadians is demanding work stop on the project immediately.

The project developer, North Kent Wind One (owned by Samsung Energy and Pattern Energy), started pile driving for the first turbine foundation in late June. The vibrations caused by the pile driving can be felt hundreds of meters away. Before construction began, experts predicted that local wells could suffer siltation problems from the vibrations. Some of the 13 wells affected to date have become so silted up that water no longer flows through the household plumbing.

Chatham-Kent residents have been working to protect their well water after learning of pollution problems faced by dozens of families in neighbouring Dover Township where wells began showing high levels of black silt as soon as pile driving started for various wind turbine projects built there over the last eight years. Both counties sit atop the Kettle Point black shale bedrock formation.

When the steel pilings of turbine foundations are driven into the shale, the vibrations cause black silt to enter water wells nearby. In Dover, there is also ample evidence that even long after construction, certain wind conditions cause the turbines to vibrate and black silt appears in area wells again.

Last year, Kevin Jakubec, the spokesperson for Water Wells First – a group formed out of concern that the proposed North Kent Wind One project would harm local wells – challenged the provincial approval of the project at the Environmental Review Tribunal. Several expert witnesses testified that the Kettle Point black shale formation could send silt into the overlying aquifer when vibrated and that wind turbines could transmit vibrations through their pilings anchored in the bedrock, causing problems up to several kilometres away.

“We worried we were going to face the same problems from North Kent One that people in Dover have had to live with for the last eight years,” said Kevin Jakubec. “Despite all our work to warn the Ontario government and the company, despite all the evidence we now have of well interference, they both continue to pretend that nothing is wrong. This isn’t about whether wind power is good or bad. This is about a poorly designed project wrecking our water and a government that is so deeply beholden to the interests of billion-dollar corporations that it refuses to protect its own citizens.”

This latest well interference complaint was made by Calvin Simmons who first noticed sediment appearing in his family’s well water in August after pile driving started nearby.

“It’s devastating to have this happen to our water after living in this area for almost 50 years,” said Simmons. “I am worried that my family, friends and neighbours could get sick from the water now. The greed behind this is truly disheartening.”

North Kent One Wind recently sought a court injunction and an award of legal costs against protestors who had been blocking access to one of the 34 turbine construction sites. A hearing on the injunction is set for Thursday, September 28. The protestors were ordered not to further block or otherwise interfere with any construction activities.

The Council of Canadians provided non-violent civil disobedience training to dozens of local residents last May and Council of Canadians chapters from Windsor and London travelled to the blockade site in August. Last Sunday, the Council’s Honorary Chairperson, Maude Barlow, spoke at a Dover Centre event in support of the community and water as a human right.

“It is outrageous that the Ontario government is refusing to halt construction in the face of overwhelming evidence that harm is being done,” said Barlow. “The Wynne government must order the construction to stop now. If Samsung can’t do this project without damaging people’s water then they should not do it at all.” -30-

For more information, contact:

Council of Canadians - Mark Calzavara, 416-319-6524
Water Wells First - Kevin Jakubec, 519-350-9458


For media calls:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer
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E-mail: dpenner@canadians.org

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Re: SAMSUNG: 13th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:12 am

Ontario government fails to protect drinking water from Samsung energy project

[ https://canadians.org/blog/ontario-gove ... gy-project ]

October 7, 2017 - 5:10 pm

(PHOTO: The Council of Canadians Windsor-Essex and London chapter visited the community blockade of the North Kent Wind project construction site in late-August. Windsor-Essex chapter activist Randy Emerson says, "We were there to protect the Kettle Point Black Shale aquifer.")

The Council of Canadians is deeply concerned by the impact pile-driving construction activities - for the 34-turbine North Kent Wind project - are having on drinking water for residents in the Chatham, Ontario area.

The North Kent Wind project is a joint venture of the South Korean-based transnational Samsung and its US-based partner Pattern Energy.

The Chatham Daily News now reports, "[Water Wells First activist Kevin] Jakubec [says] 18 water wells in two townships – 13 in Chatham Township and five in Dover Township – with a common pollution problem of sediments – have been brought to the attention of the [Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change - the MOECC] ...'and there's been nothing back from them'..."

The newspaper further notes, "For more than a year, [Water Wells First] has raised concerns that vibrations from the construction and operation of industrial wind turbines will cause heavy metal-laden Kettle Point black shale – which makes up the bedrock on which the area's ground water aquifer is located – to shake loose and get into the water. The black shale is known to contain heavy metals that are danger to human health, including uranium, arsenic and lead."

The article highlights, "Residents seeing impacts on their water wells from nearby wind turbine construction are concerned they will no longer have a strong advocate at their side. [That's because the MOECC says Jakubec cannot be present when its staff comes to test their water.] ...[Jakubec] said the ministry knows he will advise property owners to ask why the MOECC isn't collecting sediment samples, because that is the common pollutant being seen in wells that are going bad. ...[The permit granted by the MOECC for the project doesn't require testing of] the sediments..."

The MOECC fought against community efforts to have heavy metal testing added as a condition for the permit, also known as the Renewable Energy Approval or REA. Now the MOECC is doing turbidity tests for heavy metals dissolved in the water, but Jakubec says it should be looking in the sediments.

Council of Canadians organizer Mark Calzavara says, "It is inexcusable that the Ontario government is refusing to halt construction in the face of the overwhelming evidence that harm is being done.”

The Council of Canadians provided non-violent civil disobedience training to dozens of local residents last May and Council of Canadians chapters from Windsor and London travelled to a community blockade of the construction site in August. In September, Council of Canadians honorary chairperson Maude Barlow spoke in solidarity at a Water Wells First public forum near Chatham.

The Council of Canadians supports wind power as a sustainable energy alternative to the environmental harms associated with fossil fuels and hydroelectric power, but we also recognize that any major energy project can have environmental implications that must be fully assessed (including impacts on drinking water).

To read the full Chatham Daily News article, please click here:
[ http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2017/10/ ... nts-tested ]


Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
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Re: SAMSUNG: 13th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:26 am

Samsung set to take away Chatham family’s water

[ https://canadians.org/blog/samsung-set- ... ilys-water ]

September 12, 2017 - 12:57 pm

(PHOTO: Jessica Brooks in front of water tank that the construction company says they will remove.)

In Chatham-Kent, the Ontario government is allowing Samsung (and their partner, Pattern Energy) to run roughshod over the community during the construction of 34 foundations for the North Kent 1 wind turbine project. Since the company began pile driving, there have been 9 complaints of well interference and several families have lost the use of their water wells. Today, the construction company is set to remove a water tank they had provided to the Brooks family just last month after their well became plugged with black shale silt immediately following the start of pile driving nearby. The company says they looked at vibration monitoring data and decided that the problem wasn’t caused by their pile driving so they can remove the water tank. This is the latest outrage in a story that has been playing out in the region for almost 10 years.

In nearby Dover Township, dozens of wells were affected by similar construction methods for wind turbines. Those wells access the same kind of aquifer-one that sits atop the same geological formation - Kettle Point Black Shale - as in Chatham-Kent. Last year, people in the Chatham area formed a group, Water Wells First [ http://www.waterwellsfirst.org/ ], in order to shed some light on the problem before the North Kent 1 wind project was built. They alerted the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and every other government agency at every level that dealt with water. They found experts on bedrock geology, on hydrogeology, vibration experts – even experts on vibrations generated specifically by wind turbines! They appealed the government’s decision to approve North Kent 1 in a hearing before the Environmental Review Tribunal.

They did everything right but as the hearing progressed, they began to realize that the entire process was so slanted in favour of the proponents that they had little chance of winning. So they settled for a mediation process which at least got them a commitment that the proponents would pay for baseline testing of people’s water before the start of construction and provide clean water if any wells were interfered with. This is critical as the onus is on the well owner to prove that their water quality has been affected to get compensation. But the devil is in the details and the decisions made about everything from what contaminants would be tested for, to how and when the testing would happen, all seemed to be made with an eye to limiting the liability of the company.

In response, Water Wells First organized their own water testing program under the supervision of a qualified hydrogeologist, establishing a proper water-quality baseline for over 60 wells at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars out of their own pockets. When construction started this summer, the predictions of the experts became reality. Wells that had run clean and pure for generations suddenly were filling with black silt - some to the point that the water stopped flowing. The families filed well interference complaints with the company and with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC). Two of the families were given water tanks by the construction company. Now, the company is claiming that the construction activity is not to blame for the sudden problems with these wells and the MOECC agrees.

But the problem doesn’t stop with construction of the turbine foundations. In Dover, the turbine foundations were punched right into the Kettle Point Black Shale formation some 60 ft below the surface so that the massive turbines wouldn’t fall over. In certain wind conditions, turbines vibrate and those vibrations can travel several kilometres underground. People in Dover have been getting intermittent periods of black shale silt in their wells for years after the construction was completed. The hydrogeologists, bedrock geologists, and vibration experts that Water Wells First brought in to testify at the Environmental Review Tribunal all said this could happen if the North Kent 1 project went ahead as approved by the MOECC.

Now it is happening and the MOECC refuses to acknowledge it, relying on a fatally flawed theoretical vibration model provided by the company and a vibration monitoring program that seems designed to avoid detecting vibrations in the bedrock. The model was based on the wrong shale formation- using data from the Hamilton Shale formation instead of the Kettle Point formation. And the vibration monitoring devices are not placed at the bottom of wells on the black shale itself (where the experts said it they had to be to provide useful information) but on the well casings, one foot above ground. One might expect that multi-billion dollar corporations would try and skew studies and reports in their favour but surely, our government must step in when actual harm is being done-regardless of what the proponent’s models and data indicate.

But the Ontario government is refusing to act- despite the years of problems in Dover, despite the expert testimony warning of the likelihood of similar problems in Chatham-Kent, despite the clear evidence of previously clear wells filling with black shale silt immediately after the commencement of pile driving. How many more families will lose their water before Ontario intervenes and upholds the law and the conditions of the approval they issued?

See my blog from May 8th for more background:
[ https://canadians.org/blog/samsung-pile ... r-supplies ]



Tags: drinking water
[ https://canadians.org/tags/drinking-water ]

Mark Calzavara's blog
Council of Canadians' Ontario-Quebec regional organizer
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/mark-calzavara ]
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Re: SAMSUNG: 13th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:27 am

Samsung pile driving threatens Chatham groundwater supplies.

[ https://canadians.org/blog/samsung-pile ... r-supplies ]

May 8, 2017 - 11:49 am

Any day now, electronics giant Samsung will begin pile driving more than 1500 massive steel beams into the bedrock near Chatham Ontario to anchor the foundations of 34 giant wind turbines they are installing for the North Kent 1 Wind Project. The bedrock is Kettle Point Black Shale and turbines anchored to it in the same manner in neighbouring Dover Township have already harmed the well water of dozens of families. Vibrations from the pile driving stirred up fine black shale particles that normally lay inert and harmless. Some of the particles are so fine that they cannot be effectively filtered out – making the water undrinkable and even dangerous to shower in. Once the turbines began operating, vibrations that occur at certain wind speeds caused even more particles of black shale to shake loose and enter local wells (much like how an unbalanced wheel will make a car shake at certain speeds). I saw this first hand when I visited Chatham and Dover this weekend to give a non-violent direct action training to dozens of local residents who have tried in vain to get the Ontario government and Samsung to change the construction methods. They are determined to stop the construction – even if it means going to jail. Nobody I met was against wind power – in fact most welcomed the projects and never suspected that their sudden well water problems were caused by turbines a few kilometers away.

(PHOTO: Mark St Pierre with a sample of what a filter removed from his well water in just two days.)

Mark and Marilyn St. Pierre have lived in Dover for 40 years where they raised 87 foster children in a home with perfect (and frequently inspected) well water. When the five “Marsh Line” turbines were installed one kilometer away in 2008, Mark was thrilled. “I thought it was amazing that we could make electricity with no pollution – I was 100% in support of them.” But his previously impeccable well water immediately went cloudy. He bought filters to put on his pump, but the filters would quickly clog with fine black powder. He drilled another well on his property, but it gave black, silty water too. Mark didn’t suspect the turbines because he knew that the groundwater under his property flowed towards the turbines, so how could they possibly be the problem? The source of the pollution is the bedrock itself. The cause of the pollution is the vibrations that stir up the fine silt. As more turbines were installed nearby, the problem got worse. Now, even though there has been no recent turbine construction nearby for more than 3 years, his water is still polluted. So is the water of many of his neighbours – but only some of them can admit this. Dozens of families in the area have been “compensated” by the wind developer with water filtration systems costing $8000 or more. To get one, you have to sign a “non-disclosure” agreement, a gag order, promising under threat of legal prosecution not to tell anyone – not even the government, that your water was harmed and that the wind company was paying you compensation.

The Burke family lives a few kilometers down the road from the St. Pierres and have been there for four generations. Their well water was perfectly fine for almost a century but when the turbines were installed nearby, it quickly changed. Christine Burke noticed that her laundry was suddenly coming out of the machine flecked with black. Then they found the bottom of their toilet tank was covered in a layer of fine black silt. Eventually, they started to hear that others had problems too – but it took time before the connection to the wind turbines was discovered. Their dreams of opening a bed and breakfast on their farm have been crushed by bad water.

Last year, people in the Chatham area formed a group, Water Wells First [ http://www.waterwellsfirst.org/ ], in order to shed some light on the problem before the North Kent 1 wind project was built. They alerted the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and every other government agency at every level that dealt with water. They found experts on bedrock geology, on hydrogeology, vibration experts – even experts on vibrations generated specifically by wind turbines! They got a hearing in front of the Environmental Review Tribunal. They did everything right. Eventually, they began to realize that the entire process was so slanted in favour of the proponents that they had little chance of winning. So they settled for a mediation process which at least got them a commitment that the proponents would pay for baseline testing of people’s water before the start of construction. This is critical as the onus is on the well owner to prove that their water quality has been affected to get compensation. But the devil is in the details and the decisions made about everything from what contaminants would be tested for, to how and when the testing would happen, all seemed to be made with an eye to limiting the liability of the company.

And once again, people in Ontario have come to the realization that their governments will not protect the water – it is up to us.

Despite clear indications that anchoring wind turbines into the Kettle Point Black Shale threatens to render undrinkable the well water of hundreds of people, Samsung refuses to change their construction methods and refuses to offer guarantees to area residents that they will install municipal water lines to any homes whose well water is ruined.

Water Wells First has started an international boycott of Samsung. And in the coming days, they are going to put their bodies on the line to stop construction of Samsung’s “North Kent 1” wind farm.

Tags: Water
[ https://canadians.org/tags/water ]


Mark Calzavara's blog
Council of Canadians' Ontario-Quebec regional organizer
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/mark-calzavara ]
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Re: SAMSUNG: 13th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:41 am

Council of Canadians slams heavy-handed Samsung Energy legal tactics

[ https://canadians.org/media/council-can ... al-tactics ]

Media Release October 11, 2017

Chatham, ON – The Council of Canadians is condemning Samsung Energy for filing a million dollar plus statement of claim against Chatham area residents who blocked construction at one of 34 wind turbines the company is erecting as part of its North Kent One* wind power project.

Many of the people who took part in the 11 day blockade have filed well interference complaints against the developer, citing the vibrations from the company’s pile driving activity as the cause of the sudden influx of black silt in their wells. At least thirteen well interference complaints have been made since the company started pile driving for the turbine foundations last June.

According to the developer’s Statement of Claim, the impact of the construction delay caused by the blockade “amounts to costs ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 per day, covering only the current amount of labour and equipment idle.”

The Statement of Claim names Water Wells First spokesperson Kevin Jakubec and Cindy Soney as defendants. It also includes “other individuals who have been involved in the unlawful conduct….who have not yet been identified and have been named as John Doe and Jane Doe.”

The well water on the Jakubec family’s farm became polluted with black silt shortly after pile driving began nearby.

“Our well water was crystal clear for decades before the pile driving started,” said Jakubec. “Now, Samsung is claiming that we damaged them to the tune of millions of dollars. I wonder how they sleep at night because I sure can’t.”

In 2016, Kevin Jakubec challenged the government’s approval of the North Kent One project at the Environmental Review Tribunal where expert witnesses warned specifically that vibrations from pile driving could cause the pollution problems seen in the last few months.

“Million dollar lawsuits are usually meant to intimidate,” said Mark Calzavara, Ontario Organizer for The Council of Canadians. “But people don’t back down when it comes to protecting their water. The evidence clearly shows that the construction is causing the pollution. Samsung must stop this project now.”

* North Kent One Wind is owned and developed by Samsung Energy and Pattern Energy.


-30-

For more information or to arrange interviews:

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians,
613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org. Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs
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Re: SAMSUNG: 13th water well complaint filed . . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:32 am

MEDIA RELEASE: Fourteenth complaint filed against Samsung wind turbine project for polluting water wells in Chatham-Kent

[ https://canadians.org/media/media-relea ... ting-water ]

Media Release October 20, 2017

Chatham, ON – Fourteen Chatham area well owners have now filed water well interference complaints against the developers of a 34 turbine wind power project near their farms. The Council of Canadians is demanding work stop immediately on the North Kent One Wind project (owned by Samsung Energy and Pattern Energy) before more families lose their well water.

Dave Lusk filed the fourteenth well interference complaint after his water stopped running while he was showering on Wednesday. “Four generations of my family have had pure, beautiful drinking water from that well for 52 years” said Lusk. “A week after the pile drivers started next door, we are choked out with black silt. How the hell are they allowed to keep doing this to people? This has to stop.”

Several of the 14 wells affected to date have become so silted up that water no longer flows through the household plumbing.

Last September, Kevin Jakubec, the spokesperson for Water Wells First – a group formed out of concern that the proposed North Kent Wind One project would harm local wells – challenged the provincial approval of the project at an Environmental Review Tribunal hearing. Experts testified that vibrations from both pile driving and wind turbine operation would cause pollution problems in local wells, but the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change continues to rely on a vibration study paid for by the developers which predicted no adverse affects.

“Despite all our work to warn the Ontario government and Samsung, despite 14 pristine wells suddenly becoming polluted when pile driving started, they continue to pretend that nothing is wrong” said Kevin Jakubec. “This isn’t about whether wind power is good or bad. This is about a poorly designed project wrecking our water. This is about a government that is so deeply beholden to the interests of billion-dollar corporations that it refuses to protect its own citizens.”

North Kent One Wind recently won a court injunction against protestors who had blocked access to one of the 34 turbine construction sites for 11 days in August.

The Council of Canadians provided non-violent civil disobedience training to dozens of local residents last May and Council of Canadians chapter volunteers from Windsor and London visited the blockade site in August. On September 24, Maude Barlow, Honorary Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, spoke at a Dover Centre event in support of the community and water as a human right.

“It is outrageous that the Ontario government is refusing to halt construction in the face of such overwhelming evidence,” said Barlow. “The Wynne government must order the construction to stop now. If Samsung can’t do this project without damaging people’s water then they should not do it at all.” -30-

Media contact

For media calls:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer
Cell: (613) 795-8685
Office: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249
E-mail: dpenner@canadians.org
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