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Proposed wind farm in Lake O - a big one - environmental assesment?


forrest

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I for one think they are pretty neat looking......we have a row of 6 here on the U.S. side just south of Buffalo as Im sure alot of you can see. They dont bother me at all and like i said, i think they add some interest to a pretty dull area of the waterfront. Look alot nicer than the smokestacks that used to protrude out of the bethlehem steel plant.

 

THose were approved, but somehow, migrating birds have stalled the new peace bridge proposal for fear of them running into the bridge. Wouldnt a movnig target be even harder to dodge lol

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My only concern with the wind farms in general is the low frequencies they emit. There have been numerous studies that have concluded that the low frequencies they emit, into the ground and surrounding area can be harmful to humans. That is why they have a standing requirement of no less than one kilometer away from any residence or human occupied building.

As we all know, water is an excellent conductor of vibration, so, my thinking is that those wind farms may actually cause dead zones in the lake.

Frankly, I don't care about those who claim that their view of the lake will be diminished, but I do have to wonder if we have tested these machines against their effect on the environment.

(I do have some insight as one of the leading wind farm companies was a client of mine. I spoke many times with their engineers and this is the info they have passed along to me!)

HH

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We'll find out, they want to put a bunch of them off shore of Main Duck wildlife preserve ( They always seem to want to build these industrial parks next to a conservation area, maybe they just don't want to pay the price of land already zoned for industry.) The shoal at Main Duck has the best small mouth fishing going so it won't take long to find out what spawning smallies think of wind turbines.

 

 

 

I didn't think you could build cement seawalls anymore but I think thats the plan.

 

They could put one on Scotch bonnet Is. and churn up a few thousand cormorants.

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My only concern with the wind farms in general is the low frequencies they emit. There have been numerous studies that have concluded that the low frequencies they emit, into the ground and surrounding area can be harmful to humans. That is why they have a standing requirement of no less than one kilometer away from any residence or human occupied building.

 

Someone should tell that to those poor buggers in the village on hwy 89 east of Grand Valley. They have the buggers in their back yards... 100's of them !

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Windmills Jon.. windmills. I forget the name of the village.. it's West of Shelburne and the landscape is totally covered in these things. Right in peoples back yards... every farm.. etc.

 

Erin?????

 

 

Theres a fella here that has one on his property,yep right close to the bay here. It.s his own personal use one.

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I've traveled through fields of windmills in southern Minnesota and Iowa. If you've never seen them before, it's an interesting sight. Kinda cool actually. From a distance, the blades look like they're 15, maybe 20 feet long. But I've driven beside an 18 wheeler with one blade on the back, and they take up the entire length of the truck and more. 120' I'm guessing? One blade per truck, barely. Each blade is huge. It's an obvious solution to the environmental problem, but an eyesore for sure. But I think we're on the right track with these things.

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They must be really pushing the limits out the Grand Valley way. There are all kinds of them out there and they aren't to far away from inhabited places.

 

(Looks like Wayne took the words right out of my mouth)

Edited by BillM
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My only concern with the wind farms in general is the low frequencies they emit. There have been numerous studies that have concluded that the low frequencies they emit, into the ground and surrounding area can be harmful to humans. That is why they have a standing requirement of no less than one kilometer away from any residence or human occupied building.

As we all know, water is an excellent conductor of vibration, so, my thinking is that those wind farms may actually cause dead zones in the lake.

Frankly, I don't care about those who claim that their view of the lake will be diminished, but I do have to wonder if we have tested these machines against their effect on the environment.

(I do have some insight as one of the leading wind farm companies was a client of mine. I spoke many times with their engineers and this is the info they have passed along to me!)

HH

 

Somebody should say something to the folks that put in the large wind farm on HWY 89 then because there are plenty of farms within a mile of it.

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A link to one in the states.

 

http://www.mapleridgewind.com/

 

Fossil fuel, whether it is oil, natural gas, or coal is running out, just a matter of time as to when. Be prepared? Do something to lengthen the supply?

 

Fossil fuel pollutes some to a lesser degree than others, but wind doesn`t?

 

Don`t know why out in the lake, seems an added hassle to construction, and except for less interference in the wind patterns? Blades are high enough off the ground so a home won`t block the wind.

 

Our government is also talking about them, energy and job creation, why not along our interstate highway system?

!0`s of thousands of miles of roadways and access, 100`s of thousands of acres of adjacent unused state and federally owned land to build them on.

 

Here every state could use the jobs they would create, and the electrical power. Along the highway system everyone could see the benefit.

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I'm not on board with this wind generation story. Cost too much for too little. Biomass decomposures are looking to be one of the best bets. Decomposing organics...expired vegtables from grocery chains, specifically harvested crops, compostables and manure to generate methan to burn to create energy. They are having great success with it in Germany and it benifts argiculte as well as the environment. The stuff that doesn't reduce to methane gas at the end of the reaction is a good fertalizer. CO2 and water are emmitted. This is benificial cause methane is a worse green house gas then CO2 and majority of the methane would be produced anyway naturally. It's not a fossile fuel so the were utalizing the avaible portion of the carbon cycle....assuming then didnt use fertalizer derived from fossil fuels. ANYWAY...it's lookin really really good. Communities and farm co-ops can set up their own generation stations and this means wide spread small generation stations. Possibility for jobs here for sure. You could even do a compost collection in teh cities and reduce landfill waste by generating energy with peoples left over food. Problem is hydroone can't monopolize on this kinda technology, and therefore are playing dumb about it. hopefully someone in teh gov't gets on board and make them do it.

 

They are less ugly, have lesse ecological effects, and utalize a natural process that would happen anyway. Hopefully we can get more of these going in canada. They have some big ones in german up to 3GW of energy production.

 

Check these out for a bit of into to the technlogy.

http://www.ontario-sea.org/Page.asp?PageID...p;ContentID=903

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7530794.stm

 

They are even looking at ways to use human waste to generate elecricity in these things. Imagine if we can use our millions of tonnes of sewage to power our homes! You'd solve a multitude of environmental problems at once, and we'd have a pratically never ending suppy of FUEL!!

 

-R-

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Dung has been used for centuries as a primitive cooking fuel in parts of Asia. Simply apply new age tech to a primitive resource.

Compost can generate more than methane. When the process is accelerated, the heat produced is phenomenal. It is not unusual for compost mounds to spontaneously combust. It's happened in my pile a couple of times.

Nothing more embarassing than standing knee deep in hot garbage with a pitchfork and a hose in the middle of winter trying to put out the hot spots, while a crowd of curious neighbours look on :blush: I had too much rabbit waste in the pile.

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Exactly! Some places in Eurpoe are using the heat generated as a by product to heat homes. If they get the purity of the methane high enough they pump it right into the natural gas lines.

 

They same process that sets ur pile on fire is the same one that makes wet hay bails combust in barns and generates the enery in these things. I forgot about the heat generation. Good Point!

 

-R-

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