Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
Stone Mills Township residents impacted by the Loyalist Solar Project had their chance to speak about their experiences Monday evening — and most didn’t hold any words back.
At a special meeting, councillors and representatives of developer BluEarth Renewables listened as many of the 30 residents in attendance passionately shared their disappointment over community division, noise and traffic seven days a week, environmental impacts, potential losses in property values, and misleading promises associated with the installation of the 54-megawatt project near Centreville. There were tears shed and raised voices.
One of the speakers, Jasmin Cameron, said she’d been waiting since August 2017 to have a public meeting with all the people impacted by the transmission lines and panel sites.
She showed council contrasting photos of County Rd. 27 looking before construction — a pastoral view with few man-made elements that she considered an extension of her driveway, to a view with 50-foot poles lining the righthand roadside, each with 11 wires running among them.
“Some people have said they’re angry. I oscillate between being angry and sad and disappointed,” she said. “Every time I make that turn now, my heart sinks. Who thinks this is a really beautiful, tranquil place to live? Who wants to come here?”
Cameron said even before those poles went up, she felt feelings of divisiveness and secrecy as landowners who signed contracts with the developer weren’t able to speak. She said residents started out feeling they were working together to foster sustainable renewable energy — a concept she supports — but felt the project didn’t go as expected. She wasn’t happy with the way council supported residents who asked for underground wires, only to be “bullied” into allowing the poles or losing the project entirely.
“The people we elected had their hands forced.”
She said during construction her property line had been violated, wood from fallen trees promised to landowners was removed from their land, and residents were repeatedly treated with disrespect by workers. By her estimate, thousands of creatures’ lives were lot in the build and residents suffered without their consent.
“I put the suffering and death on BluEarth and it doesn’t go away,” she said. “Those lines are there.”
Cameron called on BluEarth to put some of its proceeds from the project into burying cable every five years.
Peter Lewis, another resident along the transmission route called the process “overwhelming.” He spoke about narrowing of fragile roads, the use of wooden skids to fill potholes and an inability of construction trucks to stay on the road. Lewis said he was thankful the township’s maintenance crews put the roads back into working order but after considerable hardship. He also challenged that terminology in a community vibrancy agreement that would make solar panel sites not visible from public roads was not sufficiently adhered to.
Murphy Road resident Al Mayer said he and his wife, Tammy, moved to Stone Mills to be close to nature. He said BluEarth staff made assurances about protecting natural environments, but those promises didn’t appear to be delivered upon. He said fences to exclude wildlife went up after hibernation season ended and some of them even trapped animals on the road. Tammy made it her cause to save wildlife along the road.
“My wife spent the entire summer from May to September — probably three to four hours a day walking along Murphy, saving hundreds and hundreds of amphibians, reptiles, and three endangered Blanding’s turtles,” he said, adding neighbours also observed a beaver kit stuck in metal around a pole and a heron trapped in overhead wires that didn’t have bird diverters.
“There was no care. While they convinced you of all their good intentions, in fact, it was just a money-making thing.”
Meyer also took issue with an earlier statement about the project from a councillor that a few would bear the burden for the economic good of many in the township.
“What we’ve heard from these few is if you said a few of us had to be mugged, beaten up and abandoned in a ditch without any drainage, you might have a different idea about whether those few should bear that burden.”
Tracy Asselstine and her husband, Dan, live on Edges Road along the transmission line. She said she walked with Mayer to document the creatures impacted by the silt fences and said at times it was “too overwhelming” and she had to put her camera down to help.
Asselstine said she looked at other communities divided by renewables projects like Wolfe Island, Amherst Island and Milford and spoke of how they haven’t yet healed.
She said she’s seen that in her own area, thanks the developer’s “divide-and-conquer” techniques.
Asselstine also didn’t care for some of the studies leading to decisions about siting of power lines and poles.
“It’s incredibly arrogant to come into a community to tell people who have lived there for many years how it is where they live. We are the caretakers of the land.” =
Asselstine didn’t feel enough community consultation took place.
“They should have come into the community, gathered all the landowners affected and they should have said exactly where, what, and how they were going to proceed and ask each and every one of us how they could make us happy before any permissions were granted.”
Tom Bridge moved to a property adjacent to the project in 2012. He said he and his partner were drawn to their home because of a small lake, fields for farming and gorgeous trails of forest and trees. The construction and a lowering of his road that impacted the angle of his driveway changed that.
“Walking down my property, I actually cried seeing the devastation and change. We did not buy this property for it to look like this. It’s done. There’s nothing I can do or say to change the way it looks,” he said. “My property value is greatly reduced.”
Representatives from BluEarth were conciliatory when responding to the residents’ criticisms.
Chelsea Dundas, the current project engineer, said the company has tried to consult as possible and said Monday’s meeting was actually the fifth it has had. She also told residents there is still more work to be done post installation.
“We’re not done here. We do have work left to finish,” she said, adding some of the fencing rehabilitation still needs to finish. She also said she’d remain on site and available until the project is completed and said BluEarth plans to have operations staff in the township for the life of the project.
Jamey Fitzgibbon, the company’s executive vice-president of engineering and construction added: “This is not an easy place to sit tonight. I certainly don’t like hearing some of the things I’ve heard tonight. We try to learn. Clearly we have some things to learn.”
Fitzgibbon noted construction is dirty and noisy, but chose to look forward.
“We’ll commit to clean things up and finish what we said we would do. We will continue to get better. I hope this isn’t the end of the BluEarth experience… We do intend to stay here and operate the project and live up to our commitments on maintaining the sites. We’ll continue to listen and hope we can learn from it and do better.”
Councillors were limited in their comments. Newcomer Shari Milligan responded by stating “I just honestly feel sick right now.”
Deputy reeve John Wise said he was aware of most of the issues presented because there was great communication from residents to council, but stated it’s “obvious that for one reason or another, there wasn’t great communications from BluEarth and its subcontractors to residents, particularly along the transmission line.”
Wise said nothing could be done about many of the stories shared as they related to construction that was done, but added they will contribute to the township’s knowledge base for future projects. He stated his belief is that society must move to renewables at a quick rate.
“Climate change is the greatest problem facing humanity. That’s a simple fact. Unfortunately, in our efforts to address that, we’re making some mistakes. We’re causing environmental damage to save the environment. That’s the paradox we face.”
Reeve Eric Smith said council had good intentions and did what it thought was best for this community’s development. Though he acknowedged heartaches, he said the development would bring $3 million in much needed revenue over the next 20 years.