Ontario now (mid 2009) has 8 major wind farms in operation. All but Prince (and maybe Kingsbridge - see below) have had complaints. You'll notice that many of the links below point to wind-watch.org. That is because they copy the full text of the original article, include a reference to the original, and most importantly keep it posted essentially forever, unlike most newspapers.

• Prince is built on 20,000 acres and doesn't look to be very close to anything else, and I haven't heard of any complaints there. I've heard one person owns all that land.
• Port Burwell (aka Erie Shores) looks like at least one house has been bought out. More problems. And more. This letter was written in response to comments by Ontario's chief medical officer, is a strong indictment of Ontario's stance on health issues. This letter is heartbreaking to read.
• Melancthon has had a large number of complaints, including the Frasers and the Marshalls, who made it onto CTV television. Barbara Ashbee and Dennis Lormand have written this hard-hitting letter and this follow-up and this plea. Finally the developer, CHD (same as Wolfe) was forced to measure the noise. Those studies remain mostly confidential, but CHD has bought out at least 6 homes, and you can safely assume it wasn't out of charity. Finally, I got my hands on a noise study at one of the houses that was bought out, and you can see for yourself just how bad the noise really is. Needless to say, the buyouts included gag clauses, so now CHD is claiming there have been no complaints at Melancthon. This is cynicism at its worst. While Barbara can't talk about the buyout, she can still write letters.
• Kingsbridge 1 Updated 6/26/10 - The article in wind-watch about a lawsuit there has been pulled, so I guess there's nothing to report there now. I haven't heard of any other complaints.
• Ripley has been among the most problematical in Ontario, despite a 700 metre setback. Here's an account of the problems; six families have moved out. Apparently one of those was a participant/councilor. Here's a letter from one of the victims. And an article. And more. Note how incurious the Ontario MOE seems about all this. Sill More.
• Port Alma, which also has a setback of 700 meters, has been relatively complaint-free, at least in comparison with Melancthon or Ripley. But not entirely. From the project itself, there is this blog. Read and weep.
• Kincardine has just come online, mid-December 2008. Update, February 2009 - apparently there's problems there too. And more are showing up.
• Wolfe Island has its own amherstislandwindinfo web page, but I will gather the noise complaints here. Wolfe had the dubious distinction of forcing one family out before even starting operation late June 2009. During its first month of operation the noise issues had already spread into NY, several miles away. From the Island itself, there is this blog. I have little doubt there'll be more as the winter winds get cranking, as the turbines never got over 65% during their first month.

Amherst Island's own Dr. John Harrison has been doing a wonderful job of researching and presenting answers to these contentious topics and is especially well-informed on what is going on in Ontario with respect to noise regulations. This paper, presented at a wind energy conference in Kingston, is a very readable explanation of why health organization recommendations and government regulations seem so far apart, with this presentation going into a more technical explanation. More Harrison papers.

On the Canadian national scene, one story is the Pubnico, Nova Scotia wind farm, where a Mr. d'Entremont has been loudly complaining about the noise problems. The industry tried to ignore him, but finally an engineer was dispatched, who promptly discovered that the problems were real. Unfortunately, you have to read the rather large report, 1.0mb carefully to find this out. The money sentence is on page 19. However, under certain wind and atmopheric conditions when background sound would be expected to be low, the measured sound levels were found to exceed the criteria [of the Ontario MOE, Nova Scotia not having any standard, so they used ours] and expected background sound by up to 13 db. 13db - that's slightly over a 4-fold increase in the noise level! And it throbs every 0.8 seconds, almost in sync with your heart. A more detailed analysis by a professional yielded equally damning results, albeit presented more professionally. They used to have a web site, dangerwind.org, but as of Oct 11, 2009 it is no longer there. The residence is 330 (or 400, depends on who's writing) metres from the nearest turbine, which is slightly closer than allowed at any Ontario farm, but even at Wolfe Island's 400 metres it would still be quite loud.

And still the Ontario government pushes ahead with the turbines, seemingly frozen into inaction by the wind industry, like a charmer entrances a snake. The MOE, responsible for enforcing the rules, now admits it can't verify the noise levels. The latest twist is the Green Energy Act, which is analyzed here, 0.1mb. This well-written letter pretty well states the current situation.

Late October 2009 one MPP, Bill Murdock, introduced a non-binding resolution that urged a moritorium on wind projects until the health issues could be examined. It was voted down by the same people who voted for the GEA in the first place, no surprise there. After watching the government's shameful disregard of its citizens, Bill Palmer wrote this letter, Esther Wrightman wrote this letter and Barbara Ashbee wrote this letter, all of which show how otherwise normal everyday citizens react to government malfeasance.

It's as though the ruling Liberals have made this pledge to shut down the coal plants and they are going to press forward with the wind turbines, hoping against hope that they will be vindicated at some point. In the meantime, more and more lives are being destroyed. Perhaps they are betting that the more numerous city voters won't care. The shame is, they may be right.