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YOUR Independent Community Newspaper THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2017
Vol. 5 Edition 32
Well clogs up near turbine construction By Mary Beth Corcoran mary@chathamvoice.com
Another family in North Kent is without water after pile driving activity less than one kilometre from their home on Brook Line resulted in a well pump clogged with sediment and no water. Jessica and Paul Brooks have lived in the house on Brook Line for five years and said they have had no problems with their well before July 28. At a press conference at their home Aug. 2, the Brooks and members of Water Wells First spoke about the ongoing well problems that the Ministry of Environment officials are calling a “coincidence”. This latest round with London and Windsor officials from the MOECC has left WWF members and the Brooks more frustrated with ministry staff who will collect water samples but refuse to take sediment samples, despite the fact a large amount of sediment is clearly visible in the sediment sampling station the Brooks and other well owners have installed on their well pressure tanks. “There is pile driving right behind (the house), about 750 metres away on Thursday and Friday and Paul called me Friday
night and said at 10:30 p.m. when he was trying to shower, there was no water,” said WWF spokesperson Kevin Jakubec. “When we went down and looked at the sediment traps that we recommended, they were plugged with sediments.” Jessica said they called the Ministry of the Environment and staff came out Aug. 1 to take samples and “at that time the water was still running after we kept cleaning the filters out every six hours.” They would not, however, take a sample of the sediment even when Jessica offered to let them collect the sample themselves. The Brooks have been collecting and documenting with photos and time of collection, as sediment is considered a contaminant, Jakubec said, in the Environmental Protection Act. “I asked them at that time if the water was fit for use and she (ministry staffer) refused to answer that because it had to go for analysis, but you could tell it was cloudy,” Jessica said. Jakubec said the MOE provincial official was not following the Ontario Water Resources Act and not upholding the Environmental Protection Act.
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Mary Beth Corcoran/The Chatham Voice
Paul Brooks, pictured, shows what happens when he turns on the tap in his Brook Line home in north Chatham-Kent – nothing. His well became plugged with sediment one day after pile driving for a wind turbine began less than a kilometre from his home, something the wind farm company told his wife, Jessica, was a “coincidence.”
“It’s very clear that Sec. 15 of the EPA obligates the provincial officer to assess and determine if the well owner asks to determine if the water is fit or unfit. Why doesn’t the provincial officer who comes to the site not know her own duties?” Jakubec questioned. The Brooks have already spent $4,000 in well testing in private baseline testing since February of this year, and water was “crystal clear” Jessica said
before the pile driving began. The family was using jugs of water they purchased to brush their teeth and drink from, but with three teenagers in the house, weren’t able to shower or flush their toilets by Wednesday. “I have kids coming back from corn detasseling that aren’t going to able to shower and I’m thinking of taking them to Kingston Park to run through the splash pad just to rinse off a little bit,” a frustrat-
ed Jessica noted. “I have three teens; that means dishes and laundry every day. I can’t run my appliances. I can’t even flush the toilets.” An official from Samsung, who is a partner in the North Kent Wind farm project, was to meet with the Brooks family to arrange to get them water as per the REA permit agreement in case of well issues. The Brooks are leery of trusting the wind com-
pany to do right by them and want the MOECC officials to monitor the situation and the way the wind farm handles their complaint. “Someone has to oversee it. You can’t have the one doing the harm and making restitution without some oversight,” she added. “So, if they are doing the damage and to fix it is going to cost them some money, of course I don’t trust them.” Continued on page 2
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