Final environmental study for $300M+ Hydro One line lacks water well data: critical

The final environmental study report for Hydro One’s $300-million-plus St. Clair Transmission Line project has been submitted, but a local water well advocate says it’s missing a critical study.

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Hydro One said Monday it sent the final environmental report to the Environment Ministry for the proposed double-circuit 230-kilovolt transmission line that will run from the Lambton transformer station in St. Clair Township to the Chatham switching station. The project, expected to be in service by 2028, will also upgrade the Wallaceburg transformer station.

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“Hydro One is pleased to have reached this important stage in the planning of this transmission project that will address the forecasted energy demand and growth in southwest Ontario,” said Sonny Karunakaran, a Hydro One vice-president, in a release.

“Our team has been listening and working to ensure local community input is considered in a meaningful way,” he added. “We’re committed to using construction methods that minimize the effects of this project in the community and on natural resources and habitats, including groundwater and agricultural lands.”

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But Water Wells First founder Kevin Jakubec said pleas for Hydro One to do a baseline groundwater study in part of North Kent, which faced water well problems during and after industrial wind turbine construction a decade ago, were turned down.

The group sounded the alarm in June 2016 that pile-driving vibrations during building of 34 North Kent Wind farm turbines would stir up Kettle Point black shale, known to contain heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury, at the bottom of the aquifer. Sediment clogged many area homeowners’ wells after Korea’s Samsung Renewable Energy and its US partner, Pattern Energy, began work.

“Without a baseline water well test to establish the status of the water well before construction of the transmission line, the Ontario Ministry of Environment will not accept any reports of changes or interferences occurring to the water wells,” Jakubec said.

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This was the same problem faced when wind farms were erected in Dover Township and later, when the North Kent Wind project was constructed in Chatham Township, he said.

“No groundwater baseline was established ahead of construction of the Marsh Line and East St Clair wind farms and the families in Dover Township paid dearly for this absence of data,” Jakubec said.

Hydro One said the final report details engagement during the class environmental assessment (EA) process, including route selection. The EA identifies potential effects on the natural and socio-economic environments and measures Hydro One will use to avoid, minimize or restore any negative effects, the utility said.

Hydro One says it has made several commitments, including to use construction approaches that limit or avoid effects to natural habitats, water, agricultural lands and the socio-economic environment.

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“This includes minimiz(ing) ground disturbances, noise and vibrations levels on groundwater sources and water wells by ensuring (transmission) tower foundations remain a minimum of 30 feet (about nine meters) above the top aquifer layer,” the utility said.

“We really understand the importance of ensuring the groundwater and, in particular, the aquifer water supply is not adversely impacted by this transmission project,” Karunakaran said.

He added Hydro One is “designed a foundation system here that will actually avoid contact and hence any sort of interface and interference with the groundwater aquifer.”

But Hydro One’s claims in the final EA report that their construction technique will have no groundwater impacts “are unverifiable without the data from a baseline study,” Jakubec said.

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“We are left only with taking their word, nothing more,” he added. “Nothing concrete and certainly nothing scientific, because Hydro One has refused to collect the necessary data.”

Hydro One is using the same flawed logic as the wind farm companies, he said.

“Trust us, we know better,” he said. “How wrong we all know those wind farms turned out to be. How many times do we have to go through this?”

Jakubec also disputes Hydro One’s claim its transmission towers will be at least 30 feet above the top aquifer layer. A map of the most sensitive area along the proposed route through North Kent was previously presented to Hydro One, showing where the overburden above the contact aquifer layer is quite thin.

Hydro One has been listening to landowners and residents through the course of this development, Karunakaran said, and that communication will continue about specifics associated with their property.

Direct negotiations are taking place with individual landowners to obtain land rights to house the transmission line, he said. The process involves working with landowners “to understand specifics about their property.”

Hydro One is open to making minor location changes or using a different construction technique to address issues raised about a property, he added.

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