Still no response from health ministry for call to analyze sediments from damaged water wells in Chatham-Kent

Efforts to convince the Ministry of Health to reopen an all-hazard investigation into the problems experienced by private water wells located near industrial wind turbines in Chatham-Kent remain unanswered.

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The alarm was first raised publicly in June 2016 that the water wells of some Dover Township landowners in the area of ​​the East St. Clair wind farm were being clogged with sediment. The problem is believed to be caused by the vibrations from the nearby industrial wind turbines.

The same problem began occurring in the summer of 2017 when the construction of the North Kent 1 wind farm in Chatham Township began and residents continued to see their water wells clogged with sediment as the wind farm operated.

The primary concern is the industrial turbines have been built over the aquifer that has Kettle Point black shale as its bedrock, which is known to contain potentially harmful metals such as uranium, arsenic and mercury, believed to be among the sediments that continue to clog private water wells.

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In 2021 an all-hazard investigation, ordered by the Progressive Conservative government was undertaken by the Ministry of Health. A report released in April 2022 found the potential for well water interference caused by the North Kent 1 wind farm.

But critics argued the investigation failed to study the actual sediments in the water.

“The sediment in the water was the very origin of the complaints that led to the all-hazard investigation,” said Keith Benn, a geoscientist who served on an expert panel advising the health ministry during the investigation.

He said it was understood at the beginning of the investigation that the call for proposals, for contractors to do the work, would involve sampling water and sediment and analyzing them both to look for health hazards.

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After years of persistent well problems, Chatham-Kent council unanimously supported a motion by North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville on May 29, 2023 calling on the health ministry to complete the all-hazard investigation by analyzing sediments from private water wells in the North Kent 1 wind farm area as well as water wells near the East Lake St. Clair and Boralex wind farms in Dover Township.

Jubenville said the municipality has not received a response after contacting the health ministry twice about continuing the investigation.

“I’m surprised and I’m disappointed,” the councilor said.

“Our province should be there for our municipalities,” Jubenville added. “They are our go-to and they’re giving us silence.”

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Benn is surprised at the lack of response by the ministry to Chatham-Kent.

“That the municipality could reach out about something like this and not even receive an acknowledgment their message was received just blows me away,” he said.

Earlier this year Benn began working with Dover Township residents Terry and Christine Burke, whose water well on their Mitchell’s Bay-area property began getting clogged with sediment nearly a decade ago after the East Lake St. Clair Wind Farm was constructed nearby.

Some crowd-source funding and personal funds were used to have the sediments from nine private water wells in the area tested, including the Burke’s well, at a Michigan lab.

When every sample came back with some metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, cobalt, lead and a few wells with mercury, Benn and the Burkes took the results to the Ontario ombudsman office to investigate.

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Benn said they’ve received two or three responses from the Ombudsman’s office, after having to reach out. He said the same response has been received, that the office is waiting to hear back from the health ministry.

“I don’t understand it,” Christine Burke said of the ministry’s lack of response. “They’ve got to know the water is polluted.”

The Chatham Daily News contacted the health ministry Wednesday and Thursday for comment on this issue and has not received a response yet. The ministry also was contacted earlier this year about a report to the ombudsman, but The Daily News did not receive a reply then.

This summer the Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns citizen group decided to step up and help their North Kent neighbors by organizing a petition to call on the health ministry to complete the all-hazard investigation by analyzing the sediments found in water wells located near wind farms that are experiencing interference.

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Denise Shephard, a volunteer director with WAWC said a petition began circulating in August with the goal of having it ready for recently-elected Progressive Conservative Steve Pinsonneault, MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, to deliver it to Queen’s Park when the legislature returned in the fall.

“Then, it has to go the Ministry of Health, that’s the protocol, and then, we would have more of a chance of having a response and having action taken,” she said.

Shephard said more than 1,400 names have been collected on the petition, but WAWC was unable to get a meeting with Pinsonneault to have him deliver the petition when the legislature resumed.

She added WAWC reached out again to Pinsonneault’s office in mid-November and didn’t receive a response.

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The Daily News spoke to a staffer from Pinsonneault’s office, who is taking the blame for not following through on the request by WAWC.

Shephard said it is “disappointing” the petition has not been delivered to Queen’s Park.

She added 1,400 people “are thinking they signed this, there’s going to be action. The ministry of health will be reached by this.”

WAWC was taking up the fight over plans for the Otter Creek wind project by Boralex, before it was focused by the Doug Ford Progressive Conservative government.

While grateful the Otter Creek wind project was canceled, Shephard said WAWC has “always recognized that we are indebted to the fight against the well destruction carried out by the people of Dover and Chatham Township.”

She added if it was not for their efforts to blow the whistle and raise the red flag about the impact to their wells “we would not have known the threat to our water, because we’re on the same vulnerable aquifer.”

While happy to be trying to help their neighbors, Shephard said, “This should not be a Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns initiative, at all.

“Local and provincial governments should be the ones pursuing safe drinking water.”

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