Editor,
I would like to comment on the April 1, 2021 letter submitted by John Mikkelsen, Director, Power Business Development, TC Energy. His letter addressed the issue of ‘Safety’ of the proposed project.
From my own experience in the mining industry, I can confirm that even the best engineered earth containment structures are subject to failure. There have been several recent failures of ‘Dams’, not only in Canada (British Columbia) but around the world. Having said that, I want to bring forth the environmental impact of this project that will negatively affect both land and water in the area, which include noise from the turbines, degradation of the escarpment, and pollution of the Bay waters.
The construction of the pipe lines and the turbine/pumping station will take a toll on local wildlife as well as become a visible eyesore to visitors that come to our area every year. On top of that aspect, the continued flushing of water in and out of the Bay will stir up sediments that contain clay particles and metal precipitates.
The clay particles/precipitates will remain in suspension and be carried across the Bay waters to impact communities along the shore that take their drinking water from the Bay.
In Michigan, that Pumped Storage operation has been running for a few decades and has killed off the large sporting fish of the area, in spite of the installation of screens to keep the larger fish out. What that did was to allow the small fingerlings to enter the pumps, get killed. Local fish are now back and are growing large – eventually they will become extinct because the fingerlings are being killed soon after they are born and not growing to maturity. In addition, there still exists a plume of sediments suspended in the water of the lake, reaching out for miles – the only saving grace is that it is in an area not highly populated, unlike Meaford.
The constant flushing that stirs up the lake bottom directly impacts Meaford’s drinking water – the contaminated water will have to be treated, requiring the current facility to be upgraded to both clarify the particulate matter and remove any heavy metal content. This is a process that currently does not exist in Meaford’s water system. If the new Meaford water treatment plant needs further building to house the new process, that will be a costly item since the present plant is located in a dense housing area at the lake shore. All of the above makes the TCE Pumped Storage Hydro project very unattractive.
To the people of Meaford. The promise of jobs is not a reality because the construction labour will not come from Meaford as it requires experience in this kind of work. Upon completion of the Project, the operational staff will not be more that a dozen, meaning that it will not affect Meaford’s labour pool.
In closing, I believe that this Project would best be constructed elsewhere in an area that does not negatively impact Tourism, Quality of Human Life, the Environment of wildlife/fisheries and Water Quality.
Sincerely,
Louis M. Bernard, P.Eng., M.Eng., B.Eng
