The Right to Know: Releasing Wind Turbine Bird & Bat Death Data

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red-tailed-hawk1Yesterday I expected to hear of an “Appeal” (we all detest that word now, don’t we) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) request I filed for the Bird and Bat Mortality Reports for three of NextEra Energy’s wind projects several months ago. NextEra had asked the FOI office for extra time to file this appeal, and it had been granted, the deadline being yesterday. But instead, and to my great surprise, a letter came from the FOI office and I could distinctly feel a CD case in it – Oh ya! If it was a “mid-summer-everyones-on-vacation” mistake to send these to me, I don’t want to know about it.

Google Drive Bird Bat Mortality ReportsHere they are: Bird Bat Mortality Reports for NextEra’s Bornish, Adelaide and Summerhaven (more on what they contain in upcoming posts).

I’ve uploaded these documents (and 45 more!) to a public Google Drive folder that anyone can access, view and download. This was the whole point – to make these documents public because our government and the wind companies won’t! Bring some transparency to the bird and bat deaths in Canada! Hold these bloody wind companies accountable for the wildlife slaughter they getting away with! [Keep in mind that this is only partial transparency because the collections and reports are NOT conducted by a third party and are designed to miss a very large portion of the actual deaths. It’s a start, but it’s not the full story by a long shot]

Bird Bat Mortality Monitoring

Google Drive Bird Bat Mortality Reports icons

Recently we filed FOI’s for the rest of the wind turbine Bird/Bat Mortality Reports in Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Some companies in Nova Scotia actually post their reports on their company websites, but those tend to be the smaller co-ops, never the Big Wind companies. New Brunswick, by the way, just sent them to us without us needing to do an FOI. I like that process much better.

Get your reading glasses out and start ripping through these reports. If you are a lawyer, or a reporter, or a biologist, or a birder – we all need your insight and expertise. And if anyone comes across more reports, send them along and I’ll post them.

The other day a helpful contact wrote this to me:

“These are public trust resources being killed. And the public has a right to know.”

I’ll add that it is also our duty to protect them from our own destructive kind in whatever way we can.

~Esther Wrightman

39 thoughts on “The Right to Know: Releasing Wind Turbine Bird & Bat Death Data”

  1. This just makes me sick!! Damn fools and their ‘climate change’ that isn’t a reality!

    Reply ↓

    • Seattle Times, March 2, 2016

      Carbon tax initiative goes to November vote

      At least voters in Washington state will have the opportunity to vote on this issue while carbon taxes or cap-and-trade have been and are being imposed on the people in Canada.

      Cap-and-trade is in the 2009 Green Energy Act enacted in 2009 but not acted upon until Wynne took office.

      http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/carbon-tax-initiative-goes-to-november-ballot

      The economic future of Ontario does not look promising at all.

      Reply ↓

      • The USA has a much more inclusive system of Participatory Democracy than we in Canada have. Despite known resistance of more than two thirds of Albertans, the accidental ideologically driven NDP government feel empowered to simply impose a ridiculous Carbon Tax on us. And it’s not even close to revenue neutral.

  2. Ya frustrating eh!!!! The very act that’s suppose to protect the environment destroys it in the same breathe….. we’re not talking about acouple species here either!!! By my calculations it will take 8.5 years to completely wipe out endangered species like the brown bat etc… MNR (AKA MINISTRY OF NO RESULTS) threshold for bats was 10 and the turbines are grinding them up and spitting them out at 18.5 !!!! No one is safe from the GEA it doesn’t matter your opinion the liberals have it all figured out and we should all just sit down and shut up!!!!
    No thanks!!!!

    Reply ↓

  3. I am ashamed at what our Provincial Government has been doing to us Ontarian s over the last 10 years. This is just one more boondoggle of mis-information and responsible government.

    Reply ↓

  4. At least these animals are dying for environmentally responsible reasons….not like the birds that die in the tailings ponds in Ft. Mac.

    Reply ↓

    • Jeff Hedrich
      environmentally responsible reasons ?
      Please, do some real research,that’s a joke.
      Unfrigginbelievable and an OMgosh logic

      Reply ↓

      • Ella, FYI

        Have look at the above website.

        Installing IWTs causes soil disturbance.

        There is plenty of information on the Internet on soil borne human pathogens including, Anthrax, Botulism, Tetanus Gas-gangrene and other pathogens.

        When soil is disturbed, human pathogens can get released and can be transported in the air/wind and into well water sources in rural areas.

        Then consider the number of IWTs to be installed in the Michigan Thumb area.

        Well water testing for individual pathogens is expensive.

        Can also involve livestock infections.

      • Very disturbing, Nextera plummeting our Thumb County’s as I type.
        Very disturbing meeting previous week ago at Almers twp. Tuscola County. Totalitarian. Unsettling Disrespect of the American Flag.
        3,200 planned destroyers.

      • Ella,

        The Thumb area is agricultural so high risk of human pathogens in the soil and moist/wet area.

        Check out for highly permeable soils, any shallow soils, and high water tables in the area. Anyone of these or a combination of them could be factors.

        Unnecessary soil disturbance in the Thumb area.

        Who will pay for the cost if a safe water supply facility from Lake Huron has to be built for the Thumb area.

        If property has no safe water supply then who will buy the property?

        Just soil sediments in well water can make well water unusable and which might be caused by installing IWT foundations.

      • Vibration measurements in the Thumb should be measured so that any changes in ground vibrations can be established.

      • Ella: FYI

        Water Research Center

        Scroll down to: Sediment Load

        “High amounts of sediment are often related to high concentrations of pathogenic bacteria. The bacteria can attach to sediment particles.”

        http://www.water-research.net/index.php/e-coli-in-water.

        Good website for information on human pathogens in water.

        CDC/Center For Disease Control is also a good website for human pathogens in air, soil and water.

    • Barb,
      Yes, the whole thumb is agriculture. So much so that, they can plant just about anything. Rotation of crops is second nature here.
      we don’t do just corn ( like Iowa ), oh no, we have a multitude of crops. Deep dark riches soil here.
      I call them , BARS OF GOLD soil.

      Farmers without would give their first child for this soil, oh, yes, some already did !
      They won’t do a vibration test here, it would be against Nextera plans.
      Water, well (pun intended), a lot of area in the thumb is salt laden.
      I once hauled my own water because of it. A farm owned by my husbands grandparents was in our plans to buy. For some odd reason it never happened, I’d say the good Lord was watching out for us. Now there are 7 turbines by that homestead, and all within a half mile of it.
      Yep, the farmer that bought that land, has contracts with Nexterror and lives in Florida in the summer.

      So having no good water is already abundant in these counties.
      It’s not the lack of water that is stopping the sales of homes, you know, it’s the turbines now.

      Reply ↓

  6. Your “Right to know”…
    & “The Scientific Method”…

    Recently Wind Concerns Ontario was pleased to announce its participation in a process that finds its origins in the legislation, the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act (“HPPA”).

    Numerous complaints have flooded Ontario health units, appealing for the execution of section 11 of the HPPA, which states:

    11. (1) Where a complaint is made to a board of health or a medical officer of health that a health hazard related to occupational or environmental health exists in the health unit served by the board of health or the medical officer of health, the medical officer of health shall notify the ministry of the Government of Ontario that has primary responsibility in the matter and, in consultation with the ministry, the medical officer of health shall investigate the complaint to determine whether the health hazard exists or does not exist.

    And the HPPA defines “Health Hazard”:

    “Health Hazard” means “(a) a condition of a premises, (b) a substance, thing, plant or animal other than man, or (c) a solid, liquid, gas or combination of any of them, that is likely to have an adverse effect on the health of any person.”

    The Huron County Health Unit initiated an “investigation” which was disrupted when its Medical Officer of Health was suddenly dismissed a few months ago.

    Now the investigation is back on, and some fiduciaries have proposed that responsibility be shared between the Health Unit, a department of the University of Waterloo & others.

    However, there’s mounting disturbance– although some prefer to call it “concern”– about the research ethics of researching people who are being exposed to known health risks without their consent. The University of Waterloo was originally awarded the Ontario Research Chair in Renewable Energy Technologies and Health in 2010, and since that time damage caused by the reckless development and operation of industrial wind energy projects has proliferated across the countryside.

    These circumstances raise questions.

    What is the purpose? To follow the law and fulfill the public health function? To respond to complaints?

    What’s being disclosed to research participants about the health risks of living too close to industrial wind electricity generation facilities?

    Is this exercise replicable?

    Is the research participant asked if they take measures to remove themselves and their families from the toxic emissions of the wind energy facilities?

    Reply ↓

      • They’d say so what about any bullying tactics that may have been applied to local health units!

      • I’m glad that neither Colby or Hoskins are my doctors.

      • And for your information, they ARE licensed by
        The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario:

        Colby, William David (#54111)
        Primary Practice Location:
        Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit
        435 Grand Avenue West, Chatham ON
        This doctor has additional practice locations in: London

        Hoskins, Eric William (#55338)
        Primary Practice Location
        2009 Danforth Avenue
        Toronto ON

        Nutt, Samantha Joan (#67887)
        Primary Practice Location:
        Family Practice Health Centre
        Women’s College Hospital
        77 Grenville Street, 3rd and 4th Floors
        Toronto ON

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