Proposed wind farm on Port au Port Peninsula worries some residents

Residents of the Port au Port Peninsula are concerned aboutpossible environmental and regional impacts of a proposed giant wind farm, so much so thatthey're hounding the company behind the megaproject for answers.

World Energy GH2 made up offour partnering companies wants to build 164 wind turbines on the western Newfoundland peninsulaand use the energy producedto make green hydrogen and ammonia in a plant in nearbyStephenville.

If the megaproject is approved, 2,500 jobs, including 100 permanent jobs, come with it.But the 200-metrehigh turbines would also transform the landscape of the area.

"Our major problem is that we don'tknow exactly what is going on, and what is a safe distance for these windmills to befrom the shorelines and also from habitation,"Peter Fenwick, owner of Inn at the Cape in Cape St. George, saidMonday.

"Until we get some information on that, it's extremely difficult to say that this is a kind of project that we'd be interested in supporting."

He estimates that one of the turbines would be about akilometrefrom his property, but acknowledged it's difficult to know exactly where that may be right now. He's fearfulthe wind project will have a negativeimpact on his business.

"If it's anywhere in a position where it actually produces any kind of noises or vibrations that our guests can feel at the inn, it would be extremely harmful to our business," he said.

"On that basis, we really have to know where it is and whether or not it's a threat to what we're doing."

'We want to hear what they have to say'

The World Energy GH2 plan was made public just only days ago as part of the project's environmental assessment.

At the request of municipalities in the region, representatives of World Energy GH2 will meet residents of two towns, Cape St.George and Lourdes,on Wednesday.

Members of several local service districts, which do not have an official city council, will also be there.

"We justwant to hear their side of it. We want to hear what they have to say first. We are not for or against wind turbines, we just want to hear the reasoning behindputting the turbines atCape St.George,"said Stella Cornect, mayor of the community.

Cornect said the meeting is being kept small in order to keep the focus ongetting answers.

"You can't have a big general meeting right at this time because we feel, and the company feels, you're not going to accomplish anything by having hundreds of people," she said.

World Energy GH2 will also meet Wednesday with representatives of Stephenvilleat the site where the hydrogen and ammonia plant would be located.

Varying concerns

Tony Wakeham, Progressive Conservative MHA forStephenville-Port au Port, questions the speed at which the Liberal government is assessingthe environmental impacts of the proposed project.

"What I find peculiar about this is the rush of time to have this project approved by. When this environmental assessment registration goes out in the later part of June, with a deadline for comment by July 27 in the middle of summer, the middle of Come Home Year and the minister of environmenthas to make a decision by Aug. 5,I'm questioning why such a short timeline and why the rush," Wakehamsaid.

"When you're proposing something that will definitely change the landscape on the Port au Port Peninsulathen you need time for people to be able to fully understand what this means."

While some residents are impatiently awaiting explanations from the company, others are already opposed to the project.

"It's going to be ruining acres and acres," saidTravis Young, a homeowner in Sheaves Cove, a local service district on the peninsula.

He fears repercussions to animals and vegetation, and believes there will be mass destruction.

Fenwick added that most of thepermanent jobs created by the project would be linked to the factory in Stephenville, 10 kilometreswest of the peninsula.

"Basicallywe get the round end of the stick and they get all the benefits and on that basiswe really want to talk to the company," he said.

Open to collaboration

World Energy GH2 a consortium that includes the firms CFFI Ventures, World Energy, Horizon Maritime and DOB Academy saidit launched a series of consultations on May 13, when it organized meetings with the municipal councils of the region.

It also met with representatives of the Qalipu and Miawpukek First Nations, as well as the band councils in the area.

"We are anxious to hear the concerns raised by local residents and to work together to address them,"a spokesperson said, adding that the project aims to bring value, employment, local business activity and financial benefits to the province and to position theregion as one of the best renewable energy sites in the world.

Young said local service districts learned about the development of the project from the media and so far have not participated in any consultations conducted by World Energy GH2.

"It's as if we are less important because we are not a city," he said.

Mainland, another local service district on the peninsula, held its ownpublic meeting Monday night to discuss the project.

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