Is Marmora's lake-in-the-sky really eco-friendly?
Posted Jul 5, 2012 By Chris FaiersDear Editor,
Last week I read that Marmora and Lake Council is still considering turning the slag heap at the old Marmora Mine site into a "lake-in-the-sky" pumped water storage facility.
I had honestly thought this project had died a peaceful death, but as it hasn't, I should air some concerns.
Of course we all want jobs for our under-developed area, and everyone wants to be good planetary citizens in this age of global warming and declining energy sources. But I have doubts about many aspects of this project, including its eco-friendliness, its ongoing financial viability, and of course its safety for village residents.
My understanding is that this project will be a net consumer, not creator, of hydro energy. More energy will be consumed pumping water uphill than will be generated when it is released downhill.
This doesn't sound like a green energy project in any way. I have heard the terms "green washing," and even "greed energy" applied to schemes which purport to be eco-friendly, but which are really based on making money. In fact, it appears this project is a form of arbitrage, or "playing" Hydro for its rate differentials. We all know how efficient and well-managed Ontario Hydro is, so what if Hydro suddenly changes its rate structures again, and this "arbitrage" scheme loses its financial benefits?
Also the very thought of building a reservoir above the old mine site strikes me as completely unsafe. The report on last week's council meeting detailed one such dam burst, and the ensuing devastation from the flooding.
When I moved here 23 years ago, there was a proposal to fill the mine site with trash trucked in from Toronto. Marmora residents quickly formed the group Marmora Takes No Trash (TNT), and one of my first local experiences was marching to the mine site with a large raggletaggle group of angry and concerned residents.
We also held meetings which jammed the town hall, and that particularly nasty idea was eventually discarded.
I wonder if our concerns are shortsighted, or if the many people expressing these misgivings are seeing as clear-eyed as the minion who shouted, "Look, the emperor has no clothes!"
Chris Faiers
Marmora
|
 |
* * * * * * * * * * **
Items of interest in our weekly, local EMC Northeast print edition newspaper - as was dated and delivered in Marmora on Thursday, July 12 2012 (they have not yet updated their webpages from last week's content, at time of writing this): http://www.emcnortheast.ca/
Item #1: at bottom of pg 7, right beside EMC Editor Terry Bush's own editorial, a letter from Marmora resident Cindy Buchanan titled "We have the right to pay taxes at least":
Dear Editor:
Could somebody please tell me where to line up for my German dictionary? I need one to be able to translate the original version of the "Communist Manifesto.”
It has recently come to my attention that the Ontario Planning Act has recently had a face lift. Where it used be that an individual had property rights with regards to their land, the Planning Act had many "may’s,” "can’s" and "possible" now that same Act has the individual shall conform to the plan.
The plan however is unspecified and undefined, which makes it very easy for the planners to adapt. The property owner has no say, no rights, no recourse just they shall comply with the plan. This Planning Act has removed the rights of the property owner except, of course, the right to pay taxes in a timely fashion.
When do my local bureaucrats get their new uniforms and jack boots so they can all march in step?
Were there not two world wars, and countless others, fought against tyranny? I wonder how many veterans are shaking their heads and wondering if they, their friends and families suffered and died in vain, especially when they see the government imposing those same totalitarian views that they fought to prevent. How do they feel when the rest of us just sit back and go along with it because we do nothing to stop the removal of our rights and freedoms? Is our hubris so strong that we no longer care about ourselves or what our children and grandchildren are left to deal with?
We need to stop this mad lemming march to self annihilation. The only way to do that is to put a stop to all of this UN Agenda 21 driven "sustainable development" and "economic development", the first which is not sustainable and the second that drives a once free country like Canada only into poverty. The only people who benefit are the ones driving the proposed world government through the UN as a governing body. They are the top level of the two tier new world order commonly known as the haves while the rest of us “mensch” are the have-nots, we have not got the power to stop them unless we start to stand up to them now.
From a concerned “mensch”
===
Items #2, 3 & 4: bottom of pg 8 titled "Looking ahead to snow removal", continued on pg 9 under "Looking ahead"... local reporter Judy Backus report on the full council meeting of July 3, 2012:
#2... one of the first items of business being council's support of a recommendation put forward by CAO Ron Chittick who asked that Northland Power Inc. "be permitted to use the municipal road allowance for the installation, operation and maintaining of the necessary infrastructure to enable transmission of electricity between the Marmora Pumped Storage Facility and the Hydro One Networks transmission lines located just north of Beaver Creek Road, subject to the completion of a formal access agreement(s) satisfactory to the Municipality"...
>> Two residents spoke during the public input portion of the meeting, with...
#3: Fred Quarrie asking that the agendas of upcoming council meetings be posted on the municipal web site at least the day prior to the meeting, commenting that they are of little use once the meeting has taken place.
#4: Kathy Hamilton was next to speak, asking that a "full and open public debate on the Northland Power project" take place with representatives of Northland Power, the Ministries of Mines and Development, Natural Resources and Municipal Affairs and Housing in attendance. She mentioned that there had not been a public meeting since residents first learned of the project on June 10, 2011. She was told council would consider her request.
* * * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * * * * *
Also published the next week in the Community Press, Thursday, July 19, 2012
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Items of interest in our weekly, local EMC Northeast print edition newspaper - as was dated and delivered in Marmora on Thursday, July 12 2012 (they have not yet updated their webpages from last week's content, at time of writing this): http://www.emcnortheast.ca/
Item #1: at bottom of pg 7, right beside EMC Editor Terry Bush's own editorial, a letter from Marmora resident Cindy Buchanan titled "We have the right to pay taxes at least":
Dear Editor:
Could somebody please tell me where to line up for my German dictionary? I need one to be able to translate the original version of the "Communist Manifesto.”
It has recently come to my attention that the Ontario Planning Act has recently had a face lift. Where it used be that an individual had property rights with regards to their land, the Planning Act had many "may’s,” "can’s" and "possible" now that same Act has the individual shall conform to the plan.
The plan however is unspecified and undefined, which makes it very easy for the planners to adapt. The property owner has no say, no rights, no recourse just they shall comply with the plan. This Planning Act has removed the rights of the property owner except, of course, the right to pay taxes in a timely fashion.
When do my local bureaucrats get their new uniforms and jack boots so they can all march in step?
Were there not two world wars, and countless others, fought against tyranny? I wonder how many veterans are shaking their heads and wondering if they, their friends and families suffered and died in vain, especially when they see the government imposing those same totalitarian views that they fought to prevent. How do they feel when the rest of us just sit back and go along with it because we do nothing to stop the removal of our rights and freedoms? Is our hubris so strong that we no longer care about ourselves or what our children and grandchildren are left to deal with?
We need to stop this mad lemming march to self annihilation. The only way to do that is to put a stop to all of this UN Agenda 21 driven "sustainable development" and "economic development", the first which is not sustainable and the second that drives a once free country like Canada only into poverty. The only people who benefit are the ones driving the proposed world government through the UN as a governing body. They are the top level of the two tier new world order commonly known as the haves while the rest of us “mensch” are the have-nots, we have not got the power to stop them unless we start to stand up to them now.
From a concerned “mensch”
===
Items #2, 3 & 4: bottom of pg 8 titled "Looking ahead to snow removal", continued on pg 9 under "Looking ahead"... local reporter Judy Backus report on the full council meeting of July 3, 2012:
#2... one of the first items of business being council's support of a recommendation put forward by CAO Ron Chittick who asked that Northland Power Inc. "be permitted to use the municipal road allowance for the installation, operation and maintaining of the necessary infrastructure to enable transmission of electricity between the Marmora Pumped Storage Facility and the Hydro One Networks transmission lines located just north of Beaver Creek Road, subject to the completion of a formal access agreement(s) satisfactory to the Municipality"...
>> Two residents spoke during the public input portion of the meeting, with...
#3: Fred Quarrie asking that the agendas of upcoming council meetings be posted on the municipal web site at least the day prior to the meeting, commenting that they are of little use once the meeting has taken place.
#4: Kathy Hamilton was next to speak, asking that a "full and open public debate on the Northland Power project" take place with representatives of Northland Power, the Ministries of Mines and Development, Natural Resources and Municipal Affairs and Housing in attendance. She mentioned that there had not been a public meeting since residents first learned of the project on June 10, 2011. She was told council would consider her request.
* * * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * * * * *
Also published the next week in the Community Press, Thursday, July 19, 2012
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment