poet as citizen gadfly: Marmora pumped energy boondoggle

published Dec. 15/22 on page 13 of The Community Press

Dear Editors The Community Press,

Late last week I received a postcard in the mail announcing an info drop-in session for yet another proposal for a pumped energy storage project. This is the same project which died a decade ago after public concern was expressed over the safety of building a storage pond on top of the old Marmora mine slag heap, which looms over the village.    

There is no perceived benefit to the residents of Marmora village for this project. In addition to the risk posed by the slag heap dam, there are also concerns over noise levels from turbines pumping water up and down the slag heap at all hours, reduced property values (who wants to live in the shadow of a volcano?), traffic issues etc. .

The drop-in session is scheduled for this Thursday at The Legion from 4 to 7 pm. This is not a convenient date or time of day for most Marmora residents. It's scheduled for 10 days before Christmas during working hours and then dinner time. The drop-in setting discourages residents from attending what should be a group meeting and denies us the ability to hear the concerns of our neighbours. It sounds to me like Ontario Power Generation and Northland Power want to keep this "public" meeting as inconvenient to the public as possible.    

Sincerely,

Chris Faiers   (signed)

Marmora, ON

Crows over Marmora Mine (a political haibun)

Today's hike with my little dog Chase was on one of our favourite trails, a section of the Trans-Canada Trail which passes the site of the Marmora mine. The hike begins with marsh on both sides of the trail, but soon slag heaps from the old iron mine come into view. After half an hour of sunny late October hiking, huge rocky heaps rise on both sides from millennial swamp. Three crows are hunting over the haunted mesa-like heap to the east:

crows skrawing overhead
thankful I'm not a mouse!
 
These black hunters screech horribly, floating on air currents, intent on flushing small scared creatures from their hidey-holes. Mice and voles bolt in terror when these small 'black riders' fly. I imagine their screeches amplified 100 times - 1,000 times - my little dog and I too would panic bolt.

The crows hunt continues,  crossing the trail to hunt the mine site. The giant blue water eye of the mine, gouged for our iron age hungers, is occluded. After the iron was ripped out, the huge hole lay dormant. A greedy corporation decided to fill the hole with garbage from Toronto - I'm not making this up. There are cracks and deep fractures, underground streams which run from here to Belleville and into the Bay of Quinte and Lake Ontario. The people of our nearby village opposed the black crow lawyers of GreedCoInc and this crazy scheme was squashed.

A new mine scheme has recently arisen, complete with its flock of black crow lawyers. Now it's 'pumped storage' - another scam scheme to enrich another GreedCoInc while endangering the rural villagers. This time the villagers are slower to awaken to the danger. It's never fun being David facing Goliath.

lawyers circle
hoping to flush
the truth away
 
This morning on CBC radio I sadly heard a woman's story of setting her tap water on fire. Fracking!  Another evil story in the reign of our current King, 'Sauron' Stephen Harper. I could hear the brave shakiness in her voice for taking on GreedCoInc - the larger the feast, the bigger the black riders.

Crows become vultures
blackening the skies  
over Marmora minesite

BIG PILE IN THE SKY: doggerel poetry by Doctor Chase

thanks 

BIG PILE IN THE SKY

doggerel poetry by Doctor Chase


I was sniffing today
by a big pile of stones
dug out of the ground
like old dinosaur bones.

To get iron ore
men worked like huge moles
and when they were finished
they left a big hole.

And stones piled so high
they block out the sun
but the hole that they left
was a lake blue as sky.

Some decades ago
big city money saw cash
said we'll fill your blue lake
with trash from T.O.

Village people got wise
and said no to this guise
formed a committee
zippity dash
named it dynamically
Marmora Takes No Trash!

Now TNT is as explosive as hell
and big city money
knows this full well.
Our peaceful blue lake
was safe for a while
from big city lies
and big money guile

But new owners got greedy
and tried once again
"Join the green revolution!"
(we mean dollars and cents)
be part of evolution
if you have any sense.

They'd build us a fresh lake
damned high in the skies
built on the old rubble
and a few gentle lies.

Our council was quick
to sign on their line
a few drowned out people
well, if there's money, that's fine.

And jobs, lots of jobs
and house values will rise
to the heights of absurdity
lies upon lies.

Pump water all night
let it slide down all day
what on earth could be greener
than gaming Hydro you say?

So a handful of people
in the cold waved their signs
saying leave us in safety
NO to corporate designs!

Village voices are rising
high to the skies
saying leave our blue lake
and be gone with your lies!

This story isn't over
the ending not clear
whether reason or money
will win what is dear?

But stand back, big money
village people are learning
and as history repeats
TNT signs are returning


poop/ poo/poop/poo/poop/poop/poo/ppoop/

Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "BIG PILE IN THE SKY: doggerel poetry by Doctor Cha...":

Awesome poem, Chase

is he interested in the Premier's job? Only Chase could sniff out the shit sitting in cabinet offices and kick dirt over it. Something green might grow out of that.



Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 6 November 2012 13:23

poop/poo/poop/poo/poop/poo/poop/poo/poop/

Wrffff! wffff .... wffff ... wrfffffff ....
I'll try & interpret ... believe Chase is saying something to the effect that, "As a dog, I wouldn't lower myself (except to poop) to be a Canadian politician these days."
peace, poop, & poetry power!
Doctor Chase Lechien ... and his human interpreter, Chris ... wrfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!

ppppoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop!!!!!!
 

letter on lake-in-the-sky published in EMC paper

Is Marmora's lake-in-the-sky really eco-friendly?

Posted Jul 5, 2012 By Chris Faiers

---

Dear 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

• Disqus

• Like
• Dislike

Login

Add New Comment

Showing 0 comments

M Subscribe by email
S RSS

Trackback URL

blog comments powered by Disqus

 * * * * * * * * * * **


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

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Damn Dangerous Dam-in-the-Sky for Marmora Mine???

picture of Marmora Mine & surrounding slag pile - site of proposed dam-in-the-sky!!!???

I sent the following letter-to-the-editor to both local papers (EMC and The Community Press) and to the Peterborough and Belleville major papers.


Dear Editors,
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 raggle-taggle 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 short-sighted, 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
12 Main St.
Marmora, ON
K0K 2M0


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Note: Following is Marmora resident Kathy Hamilton's letter regarding her concerns over the proposal to build a pumped water storage on the Marmora Mine slag heap.



July 3, 2012
Mrs. Kathy Hamilton,
PO Box 112, 76 Cameron St., Marmora, ON K0K 2M0
Home Phone: (613) 472-5285

To: Hon. Michael Gravelle - Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources:

The main reason I'm writing to you is because my family fears for the future safety of our persons and property. We dread facing catastrophic, man-made flooding potential from the massive, man-made “upper reservoir” for storing water above and very near our home, that Northland Power plans to use for its pumped storage plant – as proposed for construction on property known as the Marmoraton Mine site that is privately owned by project partner Aecon.

Why is this site that was assessed “Not Practical” for pumped storage in 2005 – by Hatch Acres, for the OWA and MNR, deemed appropriate now? See last page-#55: http://www.owa.ca/assets/files/links/Waterpower_Potential_Nov2005.pdf

Northland Power intends to build their new lake-in-the-sky “upper reservoir” by re-sloping the existing “waste rock piles” adjacent to the abandoned mine pit, then applying a layer of gravel and an “impervious” liner of asphalt to its interior.

Northland Power's “upper reservoir” building plan doesn't sound safe for us!

Proponents insist that our protection from upper reservoir flooding will be ensured by your Ministry of Natural Resources because the project will be “ fully subjected to the requirements of the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act and the associated dam safety guidelines, including all of its most recent revisions.”

That insistence seems based on their focus within this definition that was recently suggested appropriate by a Hatch rep:
“Dam: For the purpose of the administration of the LRIA, a dam is defined as a structure that is constructed which holds back water in a river, lake, pond, or stream to raise the water level, create a reservoir to control flooding or divert the flow of water.”

But I still question the LRIA's applicability to this pumped storage project proposal, as alternately highlighted below:
“Dam: For the purpose of the administration of the LRIA, a dam is defined as a structure that is constructed which holds back water in a river, lake, pond, or stream to raise the water level, create a reservoir to control flooding or divert the flow of water.”


SINCE the proposed “upper reservoir” structure is not being constructed to fulfill any of these 3 functions:
to raise the water level;
to control flooding;
to divert the flow of water.
AND no natural “flow of water” is associated with this project that has been proposed for construction on privately-owned property - might this project and its “upper reservoir” fit through LRIA “loopholes”?

To avoid assumptions or opinions not based on facts, I would appreciate your returning to me, for sharing publicly:
your confirmation of any recent revisions to the LRIA or the above definition, with included and clear explanation of any altered impact on the LRIA's ability to alleviate local flooding fears pertinent to this project;
your confirmation of correct legal interpretations of the latter
So we can be confident that government-enforced LRIA “dam safety” regulations will be applicable to this project and its construction plans – hopefully before any permits, approvals or contract are granted.

My family should not remain ever less assured of government prioritization of personal and property protection from potential man-made catastrophic flooding than we were last fall – after we had first learned of this project June 10, 2011, 3 days after local council's June 7, 2011 unannounced granting of its approval. Longterm, undisclosed negotiations between “the municipality” and Northland Power had apparently succeeded. This was neatly wrapped up with local council's June 21, 2011 decision to pay for a marketing campaign to promote this private developer's project with our tax dollars and ignore any “negativity”. Upon being locally silenced by isolation through discrimination, all objections were rendered socially marginalized, politically irrelevant and publicly non-existent.
Please note that wilderness forest and a campground below the Taum Sauk, Missouri pumped storage plant deserved far superior and more modern standards for ensuring upper reservoir “dam safety” - as was provided by roller-compacted concrete upper reservoir reconstruction following the catastrophic 2005 breach of its original, that was built in the '60's and the last newly constructed dumped rockfill CFRD in the USA:
http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/safety/projects/taum-sauk/ipoc-rpt/design.pdf
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5055409&ft=1&f=1003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_Station#Upper_reservoir_breached
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_Station#Reconstruction

Why do Marmora's villagers deserve only re-sloped, existing “waste rock pile” upper reservoir construction?

Is it really any wonder there remain to date only 3 “Letters of Support Received” that were written and submitted by actual local residents of Marmora and Lake – in clear, public demonstration of unevidenced “overwhelming support from the community” of 4-5,000 total population – and that there remain zero from any local residents to be in this project's potential “danger zone” (which is a large portion of the village)?

I hope you will swiftly ensure my family and other ratepayers of more acceptable “dam safety” reassurances that are government-confirmed applicable to this project proposal and it's “upper reservoir” than we've received to date!

It would also help if you would confirm whether local ratepayer and OPA knowledge that the mine pit is spring-fed or our repeated public contradiction by this project's proponents that this proposed “lower reservoir” is “highly impervious” and has merely been filled by precipitation is factual – also whether your clarification of that discrepancy could make any difference to government approvals for, or regulation of, this project and/or its “upper reservoir” construction plan.
See pdf pg 97: http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/repository/mon/15000/267938.pdf

Sincerely,
Mrs. Kathy Hamilton

Non-reassuring references of “dam safety” pertinent to this Northland Power project proposal:
- the 3rd being a Hatch webpage “snapshot” and the first 2 listed amongst the “Letters of Support Received” displayed on Marmora and Lake's “Marmora Pumped Storage Project” promotional webpage:
http://www.marmoraandlake.ca/view.cfm?Prod_Key=3849&PROD_DETAIL_KEY=5080&TEMP=Content%20Single&KeyWord=N%2FA

#1) re Letter dated August 24, 2011 - from yourself, as former Minister of Northern Mines, Development and Forestry:
http://www.wmakers.com/94/files/Other/Marmora%20Support%20Ministry%20of%20NDM.pdf
- no further mention of, nor report from any such project review as yet, but the MMAH now knows I'm still waiting

#2) re Letter dated Sept 1, 2011 – from Linda Jeffries, as former Minister of Natural Resources:
http://www.wmakers.com/94/files/Other/Marmora%20Support%20Ministry%20of%20Natural%20Resources.pdf
- “ this project does not involve provincial Crown land”, [ergo the MNR] “has no direct role in the proposal at this time”... [however the MNR] “MAY have a regulatory role” [if it proceeds].
- Northland Power has stated in their own documentation: "Important for approvals that entire project is on private land"

#3) re Hatch webpage that was linked from my site since summer 2011 – titled “Parks Canada Dam Safety Standards”
- Original url now invalid: http://www.hatch.ca/energy/hydroelectric/projects/ds_dam_safety_std.htm
Contents excerpts: “dams are a provincial responsibility”... “Although all provinces have Water Acts under which dams can be regulated, only British Columbia, Alberta and Québec had enacted regulations specific to dam safety...  Ontario has been working on its new system for more than a decade."
- Identical page contents “snapshot” from Web Archive's visit of Dec 16, 2010 can still be viewed at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20101216132851/http://hatch.ca/Energy/Hydroelectric/Projects/ds_dam_safety_std.htm


CC'd to Ontario Provincial Officials: MMAH Kingston office; Minister of MAH; Minister of NDM; Minister of Energy; Minister of the Environment; Premier Dalton McGuinty; MPP for PE-H Todd Smith
Also to Federal Officials: Prime Minister Stephen Harper; MP for PE-H Daryl Kramp
FWD's to: upper” & “lower” Municipal Interests & Others BCC's to: Select Organizations, Ratepayers, Media &Others

WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS: arbitrage scheme to put lake on slagheap above Marmora village

Hi Kathy,
Thanks for sending this info. All along I've considered the 'pumped storage' proposal crazy and dangerous. Building a lake on top of the old Marmora Mine slagheap, using electricity to pump water UP HILL to this lake at off-peak Ontario Hydro hours, & then letting it flow back downhill to generate electricity at peak rates, is a Rube Goldberg fantasy at best. I've never believed anyone could take this whacked-out idea seriously.

The whole concept is based on Ontario Hydro's current rate charges for different times of daily use. All Hydro has to do is change its rate structure, and the whole silly project collapses (sinks).

The monetary aspect of this is nothing less than gaming Ontario Hydro's Byzantine rate structures. In effect, it's arbitrage, the same game bigtime financial traders use to skim money from international markets. This project creates nothing, except a dangerous 'lake' perched high above a small village. Cue the soundtrack to any number of disaster movies here!!! Or that old standby classic song, WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS ...
"Tell me it ain't so, Joe."

This proposal can't really be happening, can it?

Thanks, Kathy, for being such a concerned citizen and watchdog for our little community.

best wishes,
Chris (Faiers)



On 2012-06-18, at 2:09 PM, Kathy Hamilton wrote:

You can download our local council agenda for their Tues June 19 (2pm) regular afternoon council meeting, here:
admin.marmoraandlake.ca/94/files/ByLaw/2012%20June%2019%5B1%5D%2E12%20agenda%2Edoc

There are TWO delegations of much interest that I may "speak to" during the allowed 3 minutes per person, for their "public input" before the meeting adjournment. Hopefully, others present will partake of the same opportunity to have their say as local ratepayers who pay the bills accumulated by our municipality.

I urge you and anyone you know or might wish to bring along, to attend this meeting. Please consider forwarding at least this sentiment and agenda link to everyone you know. This will be the first  and only (and could be the last?) opportunity - since the "public info meeting" of June 10, 2011 to reveal the big "project" surprise kept secret from us for several years - that any local people will have been provided, to personally address both Northland Power reps and their local council at the same time - publicly and with witnesses including the local media.

Beyond my own site, the primary public exposure related to Marmora's local "pumped storage" controversies have been provided by Toronto-area bloggers, whom I've credited and linked to in return.

If you call me or drop in at prearranged mutual convenience, I would be happy to share of the photos and recount the rewarding experiences a few of us posing objections to Northland's proposal here in Marmora enjoyed on Manitoulin Island on June 15 - with our participation in an event outlined in a June 14, 2012 posting by Toronto blogger and energy consultant Tom Adams, here:
http://www.tomadamsenergy.com/2012/06/14/renewable-energy-vs-responsible-aboriginal-government-part-three-mchigeeng-vs-wikwemikong-blowing-in-opposite-directions/

This provided a few of us representing the unorganized and majority publicly-invisible opposition here in Marmora with a very enjoyable "first" opportunity to personally meet and publicly present an on-principle as well as project-specific combination of inseparable "greed energy" concerns related to Northland Power projects and interests shared by others who are battling local "greed energy" projects elsewhere, that actually DO qualify as "renewable" by provincial definition - unlike the non-renewable pumped storage "greed energy" proposal from Northland Power here in Marmora.

I anticipate experiencing more of this off and online interactivity between geographically near and distant members of this fast-growing, new and self-integrated Ontario community without borders, of their indivisible opposition-on-principle members, that Northland Power and its own or partner projects representing "greed energy" have graciously inspired, helped introduce and cemented together in principled solidarity, in the near future.

You can share of June 1, 2012 background info about this MERE protest development on Manitoulin Island, here - you may also find this project "local approval" painfully familiar?:
http://www.tomadamsenergy.com/2012/06/01/renewable-energy-vs-responsible-aboriginal-government-part-one-manitoulin-pro-democracy-activist-julian-nowgabow/

This posting was followed by additional June 4, 2012 related background info, here:
http://www.tomadamsenergy.com/2012/06/04/renewable-energy-vs-responsible-aboriginal-government-part-two-evidence-oeb-declined-re-improper-governance-of-manitoulin-wind-project/

You might also want to watch for after-the-fact media sharings of related MERE protest photos and interviews. Reporters from CTV, CBC, the Manitoulin Expositor, the Sudbury Star and unidentified others were monitoring both David Suzuki's presence at the "opening ceremony" and its inspired local "opposition" peaceful public protest.
I will be updating my site asap, to publicly share our photos and comments resulting from our participation in that MERE protest near Little Current, of June 15. Few here realize the depth of knowledge that First Nations Elders, Grandmothers and band members from Manitoulin Island (and everywhere else!) have of Marmora, the Marmoraton Mine site and Northland's "interests" that have led to Marmora's similar community divisions, political intrigue and related Greed Energy AND glocalized Greed Economy-based "developments".

You may also be interested in personally learning of recent developments on another "glocal" battle front that a few of us here began local engagement in last fall, involving another project approved by local council - this time at their "planning" meeting August 2, 2011, that we felt threatened our private property rights and represented local council's required approval for the provincial "balancing" of our previously exclusive interests in our private residential property.

Front-door and comprehensive private property expropriation looks great in comparison, once you understand the "special process" and all implications of its private property interests "balancing" act - from having personally battled against its imposition upon yourself and your own private residential property for months, in predetermined futility.

I spoke about this "special process" and its local implications to all private property ownership "interests" as a delegate to the regular local council meeting of May 15, as was lightly referenced in the local EMC edition published on May 24, online here:
http://www.emcnortheast.ca/20120524/news/Resident+speaks+out
Of the 3 local ratepayers who had formally objected to this largely unknown local council approval throughout related County "public meetings" last fall and formally requested the exclusion of our residential private properties - which was denied without explanation by our local council, Hastings County and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing -  I followed up by filing a pertinent Notice of Appeal for an Ontario Municipal Board appeal before I departed for Manitoulin Island on Thursday June 14.

If my appeal is allowed and entertained on the pseudo-eligible "grounds" I've provided to the OMB through the MMAH, all proceedings should be local and open to the public. On this becoming a reality, I hope you would attend and I would welcome advice from any who may have had past experience with the OMB appeal process or input from any others who have researched the impacts within and without similarly-imposed Urban Growth Boundaries established for enforcing local "Smart Growth" policies  - particularly from any other residential private property owners here in M & L.

Most research to date is specific to larger and more densely populated "human settlement" urban cores within the comprehensive municipal geographical boundaries, but public policy analysis experts in this area that I've already spoken with suggest the widely-recognized paradoxes and impacts of such "Urban Growth Boundary" imposition - to be soon realized by the greater than average number of homeowners with lower than average incomes here (and the impacts on their private residential properties) - will likely be "felt" proportionally here in more rural Marmora and Lake.

It would appear that Ontario's policies imposing punitive land-use restrictions for protecting "Greenbelts" from "urban sprawl" are being shifted in their focus from the provincially well-publicized Greater Golden Horseshoe and Northern Plans to the lesser-known plans for all lesser-urbanized areas of Ontario. If you have not yet studied all background "Glocal" concepts and planning pertinent to our area of Eastern Ontario and dating back to 2002, I suggest you should.

Sincerely, Kathy Hamilton - 76 Cameron St, Marmora - home phone 613-472-5285
http://www.hamiltonsgarage.com/marmora_green/

See "delegations" to the June 19 meeting, as copied from the referenced meeting agenda, below. FYI, re CVCA means about our local Crowe Valley Conservation Authority

===============================

AGENDA
FOR THE COUNCIL OF
THE MUNICIPALITY OF MARMORA AND LAKE
MEETING HELD TUESDAY, JUNE 19TH, 2012 AT 2:00 P.M.
MARMORA TOWN HALL

1. DISCLOSURE OF PECUNIARY INTEREST
2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
3. REEVES REPORT
4. PUBLIC MEETING – Road Closure and Sale of Land – Page 1 - 2
To close and declare as surplus, Parts 24And 34 of Plan 21R-6145, being a road widening on Deloro Road acquired by the County of Hastings in 1986 and subsequently transferred to the Municipality of Marmora and Lake.
5. DELEGATIONS
2:10 p.m. Mr. John Wright, Northland Power
Re: Update of Pumped Storage Project

2:40 p.m. Crowe Lake Waterway Association
Re: CVCA