Impact of Wind turbine vibrations on Ground water and Shale

Impact of Wind turbine vibrations on Ground water and Shale

Ground water contamination has been reported from Canada, from areas where the bedrock is comprised of shale,. This needs to be investigated as in Pakistan we have areas where wind is feasible and the bedrock or geology is shale based. Large wind turbines are getting larger and therefore require a large pylon to support the machine. This requires to pile-drive a massive steel beams into the bedrock. The problem is that the bedrock may be  made of shale and is known to contain uranium and arsenic. Vibration from the pile-driving breaks up this toxic shale below the groundwater and contaminates it. Area residents can’t drink, bathe, or wash their clothes because of this. Water wells are being poisoned  . Construction of wind turbines continues even though scientific tests at several farms show that well water has been contaminated.

Canadian users of ground water, attribute contamination of ground water to the wind turbines being built nearby and the companies developing them.  A large number of local rural residents who believe the problems with their well water owe to the interaction between local wind farm development and the area’s unique geology. The sedimentary bedrock — dark in color and fine-grained — lurks beneath most of Chatham-Kent. It’s known to contain sulphur, carbon, and toxic heavy metals. A resident says that his well was drilled by his father half a century ago and had always run clear — until sediment clogged it last October. Now, the water is the color of tea and when poured and small particles sink to the bottom of a glass. 

Ensuing government research debunked some of the claims. A 2014 health federal health study, for instance, showed that “annoyance” was the sole condition found to increase as levels of wind turbine noise increased. (The report did note that community annoyance was statistically related to health effects such as migraines, blood pressure changes, tinnitus, and stress.). But events in Chatham-Kent raise the possibility that the massive wind catchers pose unique and under-considered risks to the region’s environment, and the health and safety of its residents.  

Spokesman for Water Wells First and an area farmer says the concern is that vibrations — either from pile driving during the construction phase or, eventually, the everyday operations of the turbines — might disturb the fragile Kettle Point black shale bedrock and contaminate the ancient aquifer that serves as the local source of well water. The worry was justified: It is well established that vibrations from pile driving can damage nearby structures. As for ordinary turbine operations, one recent Canadian study found a relationship between the vibrations and ground material within 100 meters of the structure.

Moreover, Water Wells First contends that the company and ministry didn’t take the special characteristics of the local geology into account. Residents realized their worst fears as the project began the construction phase last summer. Nineteen wells began to experience sediment problems, nearly a third of the 64 wells that the group members had tested at their own expense. Bill Clarke, a hydro geologist for Water Wells First who gathered and analyzed the samples, says follow-up testing showed the affected wells experienced changes in water turbidity, amount of particles, color, and rate of flow. While he says some of the changes were marginal, others were alarming. In one instance, the black shale particle count jumped from 47 particles per milliliter to 681,939 — with nearly half of the particles being as tiny as those found in cigarette smoke.

Tiny particles are potentially dangerous because they can be too small to settle to the bottom of a well, nor can they be controlled using conventional water filtration systems. A medical geologist based in Ingersoll, says the acidic atmosphere in the stomach can break down the binding between a clay-based shale particle and any heavy metals attached, allowing the metals to settle in other areas of the body rather than to pass through our digestive system.

“What is actually happening out there as best as I can put together,” Clarke says, “is that there are vibrations that are happening down around the 20-metre level, where the top of the shale is taking place.” The vibrations  from pile driving, and later, from the turbines’ operation create waves like the ripples that fan out in water when people throw rocks into a pond. When the waves from different turbines intersect, they can either cancel each other out, he says — or amplifies the effect.

“If you have a well at that intersection where waves are really reinforcing each other,” it means the shale at the base of the well is being shaken as hard as it would be in an earthquake. That kicks up the particles, and you’re “going to see your water go a [dark] color.”The water: ‘certainly unappealing,’ but is it also dangerous?

Pattern Development, which is developing the farm with Samsung Renewable Energy, defends the preparatory research on the project. Jody Law, a Pattern project developer, says the environmental assessment to obtain the renewable energy approval was rigorous. The developer monitored wells and vibrations during the construction phase, which Law says is a new requirement from the ministry. Sensors were used to monitor vibrations on some (but not all) turbine locations as they were being planted into the ground. The developer inspected all of the complaints it received (16, according to North Kent Wind’s website), and has determined pile driving isn’t to blame for any problems local residents are having with their well water.

This month, the ministry supported those conclusions  and also declared the water was safe to drink despite the sediment. “Water containing fine particles could appear cloudy or turbid,” a ministry representative wrote in a Feb. 1 letter to Paul and Jessica Brooks, the property owners with the especially high black shale particle counts. “Turbid water is certainly unappealing but according to the Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health, in the absence of bacterial contamination there is no health hazard from un-dissolved particles in water.”

In an email responding to TVO’s written questions, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change responds in part: “The ministry takes concerns about groundwater quality very seriously and we are actively holding the company accountable for addressing complaints related to changes in well water quality and/or quantity.”

Jakubec says there are ways to fix the problem — if the group can ever convince the ministry the vibration issue exists. Adding dampeners to problem towers is one way, or, once a well is affected, specialized filtration equipment that can handle small particles could be installed.

Three days after his water disappeared, North Kent Wind’s developers began supplying him with huge water containers of non-potable water and jugs of drinkable water. Law says that Pattern has been delivering the water to other residents who have complained about well water quality since construction began. They’re being good neighbors, he says. After the ministry sent its letter to the Brooks, however, Pattern announced it would stop the water deliveries.

Vibrations from wind turbines, a phenomena known as seismic coupling, is being blamed for sedimentation in more than 20 water wells in this southwestern Ontario municipality. More than 460 rural residents have signed a petition, which was presented to the municipal council Aug. 22, asking for a moratorium on further development. The controversy concerns those in the former Township of Dover just east of Lake St. Clair and a new project, North Kent Wind One, headed by Pattern Energy and Samsung Renewable Energy.Jakubec said developers were informed of the concern at a public meeting last November but have yet to respond.

Ontario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has acknowledged there may be concern. Under the Renewable Energy Approval, Pattern and Samsung are to test well water if residents complain, offer an opinion as to whether turbines are to blame, and supply bottled water until the issue is resolved.  Jakubec said well water issues are often first noticed when piles are driven into the earth to anchor the giant machines. In some instances, problems clear up but in others they continue. There have even been cases of turbidity levels fluctuating in relationship to the direction and intensity of the wind

Wade said turbines can be retrofitted to dampen vibrations and alternative anchoring systems are available, but those would cost more. The water table is fragile in Dover, part of a geological area stretching from Lake Huron to Chatham-Kent. There are just 50 to 70 feet of overburden in most places covering black shale bedrock.  

Jakubec and Stainton said there are studies from Scotland and Italy that have identified seismic coupling. Jakubec, a green energy researcher, said impacts tend to be felt from 1.5 to five kilometers away from turbine locations. Geological engineer Maurice Dusseault wasn’t surprised to hear that Chatham-Kent water wells were contaminated in the wake of pile driving for wind turbines.“Pile driving emits a lot of low-frequency energy, and it is not at all surprising to me that there could be related groundwater effects. The concept of large-amplitude, low frequency excitation as an aid to liquid flow is reasonably well-known,” the University of Waterloo professor said. “Low frequency deformation waves are absolutely known to lead to fluctuation in ground water levels as well as changes in the particulate count in shallow groundwater wells.”

In addition, Dusseault said affected residents were well-advised in having their wells baseline tested prior to construction last summer. It’s the type of evaluation he recommends. Before and after tests sent by the Water Wells First citizens’ group to RTI Laboratories in Michigan show an exponential increase [in] turbidity among the 14 affected wells, including [a] large proportion that can be attributed to Kettle [Point] black shale particles that are known to contain heavy metals, including uranium, arsenic and lead.

That’s not the conclusion reached by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, as outlined in letters recently sent to affected well owners living near the North Kent One project in the northern part of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Whilst there’s been an admission that wells have indeed been contaminated.  That contamination can only be attributed to “unidentified factors.” Pile-driving activities associated with wind turbine development are not to blame, the MOECC maintains.

The MOECC, in coming to its conclusion, relied upon the vibration evaluations prepared for the developers Samsung and Pattern Energy, by Golder Associates Limited. Golder measured changes to particle velocity as a measure of vibration intensity created by pile driving.

“The ministry has reviewed Golder’s assessment and agreed with the conclusion that any pile driving -induced vibrations at your well would have been much lower than those created during common daily activities around the homes,” a letter to one of the affected families states. The parameters used by Golder, however, may be flawed….

“This is a complicated issue because there is reason to believe that it is the very low frequencies that may perturb the aquifer, whereas higher frequencies have no effect. Thus, if their vibration sensors are not picking up the low frequencies (lower than one Hertz), it would be difficult to make general comment about the vibration,” Dusseault said.

Heavy equipment was used to drive steel beams to the black shale bedrock, located 50 to 70 feet below the soil surface, to anchor each of the North Kent Wind turbines. The aquifer from which most well owners in the area draw their water is located just above the shale. The same type of vibration could be created by the operation of the turbines, “if there are continued low frequency but reasonably large-amplitude excitations set up by the wind turbine through the connection to the foundations seated in the rock … and of course this is based on direct evidence (earthquake-induced effects), not indirect inference (peak particle velocity) for which there is not a proven causality,” he said.

The concerns have been dismissed by Chatham-Kent’s Medical Officer of Health who concluded that there is no health risk from undisclosed particles in water when no bacteria are present. Jakubec, however, said there are at least two potential pathways through which the heavy metals in black shale particles can enter the human body.