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.
