McKenna Hall was nearly packed tonight for a 'Town Hall'-style community engagement event hosted by Enbridge, the company behind the proposed Seven Stars Energy Project, which would bring a 200-megawatt wind energy project to the surrounding area in the R.M. of Weyburn and the R.M. of Griffin.
Upon the announcement this summer by the Government of Saskatchewan, the project has received ongoing pushback from residents in the two R.M.s, which has lengthened the project schedule to allow more time for dialogue with the public, addressing concerns, and making enhancements and adjustments to suit the needs of the residents in the area.
Director of Community Partnerships with Enbridge, Sam Munckhof-Swain, opened up the event by apologizing to the public for the announcement being the first anyone had heard about the project. He highlighted that Enbridge has addressed concerns about residential setback by revising the turbine layout across the footprint of the project. The new layout positions the turbines further away from residences and relocates eight of the turbines to a more remote area.
Also in response to community input, another project enhancement Enbridge will pursue, he pointed out, is to install a turbine lighting system that activates only when aircraft are detected nearby, rather than continuously.
This event was the first opportunity for Enbridge, which has been delivering energy in southern Saskatchewan for more than 75 years, to share these enhancements with the broader community.
Munckhof-Swain was part of a panel of six, which also included Project Lead with Enbridge, Keith Taylor; Director of Power Development in Canada with Enbridge, Alex McNichol; Christopher Ollson, Ph.D., Senior Environmental Health Scientist, Ollson Environmental Health Management; Lillian Knopf M.Sc., Terrestrial and Wetland Biologist, Natural Resource Solutions Inc.; and Shant Dokouzian, P.Eng., Wind Technology, Energy Systems.
He also pointed out the significant and sustained local and regional economic benefits of the project, such as employment, contracting and business opportunities, municipal and provincial tax revenues, and more.
According to Munckhof-Swain, Enbridge chose to host this event, which he said would be the first of many, to ensure everyone had an opportunity to ask their questions and get some direct answers, with a third-party moderator there to ensure things went smoothly.
"We did bring in WSP to help moderate that, just to help folks have a chance to ask questions," he said. "We got a lot of good feedback here and this is what it's all about. It's taking feedback from the community and improving our project. We've heard a lot of good feedback over the last four, five months, we've improved it."
"We've got some really important input today. We're going to take that forward and improve our project. So we're happy that a lot of people came out and we're going to continue the conversation."
Questions asked and answered ranged from concerns about decibel levels of the turbines, light nuisance versus proper visibility for aircraft, whether or not STARS Air Ambulance would be able to land a helicopter amid turbines; as well as concerns about health risks to migratory birds, livestock, and the people living near the turbines.
The PDF presentation found on poster boards at the event can be found below, screen-captured into photos.
