Here’s a prime example of “every thing that’s wrong in rural Ontario” with the “Green Energy Experiment” this is bordering on the insane!
The little town of Marmora is being used as an experiment in “energy storage” which is what is sadly lacking with the Industrial Wind Turbine and Solar Farm development in Ontario. No storage, no long term supply. When the wind quits blowing and the sun stops shining, generation ceases!
Some “bright” pin head along the way suggested that if a huge column of water could be created and stored and then used as a generator to drive generators after the wind turbines and solar facilities stop generating then a continual supply of electricity could result!
It’s called a DAM stupid. Ontario has literally hundreds of these in it’s natural settings and uses many for what used to be affordable electrical supply. Ever heard of Niagara Falls????
In this sad case in Marmora, Northland Power has come up with a brilliant plan to build a dam above a community, which could flood the hell out the inhabitants homes endangering lives and properties. for just such a useless purpose. Have you seen the OPP commercial warning people about flooding under Hydro Dams?
One would think that when a Municipal Council is approached by such a whacky idea they would ask their bosses, the citizens of the community what they would want, wouldn’t you?
Not here. After all the lowly citizens or what Marmora now calls themselves “Un-Citizens” have no say, no input and literally no way out of what their “elected representatives” have in store for THEM!
This is not an unfamiliar attitude by Councils across Rural Ontario as McGuinty marches ever onward with his massive destruction of Rural Ontario as a “place to live and a place to grow” which should now have the catchy tag……….a “place to cry as it’s a place to die!”
Here’s Marmora’s story:
Since June 2011, We the Un-Citizens of Marmora and Lake (aka Local Pariahs), have attempted to publicly expose our ignored opposition to Northland Power’s proposed building plan for their “pumped storage” project’s massive water-storage Upper Reservoir (aka UR)… a man-made lake-in-the-sky of “waste rock pile” construction, above village homes.
SEE for yourself – how the power of propaganda preying on mass gullibility, publicly misleading information/ labelling and deliberate obscurement of local dissent have ensured Northland Power’s project proposal became and remains a potential catastrophic, man-made flooding threat to scores of local lives and properties.
You’ll need to study and keep the municipality’s project promotional webpage handy for reference.
- See any letters from local residents posing objections or opposition?
Please pay particular attention to photos and artists’ concepts of Northland’s proposed project’s Upper Reservoir in their presentations & videos, as linked from the municipal project promo webpage!
- See any houses or a local nursing home?
As you’re pondering why this project’s promotion by the Municipality and Northland Power does not indicate any presence of local opposition or houses in our Village of Marmora, I hope my photos will help you understand that local frustrations intensify as fears remain unresolved, in lockstep with local concerns for life and property being rendered publicy invisible.
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See me waving to you from my front window, just beyond the southern (right) edge of that yellow ellipse?
There are 3 urban streets between the Crowe River and this project’s planned “waste rock pile” Upper Reservoir !
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I snapped these 6 photos (including our local nursing home) on Sat. February 4th 2012, to prove it!
LEARN for yourself – the intriguing similarities of the details for Northland’s proposed pumped storage project you studied from the municipal project promo page – and those for the Taum Sauk pumped storage plant and its “upper reservoir” as it was originally built in the 1960’s, including the details and photos of the catastrophic, December 2005 breach of Taum Sauk’s original Upper Reservoir, from my Links page.
Would you be surprised that the USA’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Independent Panel Of Consultants (IPOC) report’s section 3.2 noted that “Taum Sauk was the last newly constructed dumped rockfill CFRD in the USA”? (See pdf pg 2 – HERE )
Would YOU want to live adjacent to the base of Northland’s proposed (and apparent copycat version of Taum Sauk’s original) Upper Reservoir? Neither would WE!
Compare MY aerial “concept” photos of the proposed Upper Reservoir to Northland Power’s “artist’s concept” within their project presentations on the municipal promo page:
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| NOW you can at least see a few of our homes in the Village of Marmora, between the Crowe River and the proposed “waste rock pile” upper reservoir that Northland Power’s images conveniently cropped out 🙂 | ||
Those fighting Typical Northland Nonsense and community-destroying “effects” here can empathize with our counterparts elsewhere (who are actually battling Northland Power renewable energy projects):
Great knowing you, Ray! Aren’t new communities Northland Power brings together wonderful?!
From YourOttawaRegion.com’s article by Rosanne Lake – Nov 03, 2011 – Residents voice concerns at Tay Valley solar farm meeting:
Tay Valley councillor Brian Campbell said that the township passed a unanimous motion two weeks ago not supporting this project.
Not all councils sell their citizens out in Northland Power’s interest, like ours did!
My deepest gratitude to:
- An experienced mainstream media journalist who privately advised me, on my birthday: “…you need to continue the campaign to at least be heard. That attached document containing nothing but praise is simply absurd. Real questions deserve real answers.”
- The many knowledgeable and committed Ontario provincial employees in every single energy-related office I talked to (ok, “unloaded” on) at length last summer.
- Independent Energy and Environmental Advisor, Mr. Tom Adams, for not only being the first “outsider” to publicly post your own notice about our unique plight among the plethora of energy project battles competing for attention these days, but also allowing those living here to publicly air their concerns interactively, detailed in their own manner and beyond control of the Wardens of our local Prison for Municipally-Denied Opposition.
- First Nations’ researchers far and wide, whose stellar expertise and level of commitment is nothing short of mind-numbing to a bumbling novice like me.
- Mr. Jim McIntosh, who blogs on the website of the Libertarian Party of Ontario.
Each of you has been a sanity-saving gift and inspiration. Know that you will remain fondly remembered!
Additional reference materials may be made directly available at my discretion, upon request.
The Big Green Lie 
I’m moving to Marmora May 31st. .l bought a house on Rockhaven Rd..now this scares me..did this go threw..l hope not. I m afraid of water or floods. .I wish l would have known tis before ..l didn’t do my homework. Wow..now lm worried.
And small town politics still exist.
Bro you’re crazy
Please check out Taum Sauk pumped storage resevoir built in 1963 in Missouri. A major breach happened Dec 14,2005, 1Billion Gallons (4 million cubic metres) released in a very short time period. LUCKILY no loss of life. Sounds like a few homes in Marmora are a little closer to this particular location.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_Station
Exactly, Terry – this is the case our local opposition has been talking about since June of 2011. I put more links about the Taum Sauk catastrophe on my Links page. If you haven’t done so yet, check out the pictures I posted on my site’s Intro & Credits page. Just click on my name attached to this reply and my site should come up for you. Feel free to contact me through my site if you have any questions. My profile is on my page titled Meet Un-Citizens. Kathy
Burks Falls sits on the Magnetawan River, an area of many, many lakes abundant with cottages, summer homes up and down the entire river system from Algonquin Park to Georgian Bay. So many things putting the threat of destruction on this beautiful river. 2 aggregate quarries Kearney & Ryerson Township, BOTH very near the river and the Ryerson also a beautiful landmark Pegg’s Mtn plus surrounding rich Wetland area. Solar Farm East 100 acres rushed ahead, very hilly, this once beautiful area destroyed in ugliness with a very inefficient stupid, unproductive 10MW (45,000 panels), 3 Mile creek every rainfall pours many tonnes of silt, muck and debris into our river. Solar Farm West ditto, now under construction, a high rock hill being leveled, you guessed it, right beside the river again. The complete idiocy of a “free green” is but a fallacy. NOT to mention tremendous costs to us all. The government has made it such we are powerless to stop any development.
We have several small groups trying to bring some concerns t owhat is going on, all a great uphill battle that drags on and on. Best
is this still going ahead? mcguinty has gone but he has left devastation eveyrwhere. windfarms are one of the worst, along with damming. we should be using less energy and problem solved. along with the ontario government’s ruling that tey and anyone else for that matter i believe, can stake a claim on your land if there is a chance of resources below the surface. i live in toronto and am looking to move awAY but everywhere seems to be under threat. so is this still happening?
More than ever!…………….Say good-bye to Rural Ontario!
For those interested in real issues and the many faceted government impositions into our lives and security (rather than grammar and spell checking nine month old postings) the Marmora and Lake web site has updated their web site. Links in the article are no longer accurate.
New link – http://www.marmoraandlake.ca/?s=pumped+storage
Thanks for the “if you don’t like the message kill the messenger” comment Anonymouse, and for serving as a reminder that even stale dated postings need to be watched and updated.
Is Anonymous a given name, a surname or an affliction?
Unfortunately for you, you come across as a barely literate ranter and raver.
I’m a Marmora homeowner and I share your concerns, especially the fact that many townspeople are being brainwashed into believing this will bring job and industry to our town, not risk and defilement of a beautiful resource. Please feel free to e-mail me with any ideas you have!
I usually have more ideas than you might want flooding your inbox continually, but feel free to contact me – all my contact info is on my website (linked from my name to this comment) and within my many commentaries linked from my “Meet Un-Citizens” page under my name. FYI my next “presentation” to Council as a Delegate will be at their afternoon meeting of August 7, 2012… do be there and bring lots of local friends, acquaintances and neighbours and help spread the word (and let the local reporters at council meetings SEE) that YOUR/THEIR support HAS BEEN and WILL continue to be assumed without your/their consent (perhaps without even awareness) – as it has been, is and will continue to be, from ANYONE who does not express doubts, concerns or objections PUBLICLY here in Marmora!
Please accept my thank you for posting the Marmora story on your site.
The issue is bigger than just the ridiculous and potentially dangerous pumped storage project being proposed for construction here in Marmora or any of the bogus “renewable energy” projects.
The Green energy act, the municipal act, the planning act and others have stripped local governments of most of their decision making authority. The provincial and federal governments, through grants (bribery) and influence from unelected agencies like ICLEI and the AMO’s control agents (local CAOs) lead our emasculated local elected officials to their agenda like puppets on strings.
No matter where you live take a good close look at the way your local government is operating. I’m sure you will find the same behind closed doors, no consultation with constituents decision making system. You will find public “information” meetings being held after decisions are made rather than pre-decision consultations. You will find planning areas, development zones, arbitrary environmental designations, urban growth boundaries, sustainable development plans, urban intensification zones and many other instances of gradual, small incremental losses of property rights and personal decision making authority being imposed and approved with little public notice or understanding.
If it says “sustainable” it is a threat to our society, our economy and our children’s future that should not be ignored
Alternate energy is an expensive failure and needs to be fought against as strongly as we can, but, don’t get fixated on a single issue. Our system of democratic, for the people, governance has been perverted and broken. It needs to be fixed.
The only way to stop the destruction of our property rights and freedoms is to apply greater pressure to local government than is being applied to them from outside influences. Watch what they are trying to do and not only fight back but convince your local elected officials it is their duty to fight back on your behalf.
Of course commenting and complaining to every provincial MPP is also good. The biggest threat to them is loss of votes, so find ways to threaten their chances of re-election and let them know you will be very actively working to ensure they will not be re-elected if they do not start rewriting the legislation allowing this mess to happen.
It’s for the CHILDREN! (well, that little phrase seems to work well for the other side so I thought I would give it a try)
Nail on the head. Great post.
Thanks for spreading the word about the Municipality of Marmora and Lake’s big power play against their own people, Big Green Lie!
Since day 1, Northland Power (and now their project engineer from Hatch) KEPT INSISTING that this project’s safety will be assured through “strict government and industry dam safety regulations”:
Easy enough for them to say that strict government (and industry?! LOL) regulations will protect us from their greed… when there simply aren’t any government dam safety regulations that would apply to this specific project.
Dam safety regulations are a provincial responsibility. Only three provinces in Canada have such critters and Ontario ain’t one of ’em – according to a Hatch webpage that has become “unavailable” since I first linked to it from my Links page… the closest thing Ontario has to “dam safety regulations” is the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act (LRIA) which is under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Here’s the problem:
The LRIA’s best intentions are NOT able to protect Marmora’s villagers due to the extreme uniqueness of Northland’s proposal (that will merely add its renewable-complementing burden to the already “renewable energy”-bloated bills of every electricity consumer in Ontario);
Apparently when deciding on this Act’s definition for dam and its regulation of dam safety accordingly… nobody had thought of any “energy developer” sufficiently lacking in conscience and overly greed-driven enough to build (or a government of the same attributes that would contract to pay such snake-oil-salesmen to operate such a net consumer of grid electricity to primarily complement IWT’s) a massive man-made lake-in-the-sky above scores of urban village homes from a dumped “waste rock pile” – that, like this unique sucker uses NO natural RIVER FLOW (which is required provincial criteria for defining a “waterpower project” and what makes waterpower projects “renewable energy”)… AND to be built by a PRIVATE DEVELOPER entirely on PRIVATELY-OWNED PROPERTY (in this case, conveniently owned by project partner Aecon).
Now you know why Northland Power keeps going after this evasive Marmora pot’o’gold like dancing leprechauns, instead of turning their attentions towards their other pumped storage consideration, that is further north and on Crown land.
The other BIG point Northland Power (and now their project “engineer” from Hatch) MUST KEEP INSISTING is that the abandoned open mine pit “lower reservoir” has merely filled with “precipitation” and snow melt.
As such, they simply couldn’t overtop their crappy upper reservoir and cause a breach like happened at Taum Sauk – not possible with that “limited availability of water” in the “lower reservoir” open mine pit’s handy lake which everyone here (and at the OPA, Hasting County and Ontario’s Ministry of Environment) has known for years is actually spring-fed!
A “spillway” going from the NW corner of the upper reservoir (nearest our lowest-elevation neighbourhood homes) dumping into the Crowe River was shown in the engineer’s project drawing presented to council here on July 19, 2012… funny they’d bother with a spillway, since they allege there’s such a limited availability of water? Even stranger is that there was no mention or pictorial inclusion of any such spillway feature in the original materials presented when their proposal was first publicly revealed on June 10, 2011.
To sum it up: Our local taxes are paying for a marketing campaign to promote Northland’s non-renewable, non-energy project, which we never knew about until 3 days AFTER council had voted to support it June 7, 2011. Our non-evidenced community support is being used as Northland Power and our complicit council’s involutary bully – targetting the Minister of Energy, in hopes that HE will cave under this pressure and in turn bully the OPA into negotiating a longterm PPA with Northland Power to make themselves more money by threatening our lives with flooding longterm… with our local council disallowing any local objections to any of this from equal sharing of publication on THEIR website that WE pay for.
An article posted to the Globe online – Friday, Jul. 22, 2011 9:41AM EDT – titled “Entrepreneur powers his way to the top” (a Q & A interview with James C. Temerty, founder and chairman of Northland Power Inc) provided great insight to Marmora’s dissenting Un-Citizens:
Globe interviewer Q: “How do you inspire loyalty?”
Excerpt from Temerty’s A: “We shouldn’t hold people because of money but because they love it. People like knowing that they’re sitting next to good, solid, qualified professional people.”…
Ah yes, that good old “Love of Money” thing. Perhaps when all comes out in the wash, their so-called “Marmora Pumped Storage” project and the desperate need for its convoluted promotion will prove a bigger scandal than Adscam?