In an earlier blog post, I provided a link to an article I wrote pertaining to a proposed pumped storage facility on the military base at Meaford, Ontario, Canada. Considerable alarmism is being raised by people who want to “Save Georgian Bay” but I don’t see evidence that they are anything beyond “NIMBY”s. I intend to continue writing articles encouraging people to do their own research and providing links to facilitate this. This is my next letter to the editor of the Meaford Independent

Water Volume Perspective – Proposed Pumped Storage Facility

There has been concern raised by some regarding the volume of water being moved out of and back into Georgian Bay to serve the proposed pumped storage facility on the base. There is no question that the volume is huge. Properly managing its potential impact on Georgian Bay is very important as is having accurate information about it.

Since the 1960’s, there has been a nuclear power operation between Port Elgin and Kincardine, just around the corner from Meaford. These power plants are located on Lake Huron because they need large volumes of water for cooling their reactors. According to information I have gleaned in my research, Bruce A and B nuclear power plants move about the same volume of water in and out of Lake Huron over the same time period as that used during one cycle of the pumped storage process. According to the 2018 Bruce Power Environmental Report, the water being discharged empties into large channels “designed to dissipate the effluent as it enters the lake to minimize impact on flow patterns”. A summary of findings in this report states, “Risks to fish and wildlife populations due to physical stressors were considered to be negligible” (p 208)

Should you wish to read the report and make your own conclusions, it is available at https://www.brucepower.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2018-Environmental-Protection-Report.pdf