WELLINGTON COUNTY – Minto council will be considering a letter from the Wellington Federation of Agriculture at a meeting tomorrow.
The note from President Barclay Nap to Sarah Wilhelm, manager of the policy, planning and development department at the County of Wellington, details several concerns.
It lists contractual obligations the WFA believes should be included if a storage system should be built, including an obligation to restore farmland to its original form after the project is completed.
The latest standards and codes, Nap wrote, must always be adhered to when building one of the storage systems.
Also noted was the need to increase the minimum setback distance from property lines and buildings including livestock facilities.
An energy storage committee within the OFA board recently approved a policy position for the systems, but Nap wrote he would like to see protecting farmland as a priority when the systems are being considered.
The letter goes on to mention the ministry of energy should not consider building a storage system on class one to four or specialty crop lands.
The WFA says it looks forward to working with municipal partners to protect county farmland.
The meeting in Minto gets going at 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
