Minutes Company Pacific Hydro Pty Ltd ACN 057 279 508 Meeting Cape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 7 Date Thursday, 3 April 2014 Time 6.00 - 7.30pm Location Bridgewater Surf Life Saving Club Attendees Rachel Watson, Head of Commercial, Pacific Hydro Andrew Richards, Executive Manager External Affairs, Pacific Hydro Dianne Thomson, Community Relations Coordinator, Pacific Hydro Dan Griffin, Marshall Day Acoustics Cath Smith, Futureye Cape Bridgewater Residents 1. Welcome and Introductions Futureye facilitator, Cath Smith, introduced the meeting and went over the agenda. Andrew introduced himself for those who have not met him. Minutes from March meeting tabled. No changes have been received since last meeting. 2. Terms Of Reference Deferred until a larger group is present at a future meeting. 3. Previous minutes tabled Minutes from last meeting tabled and accepted Residents requested that minutes be sent out earlier to Cape Bridgewater (CBW) residents to allow adequate time for review prior to the next meeting. 4. Follow up on queries from last meeting CFA guest speaker, Peter Novotny, District Operations Manager, Barwon South West Region, District 4 (Glenelg Shire) has agreed to be a guest speaker to the group but is unavailable until June. An attendee questioned whether Peter speaking would be a conflict of interest as Peter’s wife; Joy Jones was, at some stage, an employee of Pacific Hydro. Page 1 Cape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 37 Minutes Meeting held on Wednesday 6 November 20134 Rachel and Andrew responded that they had no knowledge of any connection with Pacific Hydro but would look into it. It was pointed out that any question regarding a potential conflict of interest could be answered by Peter himself. An attendee raised concerns that Pacific Hydro was just going to run the locals around till PWEP IV was constructed and then disappear. Rachel and Andrew stated this was not Pacific Hydro’s intention and that Pacific Hydro is committed to this process for the long term. Discussion around Steven Cooper Testing followed, see item 6. Discussion around health and sleep deprivation, Andrew stated “it is our goal to improve your quality of life or at least restore it to what it was before the wind farm was there.” Discussions around turning off the turbines during the night and whether this would be considered by Pacific Hydro. Andrew responded that turbines will not be turned off at night. Andrew stated there are certain things that the company will not be able to do and we are trying to find solutions that result in residents being able to live with the wind farm. 5. Update on permanent noise monitoring Dan Griffin from Marshall Day Acoustics gave a power point presentation addressing the permanent noise monitoring and took questions from the room. Maps were distributed showing the locations of the 5 loggers. Question from attendee in relation to when CBW residence will get the Marshall Day results. Andrew replied that results will be available when it is out of the trial phase. Discussion around the “real time” data and the construction of a web interface which is hampered by the 3G signal strength. Attendee requested further SCADA data & noise level information. A colour version of the power point presentation to be attached to minutes when forwarded by Dan Andrew stressed that permanent noise testing only looks at audible noise and is being set up in response to proposed Federal Governments legislation. 6. Discussion around screeching noise Rachel addressed this issue with the following points: Although the sanding back of the brake pads was a short term fix, it was not a solution. Realise the screeching is continuing Working with the CBW Operations Manager in relation to this issue There is a trial to replace two of the turbines with different brake pads, not sanding the pads, but replacing them altogether. Requested input from CBW residents as to which turbines to replace the components, agreed the closest two to residents. Attendee requested to ensure no oil from the replacement gets onto his house The company in Germany manufacturing the components has identified the issue with this specific brake pad. Explanation in relation to investigating new programing where the turbines may not yaw in wind conditions under 3.5m/second Page 2 Cape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 37 Minutes Meeting held on Wednesday 6 November 20134 Attendee wanted it minuted that, “if the turbines were set back 2 KM from properties there probably wouldn’t be a problem.” 7. Update on Steven Cooper Testing Rachel stated Pacific Hydro (PH) now has a better understanding of the scope of the Steven Cooper testing PH now has preliminary costing from Steven Cooper One of the next steps will be to put in place appropriate contracts to permit the testing to occur. Rachel acknowledged that this has taken more time than we (PH) would have hoped,. Rachel & Andrew hope to fly to Sydney to meet with Steven Cooper next week, after this meeting Andrew or Rachel will contact residents directly with an update, and will also keep residents informed with each next step as and when it occurs, in recognition that the progress is slower than hoped but is moving forward. Further discussion from Cath re clear written document required from Steven Cooper to contain the range of clauses and conditions contained in the Senator Madigan letter. Attendee requested when will CBW residents get the latest correspondence from Steven Cooper? Further discussion around this topic 8. Other business Discussion around PH not understanding the needs of the CBW residents, raised by attendee. Cath spoke about a feed- back loop for information sharing, attendee stated there should be an 1800 number to call re complaints Discussion re trust issues between PH and CBW residents Attendee suggested PH consider water baffles and sandbags to ease the vibration issues Attendee stated, “I need to be assured the talks (with Steven Cooper) are progressing as I am only just managing to stay in my house. I am putting out a warning sign here.” Rachel assured the attendee that progress is being made and reiterated that Andrew & Rachel will fly to Sydney to meet with Steven Cooper to push things along. Attendees requested that they be given a report back after the meeting with Steven Cooper and that Senator Madigan be told as well. Rachel addressed the issue from last month’s meeting in relation to Lane Crockett’s radio interview on S.A radio. Rachel explained that Lane’s comments were specific to the Codrington wind farm. Rachael stated she would read out loud the transcript if required by CBW residents. Discussion around this point but transcript not asked to be read. Discussion between Dan and attendee in relation to further noise testing being done in the USA by Professor Salt. Discussion in relation to sleep study by Dr. Wayne Spring. Rachel stated PH may look into a sleep study after the results from the Steven Cooper testing are known. 9. Future Meetings Discussion re changes the meeting day Agreement that meetings remain on the first Thursday of the month in future. Next meeting Thursday May 1st, to be confirmed Page 3
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