MERIGOMISH - A group of concerned citizens in the Merigomish area have launched an investigation into the information Shear Wind has provided to the province as part of its environmental assessment.

Kristen Overmyer, president of the Eco Awareness Society, says the investigation is being done under section 115 of the Nova Scotia Environment Act for "allegedly providing false and misleading information to Nova Scotia Environment in the environmental assessment application for their Glen Dhu Wind Power plant."

The filing alleges extensive plagiarism and five counts of false and misleading statements in the addendum's health section where conclusions and data were altered from the original health literature and Shear Wind's author was falsely represented as an expert on the health effects posed by industrial wind turbines.

Overmyer says one example of the altered data is in a study cited by Shear Wind wherein a range of medical symptoms - including sleep disturbance, tinnitus, ear pressure, dizziness, nausea, problems with concentration and tachycardia - are reported for families living from 305 metres to 1.5 kilometres from industrial wind turbines.

Shear Wind reports the maximum distance as only 457 metres instead of the actual 1.5 kilometres, says Overmyer.

"There are seven homes closer than 1.5 kilometres to wind turbines in Shear Wind's proposed project," he says.

Although the group say they have provided detailed evidence regarding the ostensible plagiarism along with the false and misleading statements, Environment Minister David Morse approved Shear Wind's environmental assessment without addressing the problem or commenting on the matter, says Overmyer.

"The Eco Awareness Society's filing of this investigation was necessitated by the environment minister's failure to address the potential health risks to residents as documented by the actual data in the cited literature," he said.