Wind farm plan worries monks
Dispatch Online|David MacGregor|February 23, 2010
Benedictine monks living in the hills outside Grahamstown are angry about plans to build a wind farm near their monastery. Brother Timothy Jolley, the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery prior, yesterday said the Anglican monks feared the noise and visual impact of the 135m turbines would forever destroy the "contemplative life" they had worked so hard to achieve over the past 12 years.
Benedictine monks living in the hills outside Grahamstown are angry about plans to build a wind farm near their monastery. Brother Timothy Jolley, the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery prior, yesterday said the Anglican monks feared the noise and visual impact of the 135m turbines would forever destroy the "contemplative life" they had worked so hard to achieve over the past 12 years.
Benedictine monks living in the hills outside Grahamstown are angry about plans to build a wind farm near their monastery. Brother Timothy Jolley, the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery prior, yesterday said the Anglican monks feared the noise and visual impact of the 135m turbines would forever destroy the "contemplative life" they had worked so hard to achieve over the past 12 years.
"We were never properly consulted from the beginning," he said.
According to Jolley, the monks do not object "to the value of wind farms and sustainable energy" but rather their location. Besides the "aesthetic impact", the "Brothers were also concerned about the noise and health of people living near the turbines".
In a recent letter to Coastal and …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Benedictine monks living in the hills outside Grahamstown are angry about plans to build a wind farm near their monastery. Brother Timothy Jolley, the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery prior, yesterday said the Anglican monks feared the noise and visual impact of the 135m turbines would forever destroy the "contemplative life" they had worked so hard to achieve over the past 12 years.
"We were never properly consulted from the beginning," he said.
According to Jolley, the monks do not object "to the value of wind farms and sustainable energy" but rather their location. Besides the "aesthetic impact", the "Brothers were also concerned about the noise and health of people living near the turbines".
In a recent letter to Coastal and Environmental Services director Kevin Whittington-Jones - handling the environmental impact assessment (EIA) - Jolley said they were also fearful of the potential damage to an already sensitive eco-system.
Over the past 10 years, Jolley said the monks had worked hard to eradicate alien vegetation from the 65hectare property, resulting in "bird life and indigenous vegetation returning in abundance".
Jolley also feared the "intrusion" of the turbines would "jeopardise our ministry and indeed possibly the continued presence of the monks on this property". "We monks, like the rest of nature, must have an environment in which to flourish, and if that is polluted, then we, too, might have to move on."
Although the location of the wind farm at Waainek has divided local residents, a proposal to give a quarter stake in the French Innowind-funded project to a yet-to-be-formed educational trust has won praise - even from the monks. "Such an initiative is laudable and desperately needed, but at what cost to overall quality of life for the community?"
Besides the five monks who permanently live at the monastery, the retreat has become a popular place for people from all faiths to come and unwind. It also has 29 students who attend the local school every day.
Winds of Change lobbyist Dr Garth Cambray said locating the wind farm anywhere else in Grahamstown would set the project back three years.
Whittington-Jones said a draft EIA would be "out in about two weeks" and people would have a month to comment.