North Kent Wind told about 200 Chatham-Kent residents that turbine pile driving is not disturbing sediments in their wells, and they're not happy with what they heard.
Several experts talked at an emotional, but mostly peaceful, public meeting on Thursday night in Pain Court, but couldn't explain why well water across Chatham-Kent is suddenly turning murky.
A glossy pamphlet suggests that well water quality problems could be from poor aquifer conditions or aging wells.
Storer Boone, geotechnical engineer with Golder Associates, says there are many issues with wells that are not related to pile driving.
"If a well was right next to a pile, then maybe there's a problem, but at 100 metres or hundreds of metres, no. I think there's been a lot of speculation based on a little bit of science and a little bit of engineering, but looking at it in its entirety, I think that's what's gone missing," says Boone.
Water Wells First is considering filing a class action lawsuit because they believe turbine pile driving at the North Kent Wind sites are turning wells turbid, clogging filters and stopping the flow of water into 12 homes so far.
North Kent Wind is providing those homes with a temporary water supply.
Boone says wells usually have sediment in them because they are drilled into the bedrock and usually don't have screens.
"Where all the sediment is showing up in these bottles I don't know. Where that has been taken from, I don't know. I don't know the means by which they sampled to get that," Boone says.
Jason Murchison, senior hydrogeologist with Aecom, says five wells have been tested so far and the results don't show any problems with the water quality. He's not sure why murky water is coming out of taps, because he has not witnessed it before.
"Results we got from the complaint investigation were no different in quality from the original baseline samples. In those instances we didn't observe, based on our investigation and re-sampling of the well, a degradation in the water quality in those water supplies," says Murchison.