Impact: 100% impact on my…

Impact: 100% impact on my life.

I live in close proximity and downhill from LaPlante's, in the perfect position to get the noise and smell carried from the prevailing west wind. This has been an impact on my life for the last 7 years. My screen in decked is directly affected by the terrible generator, chiller, transport, tractor, workers, and regular plant noises - on a daily basis. This noise continues past plant working hours - I have noticed a variety of noices at all time of the day and night, including 3 am, 6 am etc. Which is a violation of the noise by-law In the past the police have been notified for this noise. violation. Examples; generator and chiller runs all night, transports go in and out of the yard at all times, and tractor has been running and moving items in the middle of the night.

The chiller and generator noise eats into our brains so we cannot be in our deck or outside for to long, if we are outside for a while with this noise my head ends up with a vibrating feeling and I feel sick due to the noise and I have to go back inside. It is a long steady hum.

Our windows have to be closed and we can still hear the hum and noise in the house. We even had to move bedrooms ! We moved to the east side, because the constant hum penetrated the windows and significantly impacted our sleep. This is not humane and not acceptable.

We cannot sit on our screened in west sun porch for any length of time due to the noise and the hums. Another example is on July 5th 2019 (a holiday), I was sitting on the screened in porch reading at 7:30pm. A transport started, the noise was horrible and I had to move in - I cried. Then I videotaped the noise and will send it to Lisa Chalmers at the MOE. Lisa has all of the files, videos, and pictures so please inquire if needed (wasn't able to upload on this post).

My life has been terribly affected by this noise, my husband had cancer for the last 4 and a half years and passed in December 2018. He could not sit in peace on the deck or sit outside because of his the noise and smell. Which is upsetting because it was one of his favourite spots to sit. When he did sit outside he would have to remove his hearing aids due to the noise.

The smell is also horrible. I assumed that when the construction was completed that a sound barrier would be constructed - it was not. I think some of the other neighbours might have benefited from this construction but due to my location and being downhill the noise has not improved at my location. MOE had them put a transport trailer in front of the generators, to reduce the noise flow. But the noise just goes under, above and around and makes its ways to my property. and this is no ta permanent solution. The only time that I do not have the terrible noise is when there is an east wind, and that happens more in the winter then the summer.

I absorb this steady eating hum daily as I am retired. It has effected my nerves, sleep and my whole well being is effected by the noise and smell which I am exposed to. I have felt helpless and cannot enjoy company coming over. I do not want to expose them, I feel embarrassed to my living conditions regarding the smell and noise. I have even had one person come over and they actually retched from the smell when he got out of their car to visit me at my home.

Area people are commenting on a negative way on the noise and smell saying "how do you live here?" and "how do you deal with this?" My property value has bottomed out due to the smell and noise coming from LaPlante.

It has come to the point where I have started planting cedars to reduce the impact of the noise and smell to which I am exposed too - an out of pocket cost for me and extra strain on my body. Unfortunately this will not have an impact right away as they need time to grow and mature.

Overall, this has been a LONG nightmare. Please take into consideration, the impact that LaPlante has had on our life - for almost a decade. This situation can be resolved with sound barrier buildings and walls, consistent check-ins, building permits, etc. From our experience, LaPlante has not always been truthful to MOE and it is the neighbours who see the repercussion and are impacted by his disregard to the laws, rules and requirements. He has consistently polluted the environment because he didn't initially get the licenses and followed protocol for the MOE. We cannot keep going on like this.