Tree Clearing Scheduled for Hydro Station Assessment
The Piperville Project team at Hydro Ottawa has notified the Carlsbad Springs Community Association that beginning as early as the week of August 21st they will be conducting tree clearing in the areas depicted below. This is to facilitate a geotechnical study for a new municipal power station
The contents of the communication follows:
As you are aware, to ensure Ottawa’s eastern region has the power to grow, Hydro Ottawa has initiated a Class Environmental Assessment (Class EA) for a new 27.6kV municipal transformer station (MTS) in the southeast end of the city of Ottawa.
We have worked with our provincial peers, Hydro One Networks Inc., as well as the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in the development of an Integrated Regional Resource Plan (IRRP) for our city. This report was published in March 2020, and examines the electricity needs in the city of Ottawa and surrounding municipalities over a twenty-year period.
Following two public consultations (one virtual, one in-person) held on April 20, 2023, we are continuing the Class EA for this station. Beginning as early as the week of August 21, 2023 Hydro Ottawa contractors (Davey Tree Canada) will commence tree clearing at 5134 Piperville Rd in order to facilitate a geotechnical study.
The work will take 3-5 days, be completed during normal business hours and will NOT require or cause outages to any customers, nor impact local traffic.
The work will create multiple 4m wide access paths for the geotechnical drilling rig to be able to access 12 borehole locations.
Details of this work have been shared with the City forestry team, and is permitted (via exemption) under the City's Tree Protection Bylaw.
Following this phase, notifications will be sent out to stakeholders and customers in close proximity when a draft version of the Environmental Study Report (ESR) is available. Hydro Ottawa will also host a second set of community information sessions about the ESR and its findings to gather additional input, resolve any concerns and assuming acceptance, prepare for site permitting and approvals. More information is available on our project website.
In the meantime, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email us directly at piperville@hydroottawa.com.