Solving stray voltage is just the beginning

Victims of stray voltage and victims of rape have something in common. Both are often accused of bringing disaster upon themselves.

And no amount of evidence to the contrary for more than three decades could convince the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairsthat the problem was prolonged by anything else besides a farmer’s incompetence. Experts we talked to a decade ago were prone to blame the farmer, and only recently has the finger pointed at utility companies. The ignorance of experts combined with the evasiveness of the utilities shamed and stonewalled farmers who had stray voltage problems.

It took a chicken farmer, MPP Maria Van Bommell, through a private member’s bill, to put the problem into a new perspective. Her bill, Ground Current Pollution act, was tabled and died after second reading but it spurred the minister of energy to launch an investigation into stray voltage that is expected to put some government pressure on the utility companies. The government order is not looking to determine whether the utility companies share some of the blame. The order assumes the utilities do share the blame and in some cases are responsible, says Van Bommell.

When it comes to stray voltage, Ontario is still in the dark ages. While U.S. states, Alberta and British Columbia recommend stray voltage levels no higher than one volt, Ontario sets 10 volts as an acceptable level in a barn.

In the mid-90s, some farmers publicly complained and the Becksteads of Inkerman in Dundas County took Ontario Hydro to court but gave up when they couldn’t bring in witnesses from the U.S. to testify. Ironically, the ice storm of 1998 solved the problem after Hydro replaced the antiquated wires. Ted Cowan, energy research specialist with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), expects the energy board to come up with guidelines for electricity coming through the electrical panel and stray electricity coming through the ground.

To the OFA’s credit, it was the only group going to bat for farmers in the mid-90s. But it must be more aggressive and farmers need to be politically more vigilant.

The political struggle is only beginning, because ground voltage pollution can carry a very heavy price tag, if the blame is put at a utility company’s doorstep. Court orders requiring the replacement of an ageing infra-structure could be more than the Ontario consumer is willing to pay.

Canadian consumers, as past crisis in agriculture have shown, are only too happy to allow the few pay the price for the many.