Some Amherstburg residents sound off as town decommissions its nuclear sirens

For some residents in Amherstburg, the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant is almost in their backyard, right across the water in Michigan. 

They want to know “everything” would be done to alert them in an emergency. 

But town council’s decision earlier this year to decommission the sirens, which go off in the event of a nuclear emergency, is causing some residents to sound off. 

“If we don’t have that first alert system available that can get us right out the door right away, it’s going to be a catastrophe,” said Alison Baldwin.

“I just want to make sure that … everybody’s informed to call the town, sign up for the alert system first and foremost and make your voices heard. If you want those sirens, you need to speak up.”

In July, Amherstburg council decided to decommission the five towers when faced with the cost of replacing them. 

Instead, council opted to replace the sirens with Amherstburg Alert, its own emergency alert system.

It uses home phones, text messages, as well as email, to reach people in emergencies. 

The sirens were first installed in 2002. 

“There’s many elderly in the community that do not have cell phones, internet so they don’t have access that way,” Baldwin said.

“We have our farmers, our children that play at parks. We have people out in the community, tourists, that are not glued to a phone.”

Baldwin says she believes the importance of having the sirens would go “hand in hand” with having other alert systems places.

Residents pointed to the severe storm the region experienced this summer, when cell tower outages meant Amherstburg Alert didn’t release text messages informing residents of the emergency.

“While these disruptions were well beyond our control, they did affect the delivery of text messages through some carriers,” town officials said in a statement following the storm. 

“Many of our subscribers wisely choose to receive messages through all three of these options [phone call, text message and email], ensuring they stay informed and safe in times of crisis.”

Resident Geoff Hibbert says given the seriousness of the potential threat, he’s concerned about the removal of the sirens. 

“If they say ‘shelter in place’ they’re talking … there’s been a radiation leak,” Hibbert said.

“But if there’s an evacuation where there’s a serious explosion, minutes count.”

The plan to decommission the sirens was recommended by fire chief Bruce Montone. 

“Sirens are really an old technology and their ability to reach our residents to provide them with the necessary information they have to whether it’s take shelter or to prepare for an impending circumstance, is very limited.”

Montone says three of the town’s five sirens actually fall outside the town’s required notification zone, and there actually isn’t a siren in the zone the town now needs. 

The town needs to have nuclear notifications in place for 16 kilometres and on Boblo Island. And three of the sirens are further out, around the 23 kilometre mark.

The cost to replace the sirens is about $400,000, while decommissioning them will be about $50,000, Montone said. 

That’s because in the five-siren sound system, three of them aren’t meeting the required threshold for sound levels. The town would also need to add new sirens, he noted, to meet requirements. 

“So there was a significant amount of change necessary,” Monotone said. 

Montone says about 11,000 of the town’s 23,000 residents have signed up for Amhertsburg Alert — and they’re encouraging everyone to do so, but especially people within the 16-kilometre Fermi zone

According to the town’s fire chief, he’s heard concerns from some residents about the osprey, who use a couple of the siren poles as nesting places. 

But he said the osprey will soon be gone for the season, and when that happens will the sirens be removed.

Montone added they’re working with the town’s parks department to leave the poles in place with added platforms for the osprey in the spring. 

Baldwin says she;s reached out to other levels of government to see what supports exist to keep the sirens in place and functional. But she also wants to make sure all residents know to sign up for Amherstburg alerts.