We are a rural community of neighbours in Canada’s Capital standing up to an industrial scale energy grid project that places our groundwater, ecosystems, and public safety at significant RISK.

Advocating against trillion dollar “Big Energy” interests and multiple levels of government have led us to take legal action. We are humbly asking the online community for donations to help see us through to the end of this court case. We believe that the government should listen when local residents raise concerns about legitimate hazards to tax payers health and safety and we know that you do too.

Our Story:

Our problems started when a large energy company signed a land lease with two local residents to construct Canada’s fifth largest battery energy storage system (BESS) on land that has been farmed since the 1800s.

Just prior to the December 2025 holiday season, The City of Ottawa passed a zoning by-law amendment to change the zoning of this land to a *brand new zone* called Rural General Industrial exception zone. They did this so that an energy infrastructure project could dig in 22 acres of 307 lithium battery containers into farmer’s fields. This land sits on top of a vulnerable aquifer in a significant groundwater recharge area (SGRA). The same aquifer that feeds our wells to provide us with drinking water. The same field that stands beside a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW), home of vulnerable bird species, moose, black bear and endangered wildlife.

Both the City and the Corporation assumed that the community would not have the time or the spirit to file a court case to review the decision in the meager 30-day window we were given. And they were WRONG.

We are now in Divisional Court for a decision because this is the only path left.

The South March Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), led by Brookfield Renewable Power Inc., is planned for construction on land, previously zoned as Rural Countryside (RU) and an Environmental Protection Zone 3 (EPZ3) where:

• Nine Species at Risk in Ontario (SARO) are present in the wetlands surrounding the site and require protection.

• Drinking water comes from groundwater sources beneath our community. All people in the area solely use dug or drilled wells.

• Rural living defines how we live, work, grow food, tend livestock and raise our families.

The South March BESS project transfers environmental and safety risk onto residents, without safeguards from the City of Ottawa. There is no credible emergency response plan in the event of a fire and these structures have a history of failing and exploding into thermal runaway(TR) across the world.

So residents GOT ORGANIZED and quickly. They formed the West Carleton Community Alliance (WCCA) to undertake community-based initiatives that support public health, protect water quality, advance environmental sustainability, and preserve cultural heritage.

Pause. Act. Protect our drinking water, the vulnerable species in the wetlands and our rural way of life.