Pam Erickson's quest to derail a windfarm in Lake Ontario began with a phone call from a friend about a notice in the Toronto Star.

It announced Toronto Hydro's plan to install a zephir anemometer, a fridge-sized device that measures wind speed and direction using laser refraction, in Lake Ontario; it would collect data over two years and, if wind resources prove sufficient, might support an offshore windfarm of up to 60 turbines 2-4 km from shore stretching 25 km between the Leslie Spit and Ajax.