The Nearsighted Monkey

OPPOSITION STRONG AT PROPOSED WIND FARM MEETING

Written by Dan Benson

SOURCE: www.sheboyganpress.com

July 25, 2012

TOWN OF SHERMAN — About 150 people showed up to learn more about a proposed wind farm in the Town of Sherman and most of them didn’t like what they heard.

“Looking at the number of people who are here tonight, the question the board should be asking is, ‘How do we stop it?’” said Jim Bertram, of Adell. “We want to know how we can stop it.”

The town is in the process of drafting a wind ordinance and related wind siting roles in light of a proposed commercial wind farm there.

The town, however, is hamstrung by state law in how strict they can make those rules.

“The town can’t be any stricter than the rules the state came up with,” attorney Matt Parmentier told the audience. Parmentier was retained by the town to draft the ordinance.

Hubertus-based EEW Services, LLC, is proposing to build a nine- to-12 megawatt wind farm on a 400-acre property east of state Highway 57, west of county Highway CC and north of county Highway A in the Town of Sherman. The turbine blades would reach as high as 500 feet and connect to a substation in the Town of Holland.

The developer has indicated that it intends to submit a formal application to begin construction next year on the Windy Acres Wind Farm.

The board did not take any action at Tuesday’s meeting, which was held at the Silver Creek Fire Hall, but heard from about two dozen people. Parmentier also shared details of the proposed ordinance, which cannot exceed state regulations regarding set backs and other factors. If the town’s ordinance is more stringent than state rules, then the ordinance would be declared invalid and the project would be automatically approved.

That was a sore point with many in the audience, saying the law was an affront to local control and property owners’ rights and will lower property values.

“He (the developer) is basically stealing my property,” said John Hayes, who lives near the proposed development. “I feel like they’re stealing from me.”

Parmentier said the application for the wind farm has not yet been received.

State regulations went into effect in March and the Town of Sherman project is one of the first to be considered under the new rules.

“We’re sort of the guinea pigs in this instance,” Parmentier said.

Speakers urged the Town Board to stretch out the process as long as possible in hopes of defeating the project, possibly through legislative action in Madison.

Several local representatives were on hand, including Rep. Mike Endsley (R-Sheboygan), Rep. Dan LeMahieu (R-Cascade), Sen. Glenn Grothmann (R-West Bend) and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan).

Informational meeting on wind ordinance set

Written by Sheboygan Press staff

Source: www.sheboyganpress.com

July 18 2012 

The Sherman Town Board will hold an informational meeting Tuesday to discuss the town’s proposed wind energy ordinance and related state wind siting rules in light of a proposed commercial wind farm there.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Silver Creek Fire Hall, W6566 Highway 144. Town officials will provide an overview of the state’s wind energy regulations along with its own wind ordinance proposal.

Attendees can ask questions and offer public comment during the meeting. No formal board action will be taken on the local ordinance proposal.

The meeting comes as town leaders prepare to consider a proposal by Hubertus-based, EEW Services, LLC, to build a nine- to-12 megawatt wind farm on a 400-acre property in the town.

The developer has so far indicated that it intends to submit a formal application to begin construction next year on the Windy Acres Wind Farm.

Under the proposal, four wind turbines would be built on a stretch of land located east of state Highway 57, west of county Highway CC and north of county Highway A. The turbine blades would reach as high as 500 feet and connect to a substation in the Town of Holland.

The project requires the blessing of the Town of Sherman Board, though approval is ultimately in the hands of state regulators at the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, as state rules governing wind farm siting supersedes local ordinances.

The town is in the process of drafting a local wind ordinance though it essentially must mirror the state’s rules.

From Nova Scotia

INCREASING TURBINE NUMBERS COULD MEAN LARGER SETBACKS

By Cheryl LaRocque

Source: Amherst Daily News

July 19, 2012 

AMHERST – For industrial wind turbines, low frequency sound emissions range: one person may not hear a noise a second person hears clearly, while a third person finds the noise loud and uncomfortable.

To date, some residents of Amherst and out of town visitors said: “I don’t hear them; the turbines don’t bother me; the turbines hum and/or drone and keep me awake at night; they gave me an ongoing migraine; they give me daily headaches; the turbines are noisy and I/we can’t sleep at night.”

Researchers explain individual hearing sensitivity varies greatly. If you are wondering why, the explanation may be tucked in the inner ear in a cluster of tiny, interconnected organs.

In an article published in the Bulletin of Science Technology & Society, 2011, Wind Turbines could Affect Humans, by Alec Salt and James A. Kaltenbach explained, wind turbines generate low-frequency sounds that affect the ear.

“The ear is superficially similar to a microphone, converting mechanical sound waves into electrical signals, but does this by complex physiologic processes.”

Serious misconceptions about low-frequency sound and the ear have resulted in a failure to consider how the ear works.

“Although the cells that provide hearing are insensitive to infrasound, other sensory cells in the ear are much more sensitive, which can be demonstrated by electrical recordings,” wrote Salt and Kaltenbach. “Responses to infrasound reach the brain through pathways that do not involve conscious hearing but instead may produce sensations of fullness, pressure or tinnitus, or have no sensation.”

There is overwhelming evidence large electricity-generating turbines cause serious health problems in a nontrivial fraction of residents living near them, explained Carl V. Phillips, MPP, PhD in his article Properly Interpreting the Epidemiologic Evidence About the Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines on Nearby Residents. The article was published in the Bulletin of Science Technology & Society (2011).

“These turbines produce noise in the audible and non-audible ranges, as well as optical flickering, and many people living near them have reported a collection of health effects that appear to be manifestations of a chronic stress reaction or something similar,” explained Phillips, a consultant and author specializing in epidemiology, science-based policy making and communicating scientific concepts to the public.

Dr. Robert McMurtry, former dean of medicine at the University of Western in London, Ont., published a case definition to facilitate a clinical diagnosis regarding adverse health effects and industrial wind turbines.

There is a move toward a safe setback of turbines of two kilometres from homes, explained Dr. John Harrison, physicist from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., in an email interview.

“In the absence of any independent studies of adverse health effects, a precautionary principle suggests all provinces and territories in Canada should adopt a two-km setback.”

Harrison’s expertise is in the properties of matter at low temperatures with emphasis on high frequency sound waves. For the past five years he has studied wind turbine noise and its regulation.

As the province of Nova Scotia continues to pursue and approve wind energy developments, it is important it take into account the larger the turbine and the increase in numbers of turbines would also mean an increase in setback distance, explained Richard R. James in a phone interview from his office in Okemos, Mich.

James is adjunct professor at Michigan State University and Central Michigan University with the department of communication disorders.

Richard R. James, INCE (Institute of Noise Control Engineering) is a certified noise control engineer and has been actively involved in the field of noise control since 1969, participating in and supervising research and engineering projects related to measurement and control of occupational and community noise for major US and Canadian Manufacturers. Since 2006, he has been involved with noise and health issues related to industrial wind turbines.

Other countries including Australia, Denmark, France, New Zealand and Germany have instituted strict regulatory requirements regarding industrial wind turbine setback or are in the process of tightening criteria that experience has shown are not protective. The Danish EPA (their regulatory body) recently instituted stricter regulations that require the turbine’s emission of low frequency sound be addressed.

From New York State

FAIRFIELD RESIDENTS GIVEN NOISE GENERATORS TO DROWN OUT SOUND OF WIND MILLS?

SOURCE WKTV | www.wktv.com

July 16, 2012 

Fairfield resident James Salamone says he hasn’t slept well since a number of windmills went up right near his home on Davis Road in Fairfield about a year and a half ago.

Salamone said, “It’s torture. You cannot sleep with this frequency of noise. It’s just torture, I can’t explain it any other way.”

Salamone says he just received a noise maker from the company that installed the windmills, Iberdrola Renewables.

The small round machine is supposed to help drown out the sound of the windmills so people can sleep at night.

Salamone says he turns the device on and it sounds like a small fan. He said, “it’s a noise making machine. This is what they sent me. Put this by your bedside, put this eight feet from your bed, this will help drown out the noise coming in your house from the wind turbines.”

Salamone says the machine doesn’t help at all, and he says he shouldn’t have to have something like it, in order to be able to get a good night’s sleep in his own home, he says something is wrong with the system.

Salamone is not alone. Tobias Tobin lives right around the corner from Salamone on Cole Road.

Tobin says people don’t realize what it’s like to try to try and sleep at night with these windmills going around and around when everything else is quiet. Tobin said, “I’ve had a few friends of mine that came up from Middleville to visit, and when they came up the first time, they said ‘well that aint nothin’. When they sat there and were were talking, the said ‘my gosh, how the heck do you put up with this’. Yea, cause it’s constant. It don’t go away. It sounds like a plane that never stops. It just goes and goes and goes.”

Here’s how landowners have had to have to deal with this problem. Other landowners lease their land to the company Iberdrola Renewables, and receive $8000 per turbine, per year.

The turbines cannot be within 1250 feet of someone else’s property.

Salamone and Tobin say the ones next to their homes which sit on neighboring properties, are way too close.

Salamone says he feels trapped, and is ready to just up and move. He said, “you can count from my house right here, eleven, from right here at my house, they’re very close. This one here is about 1500 feet, the rest of them are about 2000 feet.”

But there may be some relief in sight for Salamone, Tobin and other Herkimer County homeowners who have been forced to live next to the windmills.

On Thursday, the Town of Fairfield authorized the testing of a Noise Reduction System by Iberdrola Renewables to make sure the turbines are in compliance with the noise levels required by the special use permit issued to the company.

After complaints from landowners back in the spring of 2011, Iberdrola Renewables agreed with the request from the Town of Fairfield to test sound levels adjacent to several homes.

Testing was done in the spring of 2011, and in late 2011 after the leaves had fallen from the trees.

Those test results were delivered to the town at their June Town Board Meeting.

According to attorney Bernard Malewski, a special counsel hired by the Town of Fairfield, the test results showed repeated levels beyond the legal 50 decibel level limit.

Malewski says Iberdrola Renewables immediately told him the company would like to begin testing a brand new Noise Reduction System (NRS) developed by Gamesa, the manufacturer of the turbines, on three of its turbines in Fairfield.

At this past Thursday’s (July 12th) Town Board meeting, the Town of Fairfield passed a resolution which supported the deployment of the NRS system as an opportunity to to cure the problem.

Today, we talked with a landowner who now has the sound detection equipment on his property to see if the new NRS is working.

That homeowner did not want his name used, but says he hopes the new system works.

If the results of the NRS are good, Iberdrola says it will implement the technology on all of the turbines in the entire Hardscrabble Wind Project, 25 of which are in the Town of Fairfield as well as 12 more which are in the neighboring Town of Norway.

The Towns of Fairfield and Norway were the first towns in New York State to require post construction testing of the sound generation of wind turbines.

If the noise problem is not fixed, both towns have the authority to suspend or revoke Iberdrola Renewable’s permit, or the towns can shut down any offending individual turbine.

The Town of Fairfield and Norway have directed Iberdrola Renewables to report back to the Town Boards on the results of the NRS, no later than their next Board meeting in the month of September.

Salamone says he hopes the new system does work, but if the levels come back as compliant, but still continue to keep him awake at night, he won’t stop fighting. He said,”we gotta sleep at night. Turn them off or move