From the source: First hand accounts of living with turbines

The BPRC Research Nerd — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:34:09 +0000

Noel Dean has a farm at Waubra but he and his family moved out 13 months ago when their headaches worsened.

“Sore ears, pain in and around the eyes, pain on top of the head, pain in the back of the head, behind the ears and early this year, we started to get throbbing pain at the back of the head and tinnitus,” he said.

“We couldn’t stay there another night – it was that bad.”

SOURCE:www.abc.net.au July5 2010

LIVING WITH TURBINES

From a wind project resident in Fond Du Lac County Wisconsin, to the Public Service Commission

I live in the middle of Alliant Energy's Cedar Ridge wind farm in Fond Du Lac, WI. I have lived in this location for over 20 years. I feel the turbines were placed to close to mine and my neighbors houses.

I live in a valley and the turbines were placed all around me on the highest hills. So a 400' wind tower now became a 500' tower which seems like they are on top of me standing on my own lawn.

I emailed the town to complain and asked what ordinance the wind mills had to operate under and what was the setback requirements and noise levels they had to abide by. I was told there wasn't an ordinance and therefore no setbacks and noise restrictions.

We never were notified about any town meetings or where the turbines were to be located until after they were approved to be installed. As a result we are paying the price.

The noise and vibrations they make has taken the quiet country my house used to be located in and turned it into an industrial park setting with noise that is never ending.

The vibrations they create get you sick to your stomach and keep us awake at night.

There isn't any quiet get togethers outside on our deck and patio anymore. We have been forced to keep the windows closed and the air conditioner on which increases our electric bill and security.

At certain times of the year the flicker they create turns my family room and bed room into a disco. They have ruined our over the air television and Radio reception with the promise that they would fix the problem.

It has almost been 1 1/2 years now and my over the air antenna still gets no signal when they are turning.

Our property values have been decimated. I have been told that my property is probably unsellable now. We have to put up with all this without any mention of any compensation that I feel Alliant should owe us.

I have called Allient on numerous occasions to complain, but just get a run around. I was told that the wind turbines aren't going anywhere so I just better get used to it!

The turbines should not be placed near homes unless owners of the surrounding land all agree to their placement. They should respect the property line and have the set back from that and not the house.

I feel a 1 mile setback from any inhabited house would eliminate a lot of problems with noise and flicker and TV reception. Please contact me if you would like more comments.

I affirm that these comments are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Mark Rademann

Town of Eden, Wisconsin

The Tyranny of the Turbine:

"My landscape has changed drastically. Open space, one of the remarkable qualities of this tall-grass prairie converted to corn production, is gone. We are now in a forest of blinking, whirling, whining, flashing towers."

James A. Thompson
Windom, Minnesota

March 25, 2019

WIND POWER OVERPOWERS ITS NEIGHBORS

“I can feel this sound,” she recalled thinking. “It’s going right through me. I thought, ‘Is this what’s it’s going to be like for the rest of my life?’ ”

Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel,

January 24, 2009

Read full story here morningsentinel.mainetoday.com

"Like Chinese water torture" by Justin Lindholm

SOURCE -The Caledonian-Record, Letters to the editor

January 20, 2010

"When turbine blades are spinning in an average decent wind, the tips of these blades are moving at about 180 miles per hour and are bent back severely because of resistance to the wind. This resistance to the wind, plus the high speed of the tips, causes turbulence, which creates noise. The noise sounds like that of a stiff wind when one stands only a couple hundred yards away from the towers. But when one stands at a spot ½-mile to over 2 miles away, the sound is a low, dull, penetrating, throbbing series of never-ending pressure waves – hour after hour, day and night, sometimes for days on end, like Chinese water torture.

The Lempster turbines have been operating for about a year now. While I was hunting there this year, I noticed that I didn’t need a compass to orient myself in the deep, dark woods 2½ miles away so long as the turbines were throbbing.

On Dec. 5, I talked to two people who work for the town of Lempster. They told me that people are grieving their taxes because of noise. They also told me that the wind company has turned from being Mr. Friend before the project to being Mr. Foe now. The company is contesting the town’s assertion that the company’s massively heavy machinery caused road damage."

Read the entire letter by clicking here

“On Saturday or Sunday afternoon people come out here, stay for the afternoon, go home and wonder what the fuss is about. If you’re out here after 11pm you’ll known what we’re complaining about.”

[Click here for source]

Living next to a wind turbine by Phil Bloomstein Location: Freedom, Maine July 1, 2009

Thanks to windaction.org for this story [click here for source]

We have the distinct "privilege" of living 1,000 feet from tower T3 of the Beaver Ridge Wind Project. Freedom residents on both sides of Beaver Ridge live almost as close but none as close as my family and me. We have tower T3 literally staring us right in the face winter and summer.

In the summer the tower and blades almost disappear when you are by the house, but the tower and blades still hang above the house as you walk in our lower gardens. And, you can view the wind turbine from many other spots on our land. As disturbing as the visual presence of a nearly 400-foot wind turbine is, and its occasional hours of turbine-blade flicker, all that pales in comparison to the noise the turbines often produce. I would dare say we live in one of the noisiest neighborhoods in Waldo County.

Let's get one thing straight. I'm not claiming my life has been ruined. I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm sure many of you have suffered personal tragedies much worse than having a wind turbine built next to you. What I am asking for is the truth and some justice.

I want to present you with a credible picture of the turbine's effects on the quality of our family's home life. I also want you to understand that the town of Freedom's planning and permitting of the Beaver Ridge Wind Project was extremely flawed. It was marked by deceptions, poor planning, and small-town politics at its worst. In my opinion, the project has proven that many good folks in the town of Freedom were outwitted by CES now Beaver Ridge Wind. Many community members were so pro green they were susceptible to the developer's deceptive practices and failed to be responsible to us and our neighbors.

My challenge is to convince you that I am telling the truth. And that others, including my neighbors, the folks in Mars Hill and as far away as the Midwest, are also telling the truth about the disturbing noise created by these machines. Living next to a wind turbine is, to say the least, a very unpleasant experience.

Good-meaning people write me and say; "We just don't get it". They tell me they have visited the Beaver Ridge turbines several times in different wind conditions, and it just doesn't seem that bad. I also visited wind turbines. I visited them with the knowledge that one was going to be built very close to my house. I came away thinking living next to one was going to be somewhat annoying but that it probably was going to be OK.

I was encouraged by the promises of Beaver Ridge Wind (then called CES). The very same promises that were never kept.

What my neighbors and I have experienced has been much more negative than we had ever imagined.

What is it really like living next to the turbines? There are "good days," but there are way too many bad ones. Although the noise is almost always there, it is not constant in its intensity or type of sound.
In minutes it can turn from an almost tolerable drone to a pulsating nightmare so oppressive that any outdoor activity is challenging. The noise also penetrates into the house. On many nights, as soon as you turn off the TV or stereo you immediately hear them. At least four to eight times a month they are very loud. The night noise can be especially disturbing. Some nights there is a loud pulsating noise that lasts right into the morning, on those days we get discouraged. We think that this can't be good for our health and we might as well give up and sell out.

The wind industry, often in concert with well-meaning government officials and environmental activists, uses all its power to diminish complaints and convince the general public that "wind farms" are quiet and that most folks don't mind living next to them.

When CES (now called Beaver Ridge Wind) came to Freedom, they assured us the turbines would be quiet. During the permitting process, they presented a study showing the noise level at our home would hardly ever be above 45 dBa. When all was said and done, the noise levels exceeded the promised levels (often twice as loud). When I asked Beaver Ridge Wind what they were going to do about the noise, they looked me right in the eyes and said they never really exactly promised us that.

The developer's clever promises and use of wind industry propaganda made it easy for the townspeople to support the project even though the setbacks in Freedom were among the weakest in the country. The setbacks were even below manufacturer's suggested distances at property lines. It is my intent to show how the townspeople were misled. But for now, understand the developers presented a wind study they commissioned saying the sound levels at my house would rarely exceed 45 decibels. The truth is, sound levels are regularly over the promised level, and on many windy nights, can be twice as loud.

Victims of poorly planned wind turbine developments from Mars Hill, Maine to the Midwest are not believed. Fine citizens with the highest of motives dismiss these folks as whiners or less than credible.

I have heard people say, you'll get used to it. You don't. There are many contributing factors to this. A few are that the noise changes with wind speed, the types of noise produced, wind direction and atmospheric pressure. The developers should have considered the fact that our home is on a side of a hill downwind from the prevailing wind. Documents can be found and downloaded on the Beaver Ridge Wind web site that explain, "in some hilly terrain where residents are located in sheltered dips or hollows downwind from the turbines, turbine sounds may carry further and be more audible."

Why was this not considered in our case?

There is the classic wind-energy comparison of a turbine's noise level to your refrigerator. First of all, at my house, the turbines are much louder and more annoying than my refrigerator. But let's assume the turbines do sound like my refrigerator. I ask you to imagine your fridge is always running and that also, you have one on your deck, in your garden, by the compost, next to the garage, three or four in your backyard, several well placed down your driveway, one at each door, one next to the grandkids' swing set, and don't forget the ones hanging outside your bedroom window.

Get the idea? I think you might find even your fridge noise a little annoying.

Then there are the possible negative health effects. Remember, the tower is almost 400-feet tall at the tip of the blades and we are 1,060 feet from the middle of the base. So at times, the tips of the blades are about 930 feet away. After a night of pulsating turbine noise that continues right into the morning, (no matter what studies prove) I feel as if this can't be good for my family. I can only imagine what it would be like if one were predisposed to headaches, depression or a sleep disorder.

Perhaps you are thinking, well someone has to suffer for the good of humanity, it might as well be the Bloomsteins. Maybe you are right, but does that give the developers and the wind-energy industry the right to lie about the impact? Beaver Ridge Wind and other projects in Maine are not municipal projects, these wind turbines are for profit. I might be less angry if they had said, OK your life is going to change and not in a good way. There will be a negative impact, you will be sacrificing the quiet rural life you once had for the good of the environment.

But no, they don't do that. They lie and tell your town you'll barely hear them and it will be like being in a quiet room or a library. They could be honest and tell you that it will be noisy at your home. Beaver Ridge Wind could have mentioned the fact that other people have chosen to sell out rather than live close to a wind turbine. Instead they show videos and PowerPoint slideshows with misleading and deceptive statements.

For us the damage is done. The turbines are up, and most likely, they are not coming down for a long time. So the question for my family and me is: What do we do? We have lived and worked on our property for the past 34 years. Do we leave the house we built, the gardens we've planted, the place my children and their children love? Or, do we stay and learn to deal with the noise, worry about unknown health hazards, keep windows closed at night in the summer, sleep with earplugs on loud nights - whatever it takes to stay sane?

We know our home will never be the same. If we do leave, what about the value of our house?

The industry will tell you house values go up or stay the same, but there are many studies which show quite the opposite.

No matter what we do our family now must fight for our rights. No one comes up to us and offers a solution. Oh, Beaver Ridge Wind might tell you they are working with us and in fact they are: but not until we approached them with our concerns. Beaver Ridge Wind never did a sound study after the turbines went into operation. Their basic approach is to say nothing, do nothing and only respond when the Bloomsteins or other neighbors complain, but not until then.

It has become evident to us that trying to be reasonable, open-minded and pro green has been rewarded by deceptive practices, small-town politics at its worst and a radically negative change to our lifestyle.

We struggle to figure out what to do. We want the truth to be known. We want to be believed. We seek justice in the form of adequate compensation. We also hope in some small way we can prevent others from suffering a similar fate.

Please don't be so zealous in your support of alternative energy that you allow an industry, even a green one, to avoid any reasonable regulations. They need to be held accountable. No company out for profit should be given a free pass.

My family and other families in similar situations should not be forced to seek compensation in the courts or make deals under conditions of confidentiality.

Maine needs to grow up when it comes to wind development. There is no need to repeat the mistakes that were made in Freedom and Mars Hill.

What do people who live near poorly sited wind farms have to say about life with industrial wind turbines?

“In our haste to capture wind, there is no voice heard for public health, and when it is heard, it’s routinely ridiculed,”

-Carmen Krogh, retired pharmacist and Ontario wind farm resident, from a news article February 11, 2009

Retired pharmacist speaks to Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards about the effects industrial wind turbines had on her health

February 11, 2009 by Heather Kendall in Barry's Bay This Week [source]

When Carmen Krogh talks about the health effects of wind turbines, she speaks from experience. She shared that experience with the councillors of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards Township at last week's regular meeting. Extra chairs had to be pulled out of storage to handle the large crowd that came to hear her presentation to council.

Krogh has been involved with health care for more than 40 years; she is a retired pharmacist; she was the director of pharmacy at Edmonton General Hospital; when she moved to Ontario, she set up the drug information pharmacy at Ottawa General Hospital, where she researched drug therapies and advised doctors. For 15 years, she was the director of publications and editor-in-chief of the Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties (CPS); she was an acting director for Health Canada's Pesticides Agency and has sat on numerous boards and committees dedicated to health. She has also lived near wind turbines.

Her symptoms came on quickly, she said. She experienced bad headaches, dizziness, queasiness, a heart rhythm sensation and a vibration inside her body. Her health improved when she and her husband, who was not affected, left the area. She decided to research the issue.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association says there is no evidence that turbines adversely affect human health, Krogh stated, but emerging research to the contrary is building momentum. In 2006, the National Academy of Medicine in France recommended an epidemiology study be done. Epidemiology, Krogh said, is the "holy grail for public health research. It investigates adverse effects in public health and gives doctors guidance on what could be a health risk and what to do about it. It's something the medical community depends on."

Krogh referred to a study of 10 families conducted by Dr. Nina Pierpont, whose book about wind turbines and health effects is soon to be released. She studied the families before the turbines were erected and after their installation; nine of the families have moved away permanently and the other would like to but cannot afford to move. Dr. Pierpont also recommended an epidemiology study be conducted. The Wind Energy Association disagrees with Dr. Pierpont's findings, and raised questions about the scientific validity of her research (even though her book has not yet been released), Krogh said.

Krogh also brought up the findings of Dr. Robert McMurtry, who originally wanted to host a set of wind turbines on his property. After researching them, he too became concerned about the effects on human health. In November of 2008 he did a deputation to Prince Edward County and suggested the county shouldn't proceed in development until authoritative guidelines are in place - guidelines based on epidemiology specifically targeting health effects. One mayor in the county stated it didn't mean the county was against wind energy, but it would give council time to get answers to the questions that citizens should be asking.

"We're the citizens and we should be asking questions," said Krogh.

She went on to list the core symptoms people have reported: headaches, unsteady balance, nausea, sleep problems, anxiety, irritability, depression, problems with concentration and memory. Trouble with sleep is very serious, she added.

"Sleep deprivation can lead to serious medical problems," Krogh said. "According to Amnesty International, it is a tool for torture, so it's not trivial."

Though the health issues are not limited to one group, pre-existing health conditions can be made worse by the turbines; for example, more frequent and severe migraine attacks can be triggered; balance can be affected by the visual disturbance of moving blades or shadows of the blades on the ground. Some people are affected quickly and others don't develop symptoms for two or three months. The cause of the effects is low-frequency noise, which, Krogh said, affects the body's neurological system.

There are two types of noise from the turbines, she said: what you hear, which is measured in decibels, and low-frequency noise that you can't hear. She referred to one study, which concluded low-frequency noise up to three kilometres away can cause sleep disturbance, and, from 300 metres away, can cause sleep disruption and serious medical problems. A 27-year study found exposure to low-frequency noise causes the cells in the body to undergo pathological changes. A three-year study added to the long one concluded that turbines in residential areas produced an acoustic environment that can lead to Vibroacoustic Disease. Krogh said the Ministry of the Environment does not measure for low-frequency noise; its guidelines are based on decibels.

"In our haste to capture wind, there is no voice heard for public health, and when it is heard, it's routinely ridiculed," said Krogh.

As studies progress, the distance for setbacks of the turbines grows. The general setback for the turbines now is greater than 250 metres; more and more researchers say that distance should be 1.5 to 3.5 kilometres.

Krogh gave examples of "victims" of the wind turbines. One was a healthy Shelburne woman who had 11 turbines west and east of her home. Both she and her husband developed health problems - even their dog was adversely affected.

"They believed the government, they believed the wind companies," said Krogh. "Everyone said, ‘Don't worry, we're not going to make the same mistakes as in Europe,' but these people are suffering."

She talked of the HIV blood scandal of the 1980s, where mounting evidence about tainted blood was ignored for a long time.

"Public health scandals happen and I'm almost on the verge of saying the wind issue will be one," Krogh said.

More researchers are calling for an epidemiology study.

"They're not saying stop this; they're saying let's harness the wind responsibly and make sure we get this right about where to put (the turbines) and how far away from people," she said. "In the meantime, we should invoke the precautionary principle."

Krogh has started a letter-writing campaign and said now is the time to voice concerns to federal, provincial and municipal governments. She urged everyone to send out letters as well.

"Maybe it needs a groundswell from the public as a whole to say that we need to look into this further," she said.

Krogh commended council for passing the resolution urging the Province of Ontario to place a moratorium on wind farms until the effects are better understood.

"I think you did a very good job with your resolution," she said. "It raises the concern higher up. It's important municipalities express concern. It's about the politics now."

Web link: http://www.barrysbaythisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.as...

A letter written by the Cowperthwaite family in Maine, April 10, 2008 about their experiences with living with wind turbines on Mars Hill, ME

Our story is very much like Wendy Todd's. We had moved away and our retirement dream was to move home, move home to old friends, peace, quiet, and country living. The first year after building our house was heaven. The quiet was so complete that we thought we had gone deaf. The wildlife on our lawn was so much fun.

We had heard about the windmills but when we asked how they would affect us if we bought the land, the town manager told us we wouldn't even see them, much less hear them because they were going on the front of the mountains. We believed them. That was our biggest mistake. At that time we had no idea that the town fathers had not even read the application that they had co-signed on or hired a lawyer to explain it to them. They had no idea what they had agreed to. They, in turn, had believed everything UPC had told them. The biggest lie of all was that there would be no noise or you had to be within 500'.to hear anything. I believe that is still in their propaganda.

We had one winter of quiet solitude then with the spring came giants traveling our roads, being stockpiled everywhere. Giant bull dozers and cranes took over our mountain. Roads three lanes wide were being cut through the trees.

Blasting began. We never knew when they were going to blast. The windows shook and ledge would land on our lawn because they wouldn't use mats. The heavy equipment would start up before daylight and go. What a shock it was to all of us when they blasted away the whole end of the mountain. The giant scar got bigger and bigger. Then were more huge scars across our beautiful mountain. The whole terrain was being devastated. When we saw the huge circles of raped land across the top of a mountain where generations of people had skied, hiked, picnicked, held sunrise services on Easter morning, hunted and four-wheeled, we knew we had been badly lied to and life around Mars Hill Mountain as we had known it was gone. The beauty and the access to the ridges would never be again.

A close friend of ours wanted to buy ten acres of land from us for a house lot. After he saw what was happening he decided he definitely did not want to live with the windmills in his front yard. Sadly, we agreed with him. Unfortunately, our dream of maybe extra retirement money was gone.

The massive white giants started turning and were on line in March of 2006. Our lives greatly changed that day. We had been upset over the blasting and the devastation of the mountain and the eyesore, but nothing compared to the noise. As they added more windmills on line, the louder they got. If we got up in the middle of the night, we couldn't get back to sleep. We closed the windows, the doors, had the furnace running and the drumming never stopped. On a foggy or snowy day it was always worse. Our t.v. flickers with each turn of the blades. We both spent those winter nights roaming around the house because we couldn't sleep. Then, the less we slept, the angrier we would become because of the situation. When I went out the front door, a sense of rage would hit me that I have never known before. Even after thirty years of teaching, raising two boys and going through a divorce has never produced the kind of rage I feel those windmills are pounding.

When our autistic, seizure-prone granddaughter comes to visit, we spend no time outdoors due to the shadowing effects and the strobing effects. The shadowing and strobing red lights are known to induce seizures.

My husband and I have both had depression from sleep deprivation and worry about our investments of land, etc. Insomnia has become a way of life for me. We are still on medications for these problems.

We are, by nature, outdoor people. Most of our days were spent outdoors with gardening, the dog, or just drinking tea on the porch. Now we do what we have to and then head inside and turn up the t.v. We have had no choices. We have had this lifestyle forced on to us.

When they start talking about tax breaks for the towns people, ours amounted to $151.00. For $151.00, we have lost our lifestyle forever. The windmill people are paying three to four mils to the town for taxes. We are paying twenty mils. So, yes, our lifestyle is greatly changed. Dreams of solitude and financial plans have been changed. We now have a choice -- put up with it, hate it but get used to it, or sell at a greatly reduced price or not at all. Suck up the loss and move.

If we had had our privacy invaded, been harassed or had trespassers on our land, it would be illegal. Because it is just noise, all we can do is live with it. If you live within two to three miles, I pity you because of the noise. If you live within fifty miles, I pity you because of the eyesore.

One more thing -- if you use your ridge for recreational uses, that will be gone. We are not allowed on that mountain at all. All access trails are gated or chained with no trespassing signs everywhere, even along the top of the mountain, just in case someone does get up there. They will tell you it is up to the landowners that they rent from, but that is another lie. Even with signed permission slips from the owners, try to find a way up.

You will have a hard time to fight these because our government receives money. Our State is 100% for wind power for bragging rights that Maine is a forerunner in "Green" and the DEP works for the State and their boss is the Governor. The DEP added a five decibel noise level so UPC would be in compliance to the application. Politics is a hard thing to fight.

But, one things if for sure! Once they are up and running, no matter what you do, they are not coming down until they fall down and certainly never in my life time.

We are not against wind power but strongly feel they have to be placed where the impact is less. They should never be within five miles of a dwelling. Also, money should be put in escrow to remove them when their earning power is gone or they are too expensive to repair. I worry about Maine becoming a windmill bone yard because no small town will ever afford to remove them.

A letter from Maine dated March 26, 2008 by Mark and Kate Harris

(Read it at its source by clicking here)

Summary: Mark and Kate Harris of Mars Hill, ME provided this letter to the residents of Roxbury, ME on March 26,2008 in hopes the voters would make an informed decision before agreeing to permit industrial turbines on their ridgelines. We are grateful to print it here for our community.

You have asked for a description of how our lives have been affected by the wind farm on Mars Hill. These comments may be used in any way you please in assisting your town in making their decisions. I serve three congregations here as their pastor and my wife is an administrator in the area hospital. We moved here four years ago, coming from Vermont. We reside in the town of Bridgewater, Maine, which is eight miles from Mars Hill. We have purchased eighty acres on Mars Hill with the intension of building a home and living there when we retire. Unfortunately this cannot happen with the wind farm destroying the peace and safety of the residents all along the east and north sides of the mountain.

What has convinced us that we not invest ourselves and our life savings here are our own observations, not what someone else has said. Over the past four years we have been working on establishing our boundaries, cutting in roads, developing a potable water source, thinning and pruning a maple sugar orchard, releasing and pruning apple trees, and establishing the best site for our house. In the last year, it has become increasingly clear that we will not be able to tolerate the intermittent and intense sounds coming from the turbines. When the wind comes from the west or the northwest, there is a rhythmic pounding that exceeds the permitted level of sound, namely in excess of fifty decibels. The nature of the sound is that it has a major low frequency component that makes the sound penetrate homes. My own experience is that when I am cutting with my chainsaw, when I put on my helmet with the hearing protectors, the sound actually penetrates the protectors. They block out the sounds of birds, wind, tree in the wind, brook babble, but not the relentless pounding of the turbines. The sound penetrates Wendy Todd's home when we have meetings there, as well as Merle Copperwaithes home when we meet there.

We are greatly disappointed that there is no one to address our plight. My neighbors along the Mountain Road are discouraged with the lack of integrity of the town fathers, the Department of Environmental Protection, and U. P. C., the farm's developers, who all have just abandoned us to our plight. The notion of this being "clean power" is untrue. It is morally and ethically unclean. The town was lied to by representatives of the investors, the town fathers did not read the application before they co-signed the application, the DEP did not and still does not have the expertise to assess or monitor the wind farm and U. P. C. cannot be trusted. We do not have wind farm specific laws to protect us from these uncontrolled forces. You are at great risk if you let these people into your town. With an investment of eighty-five million dollars, people's judgment begins to erode.

I was trained as a biologist and worked in medical research and the food industry and my wife is a hospital administrator. The health field is an unanswered question when it comes to turbines near homes. We have seen research that is coming out regarding the health problems involved with long term exposure to the wind turbines. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have more documentation than we do. The World Health Organization has recommended a two kilometer distance between a turbine and a dwelling. We have turbines within a thousand feet of a dwelling with children in the family.

Your risk at the hands of these uninformed and overzealous and unscrupulous people is large. Let them put the turbines in wilderness areas and not near dwellings. Better safe than sorry as my grandfather used to put it.

I hope this letter may be of some use to you. There are others in our group who have better firsthand experience than I. I hope they will assist you. Wendy and Perrin Todd have given of themselves to this community and you can trust them. They are good people and not just some whacks. They have integrity in our community and you can trust what they tell you. Any mud slung at them will not stick. They have served this community well.

If there is anything else we can do, let us know. May God help you as there is no one else presently able to if you should let these turbines come to town.

(THIS LETTER AND MORE CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE)

WATCH INTERVIEWS WITH FARMERS AND OTHER RURAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO ACTUALLY LIVE NEAR WIND FARMS BY CLICKING HERE

If you have any trouble watching these videos you can contact us and we will send you a dvd version at no charge. Please write us at

Better Plan, Rock County

PO Box 393

Footville, WI 53537

If you only have 11 minutes, please watch "The Wind Farm at Little Bay: How Close is Too Close" It will give you a good overview of what the concerns are.

If you have 20 minutes, you can watch "Welcome to Mars Hill" which includes interviews with members of a rural community whose lives have been changed by the building of a windfarm

Or, you can watch "Voices of Tug Hill" to hear what farmers and hunters and other rural working people have to say about impact the windfarm has had on their lives, and on the drastically decreased game population since the windfarms came to their area.

Any of these will let you know what our community is facing with this serious issue.

MORE WORDS FROM PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR WIND TURBINES

(from the Naples Record, November 3, 2004, "Fenner Wind Farm Developers Made and Broke Many Promises" Letter to the Editor from Pastor Kathleen Danley)

To the Editor:

My husband and I own a home in the township of Fenner, New York, and it is located in the middle of the Madison wind farm.

I am not, and never have been, against wind power, but I want people to be well aware of the negative side of these giant windmills before allowing them to be built in your neighborhoods.

We have always believed that our neighbors had the right to use their property as they feel appropriate. In fact, we were even somewhat supportive of the project in our area. Our home also sits well away from the setback distances called for by zoning.

Unfortunately, we were not given all of the facts, or we were given somewhat twisted information. We were told that the windmills had been redesigned so as not to be noisy, but the grinding noise goes on 24 hours a day (when they are operating) and at times is far worse than other times.

From our bedroom window we can see no fewer than five towers and from the living room another two. On a stormy night the wind howls through our bedroom like a freight train -- yes, I know, the blades stop when the wind reaches a certain velocity, but nevertheless, they don't magically disappear. The wind continues to hit them, greatly increasing the sound that travels over them.

In the middle of the summer we cannot enjoy our yard or have the windows open because these machines constantly grind and have a negative effect on one's nerves. When at the house I find that my nerves are constantly on edge.

We also have lost our television reception and were forced to purchase a satellite dish. Prior to the towers we always had very good reception of the local stations and generally had two to three more. Now it is impossible to get any of those stations. Incidentally, there is no cable in our area. The wind tower builders/management have more than once promised to look into this situation but have done nothing. They do not answer phone calls or follow up on appointments that they make with us.

Out of necessity to aviation there are lights on top of the towers, which now flash directly into our bedroom and living room windows all through the night necessitating the closing of the blinds and robbing us of the view of our own backyard and God's gift of nature -- one of the main reasons we moved to the country in the first place.

Should your area decide to go ahead with the projects, I would suggest that cell phone towers be built into the towers. This was not done in our area and there is terrible cell phone coverage. To increase the coverage more towers now need to be built and I don't see that happening any time soon.

I have also found that the discussion to have or not have wind towers in a neighborhood has pitted neighbor against neighbor in some cases and long friendships have struggled. I find this to be very sad and a huge detriment.

The wind farm in our home area has also brought much traffic to the area that we never had to deal with in the past. Drivers stop and gawk in the middle of the road becoming a hazard to those who simply want to get to work or possibly to a store or doctor appointment, etc.
Promises have been made and broken over and over again, and I find that also to be an extremely sad situation.

I pray that you can find a way to work through many of the issues without having such a huge impact on those living nearby.
Pastor Kathleen Danley, Fenner NY

(The Research Nerd Says: "In our Video Links section, we have a video of a gentleman who has a positive experience with living near the Fenner Windfarm in NY. Here is a letter from a resident near the same wind farm who is having quite the opposite experience. We don't believe either party is lying. We believe that the trouble with industrial windfarms has everything to do with where you live in relation to the turbines. The same turbine will cause different problems for different residents. Some experience no problem at all. Some have been driven from their homes by noise and strobe shadows. Neither of these residents is lying.")

(Click here to read our source for this letter and many others from residents near the same windfarm)

Residents speak

What to Expect when you're Expecting wind turbine construction

Living with turbines 24/7: Diary of a wind farm family in DeKalb Illinois

From the source: First hand accounts of living with turbines