Better Plan, Wisconsin

On July 3, Magnolia township adopted an ordinance which gives residents a safe setback from industrial wind turbines. Without this ordinance, developers would be able to put turbines 1000 feet from our homes. The ordinance requires a safer setback of 2640 feet. Many of us feel this is still not enough, but we are grateful for even this much protection, and we are grateful to all of the people who came to the hearing to testify in support of the ordinance.
    Most people don't yet understand how big these machines are and what sorts of problems they bring with them. The 67 industrial scale turbines proposed for Magnolia are 40 stories high with a blade span is wider than the wing span of a 747. The wind developer at Thursdays hearing said that even bigger ones were a possibility.
    The proposal calls for the use of 7,000 to 8,000 acres of the township. That's 12.5 square miles or a third of Magnolia's 36 square miles. They won't be in one place, but scattered all over. This means that everyone in the township will be affected in one way or another.
   Safe setbacks are needed for a number of reasons. At the hearing one of our residents gave testimony which names some of them. We're glad to be able to post this testimony and we thank the resident for taking the time to write it, come to the meeting and testify in support of the ordinance.

Testimony given July 3, 2008 at the Magnolia Wind Ordinance hearing:

First, I’d like to review the dangers to our health and safety from wind turbine machines.

They catch fire, they throw ice, they explode and send blades and metal flying long distances, the cause problems to the electric system where power grids have shut down, and their noise is a hazard as well.

I have never seen any benefits to this community from this project that would offset endangering my health and safety, not to mention lowering my property values.

It’s a shame that we hear landowners say they don’t want the board (made up of fellow citizens) to tell them what to do with their land, but they are ready to hand over complete control of a part of their land to some company (possibly foreign) that they don’t know at all.

It’s to bad we cannot make the point of how horribly this township-wide project will disrupt the natural beauty of Magnolia.

I think it’s a shame that this will take so much away from our township and will give nothing, nothing in return.

Some of our citizens say that this ordinance is too restrictive with its setbacks. I say, if we are being restricted to discussing only health and safety issues with this ordinance, the I applaud the board members for using the extensive data from the Union Ordinance proposal, even if those setbacks might rule out this development. I want to thank the board for looking out for all the township residences, even if the citizens themselves are not aware of the many problems these giant turbines will cause.

This area of Rock County is too populated to handle so many of these gigantic machines. Magnolia should not sacrifice our quality of life for 30 years to this. Using words from one of our citizens, “It must be a good fit for our community.” This township-wide development is not!

My husband and I support this ordinance with at least ½ mile setbacks.

Thank- you.

Note from the Research Nerd: To see a video a  turbine exploding and throwing blades and debris a great distance click here

To see a video of a wind turbine on fire, click here
To read about the problems with ice throw scroll down to our 4/29/08 post or find it by clicking here to visit Today's Special Feature Archives" list.
To watch a video of people living with the problems turbines cause in Wisconsin's Fond Du Lac county, click here.