Better Plan, Wisconsin

There are many people across Ontario who are being harmed by the simple fact they live too close to wind turbines. These are honest, hardworking people with a moral code about right and wrong. They are typical rural people who have strong work ethics and connections to their neighbours and community. They are good people who can’t comprehend why our government is doing nothing to help.

The tragedy is, some families are being driven from the homes they’ve lived in for decades and have incurred losses — financial, emotional, health and living conditions. Many of these people welcomed green energy into their communities in the form of wind turbines in the beginning.

A community-based, self-reporting health survey is being conducted in the areas where wind turbine complexes are operating. There are about 585 operating turbines across Ontario. Within six weeks, 76 responses were received. Of this, 53 victims reported that the turbines disturbed their living conditions and resulted in adverse health effects. The survey results are posted on www.windconcernsontario.org.

Dr. Robert McMurtry, former Dean of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, presented the health survey results at the Green Energy Act Bill 150 Committee Hearings (Ontario). Examples of the adverse health effects include sleep deprivation which leads to serious health problems, (this is the number one problem) headaches, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), cognitive dysfunction and some serious cardiac effects such as irregular heart rhythm, palpitations and high blood pressures.

Reports of health problems are still coming in. There are now over 100 respondents. The survey is ongoing and results will be updated periodically.

This is not unique to Ontario. The reports of symptoms are consistent with the work of Dr. Amanda Harry (2007), U. K., Dr. Nina Pierpont, U. S. A., and Dr. Michael Nisseubaum (Mar 2009),U. S. A.

Dr. Amanda Harry studied 42 adults and found disturbed living conditions, a high number of subjects experiencing sleep deprivation, headaches and other adverse health effects from wind turbine complexes.

Dr. Nina Pierpont from the U. S. A. has studied 10 families comprised of 38 people. Eight families have been forced from their homes. The last two would like to, but cannot afford it so they are trying to cope. Dr. Pierpont’s peer review book Wind Turbine Syndrome is targeted to physicians and is due in about a month. In the meantime, she has published excerpts drawn from her peer-reviewed book on her site www.windturbinesyndrome.com.

More physicians are expressing serious concerns regarding adverse health effects with wind turbine complexes. In early 2009, the medical staff from the Rumford Health Center in Maine unanimously signed a resolution asking for a one -year moratorium on any wind turbine installation until proper studies are done.

In late March 2009, Dr. Michael Nisseubaum from the Northern Maine Medical Centre presented his findings of a study he conducted to the Maine Medical association. Dr. Nisseubaum interviewed 15 adults. The data, which he characterized as alarming, suggest the residents experiencing serious health problems related to shadow flicker-noise emissions from the turbines near their homes. The onset of symptoms including sleep disturbance, headaches, dizziness, weight changes, possible increases in blood pressure, as well as increased prescription medication use, all appear to coincide with the time when turbines were first turned on December 2006.

Note it has been established by at least three peer review European studies that sleep deprivation occurs near wind turbine facilities in about 25 per cent of people living near wind turbines. The finding of sleep deprivation has been reproduced in the studies of Drs. Amanda Harry, Nina Pierpont, Michael Nisseubaum and the Wind Concerns Ontario (WCO) health study which is now at 86 cases.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a prestigious medical body has stated in an editorial “Wind energy will undoubtedly create noise, which increases stress, which in turn increased the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.” (Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 116, pg. A237-238, 2008.)

The health survey results presented to the GEA Committee Hearings on Bill 150 by Dr. McMurtry are filling the void for the post market vigilance required for the introduction of wind turbine complexes into the population.

The Ontario government allowed wind turbine complexes without doing its homework. It then made a policy, again without doing its homework. It continues to approve the building of new ones and expanding existing complexes without doing its homework.

All of this says that there is a problem. Our guidelines for setbacks and noise are not working. People are getting sick. Our setbacks are designed for economic and political reasons. We need setbacks for health that are based on proper authoritative epidemiological studies. The setbacks for health cannot be determined by opinion.

Wind energy has been implemented without proper epidemiological studies. Victims are suffering and being ignored. It is a shameful situation. Some are asking for a public inquiry.

Examine the evidence. Health and safety issues for rural residents living close to turbines have arisen in every jurisdiction where they have been installed. A good government should be prudent with its public resources and answerable to the taxpayer instead of putting the health, the environment and quality of our lives at risk.

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: Click on the images below to watch video of Ontario residents who are having trouble living with the setbacks previously believed to be safe.

Town of Lee Wants Wind Developer Lawsuit dismissed

1360wlbk.com

24 September 2009

The Village of Lee has filed a motion asking that a judge dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by a company that wants to build wind turbines near their borders, and the law firm representing the village of just over 300 people on the western edge of DeKalb County says the village plans to “vigorously” defend against lawsuit by the company building a wind farm mostly in southwest DeKalb County.

FPL Energy Illinois Wind, in the lawsuit it filed Friday, says the Lee Village Board “arbitrarily” denied their request for permits to build six wind turbines within the one-and-a-half miles around the village that municipalities have control over under state law. The company wants a judge to order Lee to grant the permits.

But attorney Keith Foster with Foster and Buick Law Group, which represents the village, says the Board’s denial was based on input it received from the wind farm company and after hearing potential reasons for denying the request during two public hearings. He says the Board’s reasons met the requirement for denying the permits.

“The reason would have to have a reasonable basis so any reason at all that is considered rational by an ordinary person would be a basis for denial,” says Foster.

The Village Board’s reasons for the denials included feeling the 450-foot tall turbines would be too close to homes.

The Village also wants a judge to examine how the company’s lawsuit was filed, with the village’s lawyers saying an unidentified, “badge-waving” agent filed the suit and an unidentified person served summons to village board members while demanding they appear in court this week. The law firm says it has serious questions about the tactics of the wind farm company and its attorneys.

“And we are going to monitor that closely and we are going to raise objections with any tactics that are used, any procedures that are employed, that are outside of the rules that we all have to follow that are given to us by the Supreme Court,” says Foster.

An official for the wind farm project calls the claims misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

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Village of Lee petitions judge to examine how summons were served

DeKALB – Lawyers for the Village of Lee are asking a judge to examine how court summons were served to village board members who are being sued for rejecting a request by an energy company to build six wind turbines near the village.

In court documents filed Wednesday, lawyers for Lee say an unidentified person filed the lawsuit late Friday afternoon. That person – identified only as a male in court documents – “waived [sic] a badge of some nature” at a deputy clerk who was filing the complaint. Lee’s court filing also claims an unidentified person served summons to village board members, demanding they appear in court this week; lawyers for Lee say they have no idea who the server was or whether he was properly licensed to carry out the task.

“We believe the Village of Lee acted well within its authority in rejecting the sitting request,” attorney John Countryman said in a written statement Wednesday. “I have serious questions about the tactics of this Florida outfit and their Chicago attorneys.”

The document filed Wednesday asks a judge to investigate who was involved in filing the lawsuit and serving the summons. The document also asks a judge to throw the lawsuit out because it was filed improperly.

FPL Energy Illinois Wind LLC filed the lawsuit Friday in DeKalb County Court, claiming the Lee Village Board improperly denied the company’s application for permits to build six wind turbines. The turbines would not be within village limits, but they fall within the village’s jurisdiction, according to state law.

Anthony Pedroni, project manager of the DeKalb-Lee wind farm project, said any problems raised by lawyers for Lee are “misinterpretations or misunderstandings.” He said he was certain the law firm hired by FPL followed the letter of the law in having summons served to Lee Village Board members.

“It’s a well-respected firm, and they know how to properly go about this process,” Pedroni said.

FPL’s lawsuit demands a judge compel approval of the permits – allowing construction to move forward – and to award at least $200,000 in damages for time and resources lost while the project sits idle.

The six turbines involved in this lawsuit are part of a 151-turbine wind farm that straddles the DeKalb-Lee county line. Turbines in the non-municipal portions of the project – which will be home to most of the turbines – are under construction.

Another legal action is pending; a citizens group filed a lawsuit in July, claiming the DeKalb County Board improperly granted construction permits and is seeking a halt to the project.