Home for sale, Fond du Lac County, WI February 2010

BROWN COUNTY TO STUDY WIND FARMS' IMPACT

SOURCE: Greenbay Press-Gazette

By Tony Walter

March 3, 2010

A Brown County Board committee voted Tuesday to form a special committee to gather information about the health, safety and economic impact of wind turbines on county residents. 

A Chicago-based developer is seeking state approval to build the first major commercial wind farm in Brown County, a project that would put 100 wind turbines in the towns of Morrison, Holland, Wrightstown and Glenmore.

The issue came to a head Tuesday because wind turbine opponents said there is evidence that they could interfere with emergency radio communications. But several of the approximately 50 wind farm opponents who attended the meeting said they are as concerned for health reasons.

“This whole thing is being jammed down our throats,” said Marilyn Nies of Greenleaf, whose 5-year-old daughter has a heart disease. Some wind turbine opponents say the turbines can cause a variety of health issues that could affect people like her daughter. “Is it going to hurt us to wait a year or two so real studies can be accomplished?”

Carl Johnson of Greenleaf said the turbines add the turbines will bring low frequency noise, which he called “a new type of pollution.”

Steve Deslauriers of Greenleaf urged the committee to consider a wind diversion ordinance.

“The county’s voice needs to be heard,” he said.

Carl Kuehne of Ledgeview cited university studies in Spain, Germany and Denmark that he said showed wind turbines to be “total, complete and utter failures” in those countries. He said other studies have shown property values decreased 25-40 percent on property adjacent to wind farms.

He asked the committee to recommend a moratorium on wind turbines until a thorough investigation can be completed.

Oil splatters on a Fond du Lac County wind turbine, February 2010 

SECOND FEATURE:

The following commentary comes to Better Plan from a resident living in a Fond du Lac County wind project who wishes to remain anonymous.

You have an attitude problem.

That’s the wind industry’s latest explanation for the growing number of complaints from people living in industrial wind projects.  They say, “You people just don’t like these things.”
 
The implication is that if you just changed your attitude, the problems you're having with turbine noise, sleep disruption, shadow flicker, and homes that will not sell--- all of these problems will go away.
 
As a Wisconsin resident who has been living in a wind project for nearly two years, I have to ask what it is that the industry wants you to like? What is there to like about having your home surrounded by 400 foot wind turbines?  I can’t think of a thing …
 
-Unless you like constant audible and low frequency noise, from whooshing and thumping to grinding mechanical noises and transformer hum.    
 
-Unless you enjoy chronic sleep disruption and associated health problems for you and your family.

-Unless you enjoy signal interference on your radio, TV, and cell phone.   

-Unless you want to live in an area where Flight for Life emergency transport helicopters can no longer land.

-Unless you enjoy the strobe flashing of turbine shadow flicker inside and outside of your home on sunny days and moonlit nights.
 
-Unless you are glad the birds and bats are gone along and other wildlife once so common before the turbines went  up.
 
-Unless you think it’s beautiful to be surrounded by scores of red lights flashing in unison from the turbines at night, or regard leaking oil on the towers and land below as decorative.

-Unless you want to live in a place where wind developers pitted neighbor against neighbor and tore the community apart in a way that will never be repaired.
 
-Unless you appreciate your peace of mind and family relationships disintegrating because of the stress of no sleep and uncertainty about being able to sell your house, because you’ve seen how the houses in your project just sit with no buyers, because you know how few people want to buy a home so near turbines and you can’t blame them—because you wouldn’t want to live so close to wind turbines either.

Except, now, of course, you do.  

This new “blame the victim” PR move underscores the wind industry's own attitude problem, one of insensitivity and an inability to understand and be compassionate toward the people whose problems began only after the wind turbines went up.

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: 

There have been a number of reasons why residents of wind projects in our state have asked for anonymity when contacting Better Plan.  Some have family members who work for companies associated with construction of the turbines. Some have family members or neighbors who are hosting turbines. Some are hosting turbines themselves and regretting it, but are fearful of being sued by the wind company for violating the gag order in their contract.

Better Plan is glad to insure anonymity to any wind project resident who contacts us, but we always confirm the identity of anyone who submits material for us to post.

We'd like to thank the family who sent us this commentary.

THIRD FEATURE

Wind turbines stir up controversy in Brown County

SOURCE: WFRV-TV Channel 5 News

BROWN COUNTY (WFRV) – Some Brown County residents say they’re worried about plans to put a 100 turbine wind farm in southern Brown County.

Invenergy wants to build 400-foot wind turbines on 72-square miles of land.
Residents enumerated a host of issues they have with the build at a Brown County Committee meeting Tuesday evening.

Home owners say they're worried about well contamination, noise pollution and potential unseen health issues. A concerned parent speaking from the podium at Tuesday’s meeting said she’s worried the project could worsen her 5-year-old’s heart condition. She wants to delay the project a year or two for a comprehensive study. “I feel like this whole thing is being jammed down our throats.”

Steve Deslauriers, a Town of Morrison firefighter, says he’s worried 9-1-1 calls could be interrupted by the wind turbine’s blades. “If it impacts even one accident scene, it’s one too many” Deslauries tells Channel 5’s Jenna Sachs.

Deslauriers also says he’s worried history shows rescue choppers might not fly near the turbines. “We can look to Fond du Lac County as a guide for how flight rescue would be handled” Deslauriers says. “There they will not fly into a wind farm at night or into a cluster of wind turbines.”

Sachs spoke with representatives from Invenergy and Brown County Public Safety about the 9-1-1 issue. Both parties say they can work together to make sure 9-1-1 signals aren’t interrupted, since the new radio towers haven’t been built yet.

Near Town of Byron, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Turbine construction phase of Invenergy Forward Energy Wind Farm. Photo by Gerry Meyer

How will you know if wind developers have targeted your community? If you're lucky there may be something about it in the local paper, or something may be listed on the published agenda for the Town board meeting.

In the past, developers were very open with the community about their plans. They changed that once people began to oppose projects. Now they are more likely to keep news of wind farms a secret from the community until key landowners are signed up.

Wisconsin's recently passed turbine siting reform legislation requires that only neighbors directly adjacent to a hosting landowners property be notified that wind turbines are about to go in near their homes.

This notification does not have to happen until the wind developer submits a formal application for the project to the Town board and/or the Public Service Commission.

A developer won't file an application until enough landowners are signed up, so by the time you find out about it, the project may well be on its way. That's what happened to one of our neighbors to the north who tells us his story here

Commentaries: Study of wind project may blow you away

By: Erin Logan, Zumbrota,

SOURCE: The Republican Eagle

Click on the image above to hear what turbines can sound like on a bad day. This video was shot by a resident of the Invenrgy Forward Energy project near the Town of Byron in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The closest turbine to his house is less than 1600 feet away.

Are setbacks and noise limits a public health issue or a profitability issue ?

Profitability for a wind project relies on the same short setbacks and inadequate noise limits that cause problems for residents forced to live with them.

Initially, Wisconsin families complaining of harm due to short setbacks and inadequate noise limits were not believed and even openly ridiculed, particularly by wind developers and lobbyists.

In granting recent approval for the Glacier Hills wind project, the Public Service Commission admitted the problems do exist, and some residents will be bothered by turbine noise and shadow flicker. The commission even suggested the utility consider a buyout of the most severely affected homes.

Now that the PSC has acknowledged the problem, the attitude toward wind farm resident's complaints and concerns has changed. The harm caused to families by inadequate setbacks is now considered unfortunate but acceptable collateral damage, a minor concern when weighed against the greater good.

But what is the greater good in the case of Glacier Hills? Most of us assume it's the reduction of green house gas emissions by using wind power.

However, Clean Wisconsin let the PSC know that there would be no reduction in CO2/GHG levels unless the utility is required to shut down an existing coal burning plant, something the utility has no plans of doing.

In a post hearing brief submitted to the PSC, Clean Wisconsin states:

"If the Commission allows WEPCO to continue construct Glacier Hills and operate all of its existing coal-fired capacity, WEPCO’s rate-payers will be paying over $525 million for a new facility that is not needed to satisfy demand and will not result in overall CO2 emission reductions."

Which begs the question: If there is to be no reduction in CO2 emissions, what is the state getting in exchange for forcing Wisconsin families to sacrifice their health, well being, and property value?

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: It's not just Wisconsin residents who are being forced to make questionable sacrifices. Click on the image below to hear about sacrifices our neighbors to the north are forced to make. An Ontairo dairy farmer speaks about wind leases, turbine related negative health effects and electrical pollution

Home in the Butler Ridge wind farm, near Iron Springs, Wisconsin

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Wind farms threaten county 

Greenbay Press Gazette

January 15, 2010   

 For the past three weeks, my neighbors and I in southern Brown County have been grappling with the possibility of losing our health and our homes to a private wind-farm developer.

It seemed to happen overnight, very quietly and well planned. My husband likens it to the operation of a stealth bomber; we never saw this coming.

The proposed industrial turbines would be placed as close as 1,000 feet from many peoples' homes and places of work on the ledge escarpment south of De Pere.

Placing these 40-story turbines that close to homes and businesses has shown in New York, Maine, Illinois, Fond du Lac, as well as England, France and Germany to cause neurological symptoms, i.e., migraine headaches, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, tingling in the hands, etc.

This scientific study, "Summary of Recent Research on Adverse Health Effects of Wind Turbines," can be found at: www.windaction .org/documents/23709 . The data gathered by doctors and research scientists concludes that a moratorium should be put in place to rethink siting turbines so close to people and animals.

Industrial turbines are rated about 25 percent efficient and may hurt the environment more than help it. Because wind energy seems to be seen as the solution to our future energy problems, its legacy may be a human health and environmental disaster.

-Sandra Johnson

Greenleaf, Wisconsin

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: For more information  about the project in Brown County,

CLICK HERE to visit the BCCRWE website.

Brown County Citizens for Responsible Energy (BCCRWE) is a grass roots organization of local residents in Brown County where Invenergy is proposing to build the Ledge wind farm.

CLICK HERE to visit the Public Service Commission docket for this project.

Type in case number 9554-CE-100

CLICK HERE to file a comment with the PSC on the project

Home in a wind farm, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.  Photo by Gerry Meyer

Turbine Noise Annoys: Expert says people are suffering health problems from being too close to structures

By PAUL SCHLIESMANN

THE WHIG-STANDARD, www.thewhig.com

January 16 2010

"Some people are definitely suffering from the noise. Some people suffering are keeping quiet about it because of family ties. They can also see that some people are revelling in it. They're making money. There are technicians coming over to work. Some shopkeepers made a lot of money. It's been a shot in the arm, if you like. There's a party line."

-John Harrison retired Queen's University physics professor

 

      Some might accuse John Harrison of tilting at wind turbines, but the retired Queen’s University physics professor says he’s got the science to prove that wind farms are bad for people’s health.

Harrison became an expert critic of wind technology — and an ally of those who oppose it — after learning that his retirement community of Amherst Island could become the site of a wind farm like the one on nearby Wolfe Island.

“My first reaction was I thought it would spoil the island for the looks. I didn’t realize the noise problem,” said Harrison.

“I learned that they really should be kept away from where people live.”

So began what has amounted to a self-funded second career.

Two years ago, Harrison travelled to the western Ontario community of Kincardine to monitor an Ontario Municipal Board hearing into a proposed wind turbine project there.

He came away with the impression that, in order to get the project approved, industry representatives and provincial government officials were paying little attention to the science that linked the giant machines to health concerns.

“There were two experts,” he said. “Their testimony made no impact on the OMB hearing because, for one thing, the company had a very talented lawyer.

“I know the lawyer had no idea what was going on but had this amazing expertise to orient facts.”

Harrison recalled that the 100 or so residents opposing the Kincardine project had no money to hire a lawyer of their own and no ability to pay for independent studies.

“That was a real eye-opener for me,” he said. “First that there are noise problems, that there is a valid scientific basis for the noise problems, and that the ministry of the environment and developers are not interested in hearing about the noise problem.”

The scientist began poring over the research literature. He sent his analyses and critiques to anyone connected with wind projects, including Ontario’s environment minister, John Gerretsen, who is also MPP for Kings -ton and the Islands.

At the time, Wolfe Island, in Gerretsen’s riding, was about to become home to an 86-turbine facility built by Canadian Hydro Developers.

It officially opened last summer and was soon purchased by TransAlta.

Canadian Hydro had been considering a second wind farm on Amherst Island.

“I came back from Kincardine and started reading original reports, original science,” said Harrison.

One study, by a Dutch researcher on the topic of background noise, stood out.

At the time, Ontario’s regulations limited the noise effect from wind turbines on nearby residents to 40 decibels. At a wind speed of 50 km/h, however, up to 50 decibels were allowed, the theory being that wind blowing through surrounding vegetation such as trees and shrubs would mask the additional 10 decibels.

Harrison said the Dutch study showed that “at nighttime there is no masking noise.”

This would be especially true in places like Wolfe and Amherst islands, which are rural and quiet.

“This thesis was a thorn in the side for the Ministry of the Environment because it made nonsense of their thesis,” said Harrison. “It really rattled the Ministry of the Environment. Politically, it wasn’t good because it meant the regulation wasn’t very good.”

Gerretsen says the regulations that were subsequently written into Ontario’s Green Energy Act — with a 40-decibel maximum and 550-metre minimum setbacks — exceed all other jurisdictions and make the Dutch study irrelevant.

“He’s wrong about the masking,” said Gerretsen.

Despite his criticisms, Harrison was asked to sit on an environment ministry working group made up of about 40 people — ministry personnel and engineers, acoustic consultants, municipal staff, planning consultants, as well as himself and two other citizens.

When the working group endorsed a report written by a Ryerson University professor dismissing the Dutch study, Harrison was perturbed and, typically, responded with his own critique.

When a group of Wolfe Island residents asked for his help reviewing the environmental study for the new 86-turbine project in their community, again he found what he considered flaws in the data and dutifully told the consultants, Canadian Hydro and the ministry.

“They just ignored the whole thing. There was no check and balance in the system,” he said. “Those measurements were worthless. The ministry accepted them.”

Harrison said Wolfe Islanders today are more divided over the issue than many let on.

“Some people are definitely suffering from the noise. Some people suffering are keeping quiet about it because of family ties. They can also see that some people are revelling in it. They’re making money. There are technicians coming over to work. Some shopkeepers made a lot of money. It’s been a shot in the arm, if you like. There’s a party line.”

Harrison says he isn’t opposed to wind energy, though he feels it will never supply more than 4% or 5% of Ontario’s power.

He is against putting them near people. “My intention has been, let’s install renewable energy, but let’s install it away from people.”

Gerretsen said most wind-energy companies would probably prefer to be situated in remote locations to avoid conflicts, but the cost of getting the energy to the grid would become prohibitive.

“If you find more remote places, then you get into the problem of transmission lines,” he said.

In a recent interview with the Whig-Standard, Gerretsen endorsed an industry-funded report by the Canadian and American wind energy associations that characterized most of the health problems documented by people living near wind turbines as psychosomatic.

He said the Wolfe Island wind farm opponents were promoting not-in-my-backyard activism because they didn’t like the looks of the turbines.

Harrison dismissed that review as “an industry association convened and sponsored attempt to deny the adverse health effects being reported.”

He said the symptoms are real — people are losing sleep, becoming stressed and experiencing various health problems.

“Other families in Ontario are using safe houses maybe 20 km away. When they need a good night’s sleep, they go to these safe houses,” he said.

Harrison takes credit for helping a woman and her husband near Kindcardine get a settlement from the wind farm company.

“I sent in a report that the noise was far in excess of the Ontario noise regulation. The result was the company bought her out and made her sign a gag order,” he said.

“I think down the line you will see this on Wolfe Island.

The Meyer Family live in the Invenergy Forward Energy Wind farm near the Town of Byron in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Gerry Meyer has been keeping a noise log since the turbines went on line near his home in March of 2008.

In yesterday's entry he talks about noticing the thumping sound from the turbines is louder inside the pole shed than it is out of doors. He mentions Ann Wirtz whose alpaca herd sheltered in a pole shed and began to fail once the turbines went on line. The Wirtz family have abandoned their home because of wind turbine noise and vibration. To read the story of why the Wirtz Family abandoned their home, CLICK HERE

Scroll down to read yesterday's noise log entry. Click on the image above to hear the turbine closest to the Meyer home. This was recorded with a hand held video camera from the Meyer's porch

Jan 14, 2010 7:15AM,

Wind SW, [turbine spinning at] 18 rpms. Loud jet sound or thumping sound. I can hear it in the house as well.

I can hear it in the driveway 20’ from an idling diesel pickup truck and while an 800cc 4- wheeler is pushing snow. This sound is mainly from turbines # 4 and #73. At one point thismorning the sound, while outside, seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Again in my opinion this should not be a “sacrifice” we should endure, one that is taking away our quality of life and health to satisfy the wants of the PSC.

I have noticed recently that when I am in my new wood shed the thumping and pounding is louder. I can hear it over the radio as I fill the wood furnace. I think of Ann Wirtz’s alpacas and what they must have endured in the metal pole shed that they lived in until they had to be moved off the property.

Today the thumping and pounding from the turbines was loud, similar to what we often hear in the house. I thought that I would check the speed of the turbine blades when I left the shed. The turbine is directly north of the wood shed and about 1585’ away.

When I walked out of the shed and closed the door I realized that the thumping sound outdoors was not as loud as IN the shed. This must be the low frequency noise issue or effect I have heard about. This is the decibel (dbC) reading the wind companies won’t talk about and the PSC ignores.

9:30 PM Wind NW. Jet sound and pounding sound continues especially from turbine 4 plus turbine 6.

 

CLICK HERE TO READ WIND TODAYS "TURBINES IN THE NEWS REPORT":

Wind turbine blades crack in big storm AND the myth of the myth of no negative health effects from wind turbines