Better Plan, Wisconsin

These comments from a survey of wind farm residents in Ontario echo the experiences of Wisconsin wind farm residents. How long before their voices are heard?  CLICK HERE to download the entire survey

From a woman who has been living on her farm for over 30 years. Closest turbine 800 meters from her home:

"The noise of the turbines is what bothers me. On a windy day, they can sound like a jet is coming right at you. They are much louder than we were led to believe they could be.

In the summer when we have the windows open we have to sleep with the fans running to drown out the constant pulse of the windmills. In the winter, when it is windy, you can still hear & sometimes feel  the pulsing of the windmills right through the walls."

From a 56 year old farmer who has had his place for 35 years. Closest turbine is 800 meters from his home:

1. Had to move out of my home, just come home now to feed the cattle.
2. Our home can’t be sold due to the problem per real estate agent.
3. Family events can’t take place at home
4. Financial problems due to keeping two homes
5. Always sick, depressed and bad tempered when at home but when away for a short time feel much better. (Much better in the second house which I had to buy)
6. Had family problems until we moved out.
7. Feel no cares or believes us.

Bottom line:
They took life away as we knew it before the wind farm, same house, value Φ, sick all the time, financial stress now, world turned upside down.

From a 50 year old sales person: closest turbine 497 meters from her home.

"Noise levels very high. Whooshing noise is very irritating. Cannot sleep anymore. Have horrible vibration in the house and dog very upset. Spend nights on couch with TV and try to block out humming. Extremely tired and not functioning at cognitive and physical levels that I normally would. It is very distressing and invasive. My house is worth nothing now. I could never sell it. Angry, sad, disillusioned, exhausted."

From a 29 year old social worker. Nearest turbine 717 meters from home.

"I am unable to come home to visit my parents as often as I would like. Due to my parents ongoing adverse health effects I feel discouraged & our family dynamic has change. My childhood home no longer feels like  a place to relax & where I can be in a peaceful environment. I am sick over what the turbines have done to my family & community. My quality of life has definitely been affected.

When something goes wrong with a 40 story turbine near your house......

Who do you call?

How quick do they come?

How long do you have to wait? 

Here's what residents are finding out in Pennsylvania. Click here to read the original source of this article.

 Despite efforts to repair wind turbines in Juniata Township, Blair County, they still are generating unbearable noise to some residents.

Tempers flared at a Juniata Township supervisors meeting Monday night as residents voiced their frustrations.

Supervisors agreed to contract Paul Heishman, a professional engineer, to conduct an independent noise study by Jan. 30, when all repairs are expected to be complete.

Babcock and Brown, owners and operators of the turbines in the township and neighboring municipalities, have repaired half of the turbines and will repair the rest by Jan. 30.

‘‘There was some tape that was put on the trailing edge of the turbine blades. That tape was peeling off and causing a noise,” said Matt Dallas, public relations officer for Babcock and Brown. “Ironically, I think the tape is put on to make them quieter. They either used the wrong kind of glue or not enough was used, which is causing the noise.”

Gamesa built the turbines two years ago; in June, Babcock and Brown bought the wind farm that has four turbines in Juniata and several others in Greenfield and Portage townships.

The problem has not been fixed, said Jill and Todd Stull, who live near the turbines.

‘‘You know when you’re standing outside and you hear a plane coming about 30,000 feet overhead, then it goes off in the distance? It sounds like those planes are 5,000 feet above your house and circling and never land,” Jill Stull said.

‘‘It sounds like a jet. I know it’s going to make some noise, but a lot of times, it sounds like a jet,” resident Myrle Baum said.

According to a study conducted in December by Epsilon Associates, a company contracted by Babcock and Brown, the noise level of the repaired turbines was below the township ordinance noise level of 45 decibels.

However, Jill Stull said she borrowed a noise meter from Penn State University, which reads above 45 decibels on windy or cloudy days.

‘‘You got us a bad study. The information is garbled. It’s dishonest. We might as well put it in here,” resident Brian Baum said, pointing to the bathroom.

Once repairs on all the turbines are complete, Dallas said the noise problem should be fixed.

‘‘We really want to fix this and be a good neighbor. We’re in this for the long haul,” he said.

The Stulls said they could move, but they aren’t going to.

‘‘We’re not going anywhere. I just want them to be quiet. I’m not going to jump on the ‘I hate windmills’ bandwagon because I don’t,” Jill Stull said. ‘‘I’m just tired of nobody listening. My point is what is your peace of mind worth? I can’t play outside with my kids back at the pond in the woods because it gives me a headache.”

Sixteen more wind turbines are being built in Juniata Township as part of phase two of the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm.

Dallas said the company has 20 other wind farms across the country and has not had a noise issue elsewhere.

By Kristy MacKaben, For the Mirror

Altoona Mirror

 Why A Wisconsin Farmer is Having Regrets
(Click Here to read this at its original source, the Appleton Post-Crescent, November 30, 2007, )

As told in a recent ad, a Johnsburg farmer who will host wind turbines now has many regrets.

He regrets having been the "lure" to draw in other unsuspecting landowners. He regrets that he has allowed fields to be subdivided, road base to be spread on land once picked bare of rocks, costly tiling to be cut up. He regrets that he's no longer the person who controls his own land and is now told where to go by security guards. He regrets the divide he has created between friends, between neighbors and between family members.

He regrets not having looked into all the ramifications first. That farmer is now locked in to a binding contract. But there are many landowners who have not yet suffered this fate.

Calumet County Citizens for Responsible Energy asks that landowners considering a contract first step back and study the issues. As with any financial transaction, don't put a lot of trust in those who stand to gain financially.

Look for Web sites and information from those experiencing the effects of this worldwide "gold" rush for wind power. People across world are rebelling. They're finding that they've lost control of their land and their lives. And they're in danger of financial hardship if these companies dissolve.

Our irresponsible government representatives are forcing this "windfall" for wind investors on us. Their knee-jerk reaction to the global climate change alarms will cause billions of dollars to be wasted, lives to be ruined, and environments degraded for what is, in actuality, a very inefficient energy source.

With a declining tax base and state and U.S. legislators driving us further into massive debt, taxpayer subsidies for wind will be impossible to maintain.

And with the subsidies gone, what will you be left hosting?

Don Bangert,

Chilton, Wisconsin

This home in Nova Scotia is now abandoned due to noise from industrial wind turbines the same size as those proposed for our community. There are 17 turbines in all at this wind farm. The closest one is 1000 feet from the house. (Read Full Story Here)

Q. Are there health and safety issues associated with living close to industrial wind turbines which I should be concerned about?

Here is the October 10, 2007 response to this question by Dr. Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD, who has conducted some of the most intensive medical studies on the effects of wind turbines on human health and safety:

"Yes, there are indeed medical problems caused by noise and vibration from current, upwind, three bladed industrial wind turbines. I am in the process of preparing a paper for publication in a medical journal documenting the consistency of these problems from family to family, the study subjects being a collection of families in several different English-speaking countries who have been driven from their homes by problems with sleep, headaches, tinnitus, equilibrium, concentration, memory, learning, mood, and child behavior -- problems which started when the turbines went into operation and which resolve when the family is away from the turbines. These problems all occur in proximity to recently built industrial turbines, put into operation in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

The ear is indeed the most sensitive receptor for noise and vibration. This does not mean, however, that if you cannot hear it, it cannot hurt you. The ear does more than hear. A number of the effects of noise and vibration from wind turbines appear to be mediated by the inner ear, which is a complex organ, one of whose functions is detecting certain sorts of vibration as noise. The inner ear also detects movement, acceleration, and position relative to gravity, has direct feedback onto eye movement, and has established linkages with anxiety centers in the brain.

People disturbed by noise and vibration from industrial wind turbines generally can hear the noise when it bothers them, though it may not seem particularly loud. Several people I have interviewed speak favorably of living next to an elevated urban train line, compared to living at their rural home next to wind turbines. They can sleep with traffic or train noise, but not with the wind turbine noise/vibration. They consistently described a penetrating and intrusive quality to the wind turbine noise, several describing in different ways a very disturbing feeling that the noise is somehow inside their bodies. This latter effect suggests detection of vibration in body cavities, especially since people who say this generally localize the feeling to their chest or their head.

Published research from Sweden (thesis by Pedersen and published papers incorporated into the thesis) shows that the percentage of annoyed people (which include people who move out or undertake major house renovations to try to do something about the noise) goes up at 37.5-40 dBA. This is probably because A-weighted noise representations are not capturing the parts of the wind turbine noise and vibration spectrum which are disturbing. The Pedersen studies are also based on modeled noise, not actual measurements, though there is a close correlation between actual dBA measurements and the Swedish governmental modeling protocols, the author says. Even if we do not know exactly what parts of the noise and vibration spectrum are bothersome, and to what extent these are represented in a dBA measurement, we have in the Pedersen research clear evidence that when noise is modeled prior to wind turbine construction, the allowed levels of noise should not be over 37.5 to 40 dBA outside of dwellings. Because the noise level is especially important at night, and it is at night that there tends to be a "stable atmosphere," with cool, still air at ground level and a brisk wind at turbine hub height, modeling of noise prior to wind turbine construction should use both a 37.5 to 40 dBA ceiling of tolerability, and van den Berg’s models of noise propagation in a stable atmosphere.

Sincerely,
Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD

   Although wind developers downplay or even deny there are adverse affects of living too close to wind turbines, there are serious, documented health and safety issues for people living closer than a mile and a half of an industrial wind turbine. There are concerns about effects on livestock. In Wisconsin there is no set back law. An industrial wind turbine could be built 1000 feet of your house or barn whether you want it there or not. The wind developer for our area has said they will not site a turbine closer than 1150 feet from a residence, but they admit they are measuring from the center tower supporting the turbine. The blades are 130 feet each, which means that the distance from the blade tip of the turbine to your door can be 1020 feet

On the issue of setbacks, Dr. Pierpont says, "I consider a 1.5 mile set-back a minimum figure. In hilly or mountainous topographies, where valleys act as natural channels for noise, this 1.5 mile set-back should be extended anywhere from 2-3 miles from homes.
Let me be clear: there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the wind energy proposition that says windmills must be sited next door (often 1000 feet) to people's homes and workplaces. Siting, after all, is the crux of the issue.
Irresponsible siting is what most of the uproar is about. Corporate economics favor building wind turbines in people's backyards; sound clinical medicine, however, does not.(Read the full report here)

 The Townships of Magnolia and Union are in the process of drafting ordinances which will include set back distances. Since a total of 70 turbines are proposed for our area (67 in Magnolia, 3 in Union) nearly everyone stands to be affected. (see a map of Magnolia high ground by clicking here. Though the wind developers say they don't yet have a reliable map of where the turbines may be sited, the high ground of our area is where the turbines will most likely be placed if the proposal goes through) There will be a meeting on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 7pm for Magnolia Township at the Magnolia Town Hall, west of hiway 213 on County Road A, across from the church. ALL RESIDENTS OF MAGNOLIA, UNION AND SURROUNDING TOWNSHIPS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND! You can also contact us with your concerns and questions and we'll forward them to the zoning board. Contact us by clicking here or by writing to us at Better Plan, Rock County, PO Box 393, Footville, WI 53537. All names and contact information will be kept confidential. We will forward your questions and concerns only. The BPRC will not share your contact information with anyone.