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.

Home in a Wisconsin wind project. Fond du Lac County 2009

Construction of Wisconsin's largest wind farm put on hold as WEPCO struggles to find willing landowners: use of eminent domain may be only option.

A resident in Columbia county has contacted Better Plan to say We Energies representatives are scrambling to find enough landowners willing to sign the easements needed to begin construction on the Glacier Hills wind project which is set to occupy the Columbia County Towns of Randolph and Scott. The 90 turbine project which was recently approved by the Public Service Commission, would be the largest in the state.

 We Energies representatives are reportedly offering residents a signing bonus of $5000 for completion of contract paperwork by February 28th. The contracts offer landowners a yearly payment of $2,000 with a 2% annual increase.  Residents report these numbers can vary widely depending on the importance of a particular easement to the project.

The easements would give We Energies permission to create turbine noise that will exceed the limits set for homes by the PSC. The easements would also allow such things as trenching for laying cables and transmission lines needed to connect the turbines along with other rights We Energies may need. The duration of a contract of this sort is usually a minimum of 40 years and runs with the land.
 
Some residents who have refused to sign contracts say they are still being hounded by We Energies representatives who won’t take no for an answer.
 
“They’ve tried to make contact with me three times already in the last several days” says Kristine Novak, whose home would be inside of the project. “They are going house to house.”
 
We Energies representatives may not find a lot of welcoming faces in a sharply divded community still reeling from the PSC’s decision to approve the project.
 
 “I guess the best way to describe the feeling in the area is shock,” said the resident who wished to remain anonymous. “Hard feelings that developed earlier have now become worse.”
 
Those hard feelings may well extend to the We Energies Representatives who are now desperate to make deals. Says the resident, “Landowners are telling them to ‘get the hell off my property.”
 
He believes the tension in the community is so high that should We Energies decide to force the project through by use of eminent domain the consequences would be serious.  “People around here will only take so much,” he said.

Better Plan invites residents affected by the Glacier Hills wind project to contact us with their stories.

We hope reporters in our state will follow up on this news-tip and find out more.

SECOND FEATURE:

BADGERS HELPING BADGERS GET IT RIGHT:

There is finally some good news for Wisconsin wind farm residents having trouble with turbine noise and shadow-flicker.

A new organization called Healthy Wind, Wisconsin (HWW) will advocate on behalf of those who feel their complaints are not being taken seriously by the wind company.

If you are a resident experiencing turbine-related problems in one of Wisconsin's industrial wind projects CLICK HERE to visit the Healthy Wind, Wisconsin website

From the HWW website:

"Healthy Wind, Wisconsin (HWW) is an all-volunteer independent Wisconsin-based community group working to ensure that the placement of large wind turbines is protective of family's health and safety. We have multiple years of experience in researching information in regard to wind turbine siting. Our members have participated in drafting large wind turbine ordinances that have been adopted by Town Boards. We have testified at local and state public hearings concerning this issue, and have offered our assistance to other citizen groups outside of Wisconsin.

We are committed to:

• Assisting residents living in wind facilities with complaint resolution.

• Compiling a data base of all complaints to channel toward the appropriate local, county and state agencies.

• Advocate for responsible siting to minimize the adverse impacts of noise, shadow flicker, and sleep disturbance.

• Put people into the renewable energy equation by providing education and awareness on the issues.

Healthy Wind, Wisconsin’s mission is to keep active track of wind-related health issues affecting Wisconsin families. We are committed to assisting residents' of Wisconsin who have been impacted by poorly sited wind turbines by processing resident’s complaints and monitoring the progress toward complaint resolution.

SECOND FEATURE:

Judge dismisses Trempealeau County wind lawsuit

SOURCE: Winona Daily News

By Dustin Kass | dustin.kass@lee.net | Posted: Friday, February 19, 2010

A Wisconsin judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Trempealeau County's wind ordinance, which critics have called one of the strictest in the country.

Judge John Damon dismissed the claims presented by Ron and Mary Winn of Galesville, Wis., when he granted summary judgment in favor of the county, according to court documents filed earlier this month. The Winns were challenging a county zoning ordinance that prevented the erection of wind turbines on land they were going to rent out to a wind development company. But a new state initiative made the case moot, attorneys say.

Mary Winn declined to comment for this story, and the Winns' attorney, Taavi McMahon, did not return a call for comment.

Wind development in Trempealeau County has been a hot-button issue since 2006, when an investment group called AgWind Energy Partners approached the county board with a request to look into three potential sites for a wind farm.

County board members enacted three moratoriums on wind development in response, before passing the restrictive ordinance in December 2007. It requires turbines more than 150 feet high to be at least one mile from the nearest homes and half a mile from neighboring property lines. Most commercial wind towers are about 300 feet. Additional required setbacks in the ordinance keep turbines away from roads, railroads and wildlife refuges.

The ordinance directly affected the Winns. AgWind had proposed renting 160 acres the Winns owned near Ettrick, Wis., for its proposed wind farm.

The Winns filed suit in June 2009, alleging the ordinance prevents commercial wind development anywhere in the county and doesn't comply with state laws and policies.

Trempealeau County denied those allegations and asserted its authority to create the wind ordinance.

Ultimately, Damon's ruling did not weigh in on the legality of the ordinance, but decided the Winns' claims were moot.

That action was based on a bill passed by Wisconsin legislators last fall calling for state regulators to create uniform site regulations for wind farms throughout the state, said attorney Mark Skolos, who represented Trempealeau County. Those regulations, when complete, will trump all local ordinances.

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: At present there are no guidelines for siting industrial scale wind projects in the state of Wisconsin. A Town or County can still protect itself by adopting ordinances and moratoria. CLICK HERE to read why your Town needs and ordinance and how to go about getting it on the books.

THIRD FEATURE:

Important tips for landowners to know

SOURCE: KQHA News

By Jarod Wells
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 5:28 p.m.

PITTSFIELD, ILL. -- Illinois currently has 800 wind turbines in the state. And over the next five to ten years, the state could see five times more wind power as more turbines are built.

That's why the Illinois Farm Bureau has been holding talks across the state to inform land owners of their rights when entering a lease with a wind energy company.

One of those presentations was held in Pike County Monday, February 22nd.

An attorney with the Illinois Farm Bureau says one of the things he points out to land owners, is that wind turbine leases are usually long term, sometimes up to 90 years.

"We always encourage people to understand how long the contract is going to last. Talk about it with their family, attorney, accountant, anyone involved in their farming operations we want them to talk to because this is going to impact not just them but their grand kids as well," said Illinois Farm Bureau Attorney Ryan Gammelgard.

"Another thing we always recommend they look at is what rights are they going to have under the contract. Are they still going to be able to do their normal day to day farming operations, or is their farming operation going to be subordinate to the wind energy company," said Gammelgard.

The attorney with the Illinois Farm Bureau says many times land owners just focus on how much they'll get paid to put a turbine on their property.

But they don't realize their farming operations will be affected.

For example you may not be able to use aerial sprayer on your farmland once a turbine is installed.

KHQA was also told lease agreements are very complex and can be up to 40 pages long.

So it's not something you should just sign.



During a recent visit to the We Energies Blue Sky/Green Field wind project near the Town of Johnsburg in Fond du Lac County, at least seven turbines appeared to be leaking oil.

Residents pointed out the leaks and stated the problem seems to be increasing throughout the project.

Our camera wasn't capable of long range shots of turbines in the field, but oil leaking from a turbine sited nearer to the road is visible in this video.

The photos in the second video were sent to us by residents of the Cedar Ridge wind project near the Town of Empire in Fond du Lac County.

Concerns about proposed Invenergy project drew capacity crowd to Thursday's BCCRWE meeting

Correction: Better Plan was in error when reporting that residents who spoke out against the Invenergy project proposed for Brown County found dead skunks and deer heads on their mailboxes.

The dead skunks and deer heads were found on the mail boxes of those who spoke out against an Invenergy project in Monroe County

Better Plan regrets the error.

 Concerns about proposed Invenergy wind project draws capacity crowd to meeting in Brown County

Better Plan, Wisconsin

By Lynda Barry

February 20, 2010

KAUKANA-  It was standing room only in Van Able's restaurant after residents quickly filled the five hundred seats in the banquet hall and overflowed into a side room.

Community members came to hear concerns about Chicago-based Invenergy's 100 turbine Ledge Wind project which would occupy the Towns of Morrison, Holland, Wrightstown and Glenmore, making it the largest wind development in the state.

The event was organized by a grassroots community organization called Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy (bccrwe.com) and drew a capacity crowd. 

Along with speakers who addressed the now well-known issues of turbine noise, sleep loss, shadow flicker, loss of property value and impacts on farm animals, local residents had the chance to hear about something rarely spoken about in public.

  Landowners detailed their first hand experiences with the questionable techniques used by Invenergy to convince them to sign onto the project.

They spoke about being lied to by developers who said their neighbors had signed onto the project when in fact they had not. They spoke about the varying amounts of money offered to different landowners even as Invenergy claimed publicly that all landowners were getting the same amount.

Some landowners talked about about what made them decide not to sign on to the project while others expressed deep regrets about having signed the contracts.

There were several discussions about what options landowners had for getting out of contracts and along with concerns about being sued by the wind company.

Speakers also talked about about the negative impact the proposal has had on the community and spoke about the new hostilities between neighbors and family members.

A speaker from Monroe county mentioned that in his community residents who spoke publicly against the project were soon greeted by dead skunks and deer heads on their mailboxes. Some felt the wounds made to this previously strong community would never heal.

Invenergy representatives were in attendance but did not openly identify themselves and remained quiet throughout the meeting.

More on this story to come.

SECOND FEATURE

Wind farm debate divides families

WBAY-TV, www.wbay.com

by Jeff Alexander

February 17  2010

Plans to build the state’s largest wind farm in southern Brown County is dividing several rural communities. It’s even causing turmoil within families.

For almost a year now, Roland Klug has lobbied his neighbors to join him in signing contracts with a Chicago company to build 400-foot wind turbines on their land in Morrison. As Roland sees it, it’s a sign of the times.

“Some people hate them. I love them. I think it’s progressive. It’s a country moving forward,” Roland said.

But just a mile away is another sign with a very different message put up by Roland’s son, Dave.

Like many families in this farming country, the Klugs are at odds with each other.

“It is very, very trying I will say right now,” Dave said.

As Dave sees it, the prospect of 100 turbines towering over the landscape is appalling. The fact that four could be as close as 1,000 feet from his home is scary, he says.

He points to research he says he’s done on other wind farm developments around the country and the impact on nearby residents.

“Every one we read about are having all kinds of health issues, property values drop, and to me I guess it just doesn’t seem like it’s a real good investment for our community,” Dave said.

But according to Roland, it’s an investment that will help him keep his farm. He’s signed on for two turbines that will pay him $20,000 a year.

Roland says he “had to sell off 48 acres to make a payment for a couple of years, and we’d have to just keep selling off.”

Roland knows he’s made some neighbors angry. “My son gets very mad.”

Dave said, “My son is 21 and was all set to buy some land right by me which would’ve been my dream, been great, but right now we had to put it all on hold. You cross your fingers, but he’s probably going to end up living somewhere else.”

Roland says, “I just know in time it’ll all straighten out, it always does.”

Dave Klug, though, isn’t so sure. Especially if the wind turbines go in.

There is a meeting scheduled for Thursday night called “Living in an Industrial Wind Turbine Project.”

It’s at Van Abel’s in the Town of Holland. Doors open at 6 P.M. and speakers begin at 7.

NEW!  CLICK HERE to watch a video about wind farm residents in Australia who describe sleep loss, health problems and other complaints identical to those reported by Wisconsin wind farm residents.

For those with slower internet connections CLICK HERE to read the transcript of the interview

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: People who live in Rock County may be interested in the wind company's response to resident's complaints. Spanish owned Acciona is the same company that now owns the leases to land in the Towns of Magnolia and Union. Better Plan, Wisconsin has contacted Acciona several times to ask about their plans for the community. Acciona has not replied.

WANT MORE? CLICK HERE TO READ TODAY'S "WIND TURBINES IN THE NEWS"