Updates

Details:

• Available August 2008.
• Approx. $10 + shipping. Discounted bulk orders.
• The complete and authoritative report on Wind Turbine Syndrome to date.
• Includes peer-review reports by American medical school faculty and other American scientists (including acousticians).
• Intended for clinicians and people living in the shadow of wind turbines.
• Based on the evidence presented, it calls for a minimum of 2 km setbacks of industrial turbines from people's homes.

Visit www.windturbinesyndrome.com for purchasing information.

Labels: Disadvantages, Noise

Excerpts from testimony given by Wendy Todd about local effects of UPC Wind's project in Mars Hill, Maine. Note that this is a small project by Cohocton standards: only 28 towers, each fitted with a 1.5 MW turbine. Click here to read her entire testimony.

A Serious Payment Problem

What about the tax benefit to the town of Mars Hill? The town signed a TIF agreement with the wind company for $500,000 a year for the life of the project (20 years). Because of that $500,000 a year, the town of Mars Hill will be losing $249,000 in school funding. That brings the total benefit to the town down to $251,000.

The Noise Problem

People think that we are crazy. They drive out around the mountain, stop and listen, and wonder why anyone would complain about noise emissions. But believe me when we are having noise problems you can most assuredly hear the justification of our complaint. We have had people come into our yard, get out of their vehicles, and have watched their mouth drop. We have had company stop in mid conversation inside our home to ask, "What is that noise?" or say "I can't believe you can hear those like that inside your house."

Visiting a wind facility or sitting at the end of someone's driveway once or twice for 2, 3, or even 10 minutes to listen does not make that person an expert on turbine noise. To be an informed witness could take days or weeks for one to know and experience what we are living. Not until an individual has been in a home and has heard turbine noise emissions of 45 decibels or higher does that individual have any right to judge how turbine noise truly affects the lives of people. Even noise experts should be talking to residents who are living next to turbines to ensure they are collecting data that is relevant to the burdensome noise emissions heard by those who live closest to them. Let us tell the sound experts when we are having a noise issue.

Nick Archer, our Regional Director with the DEP thought we were all crazy, too. But he finally made it to our homes and heard what we were talking about. I don't believe he has ever heard a 50+ decibel day but he has heard close to that on more than one occasion and has made statements like these. "This is a problem." "We need to figure out what is going on with these things before we go putting anymore of them up." "I thought you were crazy at first but you are not crazy." "The quality of life behind the mountain is changed." Did he say these things just to appease us? I don't believe so.

Labels: Money, Noise

UPC Wind's industrial wind power project on Mars Hill in Maine, just completed this winter, has caused a lot of local stir, primarily because of the noise it makes. Residents who live within half a mile of the project began complaining of disturbing thumping noises as soon as the turbines were activated. Since then, UPC has done a lot of public relations "damage control" and commissioned its own noise study to evaluate the situation. The results are now public.

Did UPC's noise study find and correct the problem?
- No. According to UPC's new numbers, there really isn't a problem. Their project meets the noise criteria they said it would. Period.
- Why is there still a problem? The answer can be found by comparing the noise study done for Cohocton with the new one done in Maine.
- Both studies have fraudulently defective assessments of ambient noise obtained by using improper wind screens on their microphones which give baseline noise levels that are 5-10 dBA high. The resulting levels of "allowable noise" are therefore 5-10 dBA too high as well.
- Both studies assume that turbine noise will be masked by ambient noise but overlook the fact that naturally-occuring ambient noise does not have the deep low "thumping" sounds that turbines generate.
- Both studies estimate noise propagation and masking based on the average noise turbines generate at all frequencies (106 dBA) not their much higher dBA output at lower frequencies (120 dBA).
- Microphones used to monitor noise compliance don't measure accurately down into the thumping frequencies below 100 Hz.

So the result is troublesome noise that UPC can deny. What else can you expect from a developer whose bottom line is making money? Costly corporate honesty? It's time to wake up and smell the coffee before it's too late and we're all stuck with noise that won't go away.

Click on the Label for Noise below for more "Updates" articles about this subject, then go to the Sound section on our main website for more background information and updated links, including this link to an index page of UPC noise studies. After you've studied the noise problem for a while, be sure to let our Town leaders know what you think.

Labels: Noise

Two weeks ago the Cohocton Planning Board uncritically accepted UPC Wind's FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Statement) without further review and appears to be poised to grant "Special Use Permits" (zoning variances) giving the developer local approval to go ahead as planned. Since then we've seen the voluminous FEIS and done a preliminary review of some of its revised findings.

What improvements does the FEIS contain?
- Absolutely none. Unsurprisingly, it's more of the same self-serving project justification that we've seen all along.
- Hessler's "new" noise study fails to correct its underlying fatal flaw: a totally inaccurate assessment of ambient noise (at least 5 dBA high). However, it does tell us that the Clipper turbines are much louder at the low thumping frequencies than previously estimated - up to 120 dBA - a fact that is glossed over in the sound projection contours.
- Revised visual impact studies note that the most dramatically negative impacts are where turbines are within 1/2 mile of the viewer (where most residents on the hills live). But simulations showing turbines this close are hard to find. Why? Probably because they won't fit on a page without using a camera with a special "fisheye" lens.
- Shadow flicker studies only measure impacts at one window in a house, not on the landscape within view of each dwelling.
- PILOT payment estimates - negotiations with SCIDA are still incomplete - keep getting smaller. What is SCIDA's status, anyway?

Are we really ready to approve this project? If it gets past the legal, political, logistical, and economic hurdles that lie ahead with ongoing local concerns, the PSC, and limited availability of Clipper turbines, what will we have? Defaced hills cluttered with looming industrial machines that make disturbing thumping noises night after night. And the promised PILOT payments? How small will they turn out to be?

Browse our website for more information, and make sure you come out to this week's Planning Board meeting on Wednesday night at the Hatch Hose Fire House, 30 University Avenue in Atlanta, at 7:30 pm to find out how our leaders handle UPC's Special Use Permit request.

Labels: Noise

For the past year we've heard a lot of controversy about the proposed Cohocton and Dutch Hill wind projects. How large and intrusive will the units be? How much noise will they make? Will they have an impact on wildlife? What will they do to property values? For each concern, UPC Wind has reassuring answers. They'll look good. They're very quiet. They won't effect the wildlife. If anything, your property values will go up. And so forth. Of course, the developer has nothing to lose.

But who will suffer if the developer is wrong?
- According to recent testimony from neighbors surrounding UPC's Mars Hill wind farm, everyone near the turbines will suffer, especially leaseholders and their immediate neighbors. - Noise is apparently a big problem on Mars Hill where residents were reassured over and over by UPC that it wouldn't be. - Evidence is pouring in from Tug Hill that bird and bat kills are dramatically higher than predicted by the developer. - And studies are clearly indicating that the value of neighboring recreational and retirement properties will go down.

In other words, everyone but the developer will suffer. Meanwhile, we appear to be locked into an "us" vs. "them" struggle in Cohocton, "the good guys" vs. "the bad guys," in which our team is 100% right and our opponents are 100% wrong. Even if the YES! group manages to prevail against its opponents, every truth that wind critics have spoken will still be true - visual blight will still be blight, noise will be noise, dead wildlife won't be resurrected, and lost property values won't go back up. Winning won't make falsehoods and lies go away.

Couldn't we at least wait until UPC's noise controversy at Mars Hill is settled before forging ahead? Misplaced trust and group loyalty could end up paying poor rewards. Be sure to read our recent Proposal for breaking the deadlock. Thanks!

Labels: Noise

Testimony before the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee of the Maine Legislature

by Wendy Todd, April 30, 2007

Senators, Representatives, and Committee Members,

Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Wendy Todd. I am from Aroostook County. I am a resident of Mars Hill and live approximately 2600 feet from the Mars Hill Wind Project. I am here today to offer testimony that residents around the project are suffering. There are 18 families that I know of that are negatively impacted on a regular basis from the noise, strobe effect and shadow flicker from the turbines. Most of these 18 families live less than 3000 feet from the turbines. There is no one that I know of from 425 East Ridge Road to 212 Mountain Road that does not agree that there are issues with noise. Issues that are changing the way residents view life around the mountain. We have formed a group called the Mountain Landowners Association in an attempt to share information and come up to speed on the issues of living this close to turbines of this size and generation. We have had to struggle through massive amounts of documentation from the Internet and from other towns that are dealing with the same issues.

We have tried and I believe have succeeded in finding the answers to many of our questions but it has all been from our own efforts. We have received very little help from our town or the company that sited the windmills. Nick Archer with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection has been a helpful resource, but I believe even he would say that the State has a ways to go to educate itself on the pros and cons of wind turbines and how to best site a project. It would be a recommendation from our group for the State to look to California and other states in the nation that have been dealing with these issues for years, as well as other countries who have gleaned a great deal of information from years of studies, to help form guidelines to protect not only the land but the residents that live nearby proposed projects. We should learn from those who have gone before us. We shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

Let me make it very clear that no one in our group is opposed to wind turbines. We are for alternative, renewable forms of energy. Some from our group supported this project from the beginning. Some hated the project from the beginning and still do. Some were on the fence, but because of the points of renewable energy, landowner rights and proposed benefits for our town, county and state were swayed to sacrifice precious views of Mars Hill Mountain and our quiet with the disruption of the construction phase of the project. Nobody really knew or realized what was about to happen and how it would change our lives...

Click here to read the rest of Wendy Todd's testimony.

Labels: Noise

Labels: Noise

Dear Bill,
My name is Diane Radell. I live 600 feet from a wind mill in Mars Hill, ME. UPC has lied from the get go about their project. From noise to what an eyesore their project would look like. These things are 26 stories high, throw ice, and make horrible noises.
Two years ago, our town council decided to sign a deal with "Evergreen Wind Power" which is really UPC LLC. Keep in mind LLC stands for a limited liability company. After going to the meetings town residents were told, "...there is nothing we can do about the wind mills coming to town because the wind mills would be placed on private land..."
Two years went by and all of sudden in the dead of the winter work begins on this project. These people blasted causing damage to our homes, and now 28 wind mills are on top of the mountain.
The closest wind mill is two acres from my property. When these things run they make horrible noise, they vibrate the house. My home and land has lost 15-40% of the market value.
Currently the neighbors and I around this mountain have formed an association to deal with the noise issues. It is very difficult to find legal counsel about this matter because UPC has paid off many attorneys in the area. This company, UPC, is really part of General Electric of Boston.
Do whatever it takes to keep them from getting in your town. They lied about the noise, the way these things look, the impact on the environment.
STOP your town council from putting these atrocities in. You can do this with legal counsel. Do not let it happen to your town. Go to your legislature to make laws about these wind mills because they will put them in your back yard if they can.
Diane Radell

Labels: Noise

Problems out East

MARS HILL, Maine

"Something has turned terribly sour for about 18 homeowners who live along the mountain roads where the state’s first and only wind farm has recently gone on line. To a man and to a woman, they feel betrayed, cheated, used, ignored, and dismissed. Put them in a room and they are spitting mad. Collectively, as they gather on a Saturday morning inside a home that sits in the shadow of the turbines, their anger is barely palatable. Since the turbines started up, they say, silence has become a luxury."

Read Paul Lefebvre's full report from The Barton Chronicle, then follow up with a similar report from Bill Metcalf in the Vermont Times Argus and another recent study by Frey and Hadden investigating the effect wind turbine noise has on health.

Labels: Noise

UPC Wind's first project on the US mainland is just coming online in Mars Hill, Maine, and the community isn't entirely happy. The problem: Noise, Too Much Noise. Articles (#1, #2, and #3) have just started appearing in the Bangor Daily News detailing the problems people are having. But as far as UPC is concerned, the whole thing should just blow over, so to speak. They're sure that further testing will demonstrate that the noise of their new 1.5 MW turbines will pass the 45 dB limit they set up in the siting requirements, so it won't really matter whether people are bothered: they'll just have to get used to it, get ear plugs, or sell out and move away.

It's too late for Mars Hill now - the turbines are up. However, it's not too late for the rest of Maine, as this article points out. And it's not too late for us in Cohocton and Prattsburgh if folks will just start to wake up and smell the coffee. Click here to read our Valley News article, then follow the links to read Article 1 and Article 2 in the Bangor Daily News. Polish things off with Article 3, and while you're reading, be sure to browse through the community comments below each article. Then let your local leaders (and us, if you'd like) know what you think.

Labels: Noise

Noise generated by wind turbines and its propagation to nearby dwellings is a serious problem in turbine siting that I discussed in my comments to the Planning Board last week. I've been studying the problem for a while and just received the following email:

Yes! windpower: you should be calling the "Doc" on this 50 decibel thing, here's FOUR charts I easily found on the internets, with web addresses. Don't allow him continue the misdirection, you should make this part of his rhetoric more well known.

'Doc:' 'Yer STILL cheatin.'
Sincerely, JT

Click here to read my response to JT, which includes the 4 charts he mentioned. Further documentation related to the problem of noise is available in two evaluations, just completed by Richard Bolton this week, addressing Hessler's noise reports in the Lent/Pine Hill SDEIS and Dutch Hill Wind DEIS, respectively.

An article in yesterday's Bangor Daily News about UPC's Mars Hill Project reports the reaction of neighbors when the turbines were started up:

"They turned on tower Number 9, and almost immediately it made enough noise that it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that can’t be right,’" Wendy Todd said.

"It all depends on the wind speed and direction, but the best way to describe it is you step outside and look up thinking there’s an airplane. It’s like a high-range jet, high-low roar, but with the windmills, there’s a sort of on and off ‘phfoop ... phfoop ... phfoop’ noise."

That’s one "phfoop" or more every two seconds as the turbine’s three blades rotate from 10 to 22 revolutions per minute. It’s loud enough, Todd said, that she can hold her cell phone outside her home and the person on the other end of the call can clearly hear the sound.

Read the whole article, then the comments that follow. Is this really what we want in Cohocton?

Labels: Noise

Noise is a big problem with industrial establishments of all kinds, and wind power installations are no exception. This week's Valley News article talks about wind turbine noise and the attempts the developer and its supporters have been making to minimize concerns about the problem. Click here to read the full article. You may also be interested in reading what we've posted about noise on our website.

Labels: Noise