Clinton County Wind Watch

Noise, Health & Safety Effects of Wind Turbines

To Bengal & Dallas,

You can’t pay enough for your health and you can’t stop protecting your health either. The Clinton County government is tasked with providing all citizens of Clinton County with proper regulations that promote safety & health.

Unfortunately, the current county wind turbine regulations don’t provide adequate coverage and the Clinton County Planning & Zoning department & board need to hear from you. Numerous documents exist proving health problems exist when living near a commercial wind zone. Most reports highly recommend further investigation into the wind turbine noise before establishing a wind industrial zone around residential homes or building sites. The researchers’ & doctors’ believe that wind turbines need adequate setback around 3,000 feet to start to protect residents because too many unknowns about wind turbine noise. Instead, the doctors’ and researches’ agrees that people are being left to defend for themselves and Federal, State, and Local Government isn’t providing adequate protection to these residents.

When is enough, enough? Many people have spoke out from our county, but the Planning & Commissioner board has done a dismal job in protecting these residents. At all the meetings, the number of supports for better regulations always out numbers the money investors. Typically, two people speak for weaker turbine regulations, while the rest want more regulation provided but the board doesn’t provide. At one meeting, the out-of-town lawyers were given more time than residents of Clinton County.

It’s about time that board members that have land and can host commercial grade wind turbines excuse themselves from talking about the subject, providing input, and remove themselves from voting. These individuals should sign an additional waiver stating they can not profit by using their position to promote weaker regulations.

In the end, your health, home, and family is all you got. Many people don’t talk anymore or be very neighborly in Bengal & Dallas because of wind turbines. This issue was created by our local county government and we are sure the hatred will get worse if this project continues with weak regulations.

P.S.

It’s time for Clinton County Government to pay for a pre-wind turbine noise study! Like our Dallas Commissioner stated, these devices produce more noise at night and during winter when people don’t visit wind turbine locations to get their prospective. Plus, the noise you don’t hear is the damaging noise that penetrates your home and causes health problem for some individuals.

Rand Noise Report

Audiologist Rob Rand prepared a report on noise produced by wind turbines which was submitted to the Riga Township, (Lenawee County) Planning Commission. Mr. Rand is a Member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering with over thirty years of experience in acoustics including many years working in industrial power generation noise control.

This report presents a discussion of community reactions to noise, guidelines for appropriate maximum permissible noise limits in rural areas, measured noise levels versus distance and observed community responses. Click Here to read the report!

Hammered by A Wind Turbine

BY RWRAND, ON APRIL 26TH, 2011

I got surprised last week (April 17-19, 2011) on a wind turbine noise survey with my long-time colleague Steve Ambrose, also a Member of INCE. We experienced all the symptoms described by folks unfortunate enough to live nearby where an industrial wind turbine facility has been built. Nausea, loss of appetite, vertigo, dizziness, inability to concentrate, an overwhelming desire to get outside, and anxiety.

The distance was approximately 1700 feet from one 1.65MW industrial wind turbine.

We obtained relief, repeatedly, by going several miles away.

Vertigo came back much stronger for me today, a week later, simply while reviewing the precision audio recordings from the trip on small laptop speakers. Moderate nausea coming and going, and ears ringing and feeling full. That may mean that I have been “sensitized” and I’m now more susceptible to the symptoms.

If you’ve ever been seasick, or travel-sick on planes, you might understand the feeling.

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/news/2011/two-acousticians-succumb-to-wind-turbine-syndrome-maine/

Presentation to Inter-Council Wind Turbine Working Group – May 12, 2011

Notes from the 4th International Wind Turbine Noise Conference Rome, Italy, April 2011

The number one key element for this conference was wind turbine noise effects on people.
Wind turbine noise complaint country listings: Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada, United States, Australia, Spain, France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Denmark, any home within 6 times the tip height would qualify for an immediate assessment on property devaluation.
Issue of the cyclic noise from wind turbines, generally, identified as "amplitude modulation" was a common subject for discussion in many papers. Recently revised papers in New Zealand penalize a wind farm if amplitude modulation is experienced.
Larger wind turbines are identified to result in more low frequency noise but the fact that A-Weighting of the sound makes this low frequency to be ignored was mentioned in several papers. The subject of going away from A-Weighting of wind turbines noise was mentioned by a number of authors. Similarly, it was noted that although waves and waterfalls can produce low frequency sound, they do not show either the same frequency or the disruptive amplitude modulation of wind turbines.
A number of papers identified that the sound from wind turbines can impact health, and in fact, surveys of those living near wind turbines, either taken as blind surveys (as in New Zealand) or as identified surveys (as in the United States) shows a difference in quality of life near wind turbines compared to distant from wind turbines.
Participants continue to speak of government objectives to increase the fraction of their electrical generation derived from wind, and many are quite frank that the development of wind turbines amounts to "big money" and listening to complaints would cost the countries a great deal. Money is ruling, not people's interests.

Additional Information

Public Health Impacts prepared by the Minnesota Department of Health. Read More...

Several physicians from around the world -- e.g., Amanda Harry in England, Robert McMurtry in Ontario, Robyn Phipps in New Zealand -- have recorded a common set of ill health effects among people living near industrial-scale wind turbines. The symptoms began when local turbines began to turn, and they are relieved when the victims leave the area. Read More...

Health, hazard, and quality of life near wind power installations — How close is too close? Read More...

As wind turbines multiply around the globe, the number of dangerous accidents is also climbing, causing critics to question overall safety. Read More...

Wind power may be one of the cleaner, greener energy sources available, but turbine and blade failures point to dangers that were not anticipated, says Michael Connellan. Read More...

Every day, all day, weather radar shows a small but intense thunderstorm northwest of Plattsburgh, N.Y. Further to the west, in central New York, where much of Vermont’s weather comes from, the radar shows a brewing mass of showers and storms, sometimes with a nascent tornado thrown in. Read More...