We have a report from the Dundalk Herald, dated October 21, about a public meeting held in Flesherton earlier this month, which attracted a large audience. Among the people making comments at the meeting were two Ontario farmers who had leased their land to wind developers for turbines.
Glen Wiles of Ripley Ontario said he and his family had to leave their house because of illness, and stay in a motel. His son, wife and their child are now also living in a motel, which is being paid for by the wind company.
Another Ripley area farmer, David Colling, leased property for a wind turbine but if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t. As well as being a farmer, Mr Colling is an agricultural electrical consultant, and measures “dirty” electricity in homes. He says that turbines produce plenty of it. Inside a house near a turbine, he says, is like “living in a microwave”.
But for North Gower, it seems to be OK to put hundreds of homes within a kilometer of these machines. According to Prowind, the wind developer, North Gower residents are unintelligent and uninformed, and standing in the way of progress as Prowind moves ahead to save Ontario from “unhealthy” and “dirty” sources of energy.
More, this time from Mr Arlin Monfils of Lincoln, Wisconsin, who at the time of writing was the Chairman of the Lincoln Town Board. He wrote this to be of help to other communities contemplating wind turbine developments:
“Problems that are of strong concern, and problems that we had warned the utilities about but were assured that they would not occur are as follows: interference with T V reception, Microwave reception interference, depreciating property values, flashing red lights (FAA) interfering with nearby homes, wind turbine NOISE which interferes with neighbors sleep and their mental health, increased traffic, road damage, cattle being scared from rotating shadows cascading from the blades in a setting sun, rotating shadows in nearby homes, concerns about stray voltage, concerns about increased lightening strikes, environmental damage to birds, etc. etc. etc. But the proponents for wind energy will dismiss all of these concerns and tell you that they will not occur. THEY ARE WRONG. Ask the neighbors who are not property owners reimbursed by the utilities through lease agreements on their property or people who want to lease in the future. They will verify these problems.
If a town has zoning, establish written conditions with penalties to ensure that the utilities and companies follow the regulations of the local town zoning. Also, look into the establishment of a moratorium on the project so more time can be used to collect or research information about the concerns voiced in areas like Kewaunee County. These concerns are about the public health and safety of our residents and this grand idea of ‘sticking’ these huge towers in near by residents is not a proven success story. It’s a trial by ERROR! Only time will tell what the effects of this ‘EXPERIMENT’ will be. This is especially true with the issues of noise, its effect on the neighbors, their mental health related to the noise and its disturbance, the effect of stray voltage on the nearby cattle, as well as other safety issues. Other concerns like the distractions of drivers from the rotating blades, increased lightening strikes in the areas of the towers (not to the towers directly because they are grounded), and other public health and safety issues need to be analyzed on into the future. ”
Greed, propaganda and opportunism: Wind turbines should be spelled “turbine$”.
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