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| Health and Noise |
Wind turbine noise an issue, report finds. A state report calls for nearly doubling the minimum distance between homes and turbines. The minimum distance between homes and commercial wind turbines in Maine should be nearly doubled to 1,000 feet to limit the impacts of noise on residents, a long-awaited state report is recommending. Portland Press Herald
Maine's Board of Environmental Protection today tweaked proposed rules aimed at reducing noise produced by wind turbines, and will take public comment on them until Aug. 29 before deciding whether to adopt the changes. Recommendations that had been proposed to the board by the state Department of Environmental Protection would allow turbines to produce up to 55 decibels during the day, and either 45 or 42 decibels at night. The board kept the 55 decibel daytime standard but chose the 42-decibel nighttime alternative, while making other technical changes including provisions in the complaint response process. Activists have insisted that poorly sited wind farms threaten the state's public health and natural beauty. The Bangor Daily News says the Friends of Maine's Mountains group believes a 35-decibel nighttime level is more appropriate. Until now, the DEP has applied a decades-old noise standard to wind energy projects. Critics of large-scale wind projects say the state needs rules specific to the unique characteristics of wind turbines. After gathering enough petition signatures, Friends of Maine's Mountains filed paperwork to force the board to begin the rule-making process to address wind turbine noise. Nearly 200 wind turbines operate in Maine, and many more are in the permitting process. The rules are to be posted on the DEP's website. Kennebec Journal
SUMNER — The Wind Power Committee held an emergency meeting on short notice Sunday to take advantage of an audio expert who testified Thursday in Augusta before the state committee considering stronger noise regulations on industrial wind power for the Department of Environmental Protection. Richard James, a mechanical engineer who focuses on environmental engineering, has been working with sound for 42 years. He worked with General Motors for several years and has been to Asia and Europe as a consultant on wind turbine sound. “I’m not anti-wind if it is done right," James said. "I am anti-peers,” he said, adding that his peers in the business need to be more honest with people about turbine wind noise. James said many times when people are worried about sound from new factories, airports or highways, they eventually come to realize that sound was not going to be a problem. “Not so with wind turbines,” he said. “That’s when you have a problem with noise.” Bangor Daily News
While thousands of wind power enthusiasts and industry representatives gather in Anaheim Calif. for Windpower 2011, the American Wind Power Association's popular annual conference and exhibition, some 3,300 miles east, wind power is tearing a tiny island community asunder. In the latest turn, an attorney representing several homeowners living closest to a three-turbine wind installation on the island of Vinalhaven in Maine's Penobscot Bay filed a formal complaint with the Maine Public Utilities Commission on Monday. The complaint charges that the Fox Island Electric Cooperative, the local utility, and Fox Island Wind, the developer of the wind installation which is owned by the utility, have engaged in repeated harassment of the homeowners, who have argued since shortly after the turbines came online in late 2009 that the machines have been in violation of state noise ordinances. That assertion was subsequently supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection. Huffington Post
Several homeowners who live near a wind-energy facility on Vinalhaven are suing the state, alleging political appointees within the LePage administration interfered with a noise complaint case filed with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court in Kennebec County, members of the group Fox Islands Wind Neighbors and other individuals are asking judges to nullify a June 2011 DEP order against the wind power project developer. Instead, the group wants the court to institute an earlier version developed by DEP staff that imposed tougher compliance requirements. Bangor Daily News
PORTLAND — The process by which large wind-power projects get approved, and the noise standards used, dominated discussion Tuesday as the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments over two proposed wind farms. In dispute were permits given by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection for the Record Hill Wind project in Roxbury and the Oakfield Wind project in Aroostook County. In both instances, opponents argued that the board failed to allow for public hearings that would have provided a forum to debate connections between health and turbine noise. Because the issues were similar, the court combined the presentations. Maine Sunday Telegram
Looking for Wind Industry Leadership in Reducing Noise Impacts, by Jim Cummings, Acoutic Ecology Institute. The wind industry is at an important fork in the road regarding community noise standards. Although developers have successfully used setbacks of 1200 feet and less in farm and ranch country for many years, they are now facing growing numbers of wind farm neighbors in other regions struggling with turbine noise. This has, in turn, spawned widespread resistance to traditional siting standards around the country. Renewable Energy World
DEP: Vinalhaven turbines too loud. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has found that three wind turbines on Vinalhaven have exceeded nighttime noise limits and has asked Fox Islands Wind LLC to modify its operations. The small island wind farm has proven controversial since it began operating a year ago, with some neighbors complaining of noise and other related problems. A group of neighbors has made two official complaints, and the DEP monitored the turbines in July. According to a letter sent out Tuesday, the DEP found that the wind farm was producing noise levels of 47 decibels when it wasn’t supposed to exceed 45 decibels. Bangor Daily News
Last November, the island community of Vinalhaven Maine celebrated the commissioning of the Fox Islands community wind energy facility, a 3-turbine project with an installed capacity of 4.5 megawatts. The $14.5 million project was overwhelmingly supported by residents on the island. But before the celebratory speeches concluded, those living within a mile of the facility made it clear the pulsating noise reverberating in- and outside their homes was unbearable. A formal evaluation of noise levels was initiated and this week the Maine Department of Environmental Protection received a report from its third-party noise consultant, Warren Brown of EnRad. The conclusions and recommendations of Brown's e-mail to the Department are pasted below. (emphasis added) The full report and accompanying documents can be accessed at Windaction
Some may say that wind turbines don’t make much noise, but it’s what you don’t hear that’s the problem. Wind turbines create a unique noise that vibrates in your ears, even through your body and the longer you’re exposed, the less tolerant you become of it, which is the opposite of other noises. Daily Bulldog
Like nearly all of the residents on this island in Penobscot Bay, Art Lindgren and his wife, Cheryl, celebrated the arrival of three giant wind turbines late last year. That was before they were turned on. “In the first 10 minutes, our jaws dropped to the ground,” Mr. Lindgren said. “Nobody in the area could believe it. They were so loud.” The New York Times
On January 25, I got an email from Charlie Porter, a Missouri-based horse trainer. The issue: noise from wind turbines. His emails said that in 2007, a phalanx of wind turbines had been around his family’s farm near King City and that “The overwhelming noise, sleep deprivation, constant headaches, anxiety, etc., etc., etc., forced us to abandon our home/horse farm of 15 years. We had to buy a house in town, away from the turbines and move!”Energy Tribune
DEP consultant says wind turbine noise exceeded sound standards. A consultant for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection found that noise levels near the Fox Islands Wind turbines on Vinalhaven were above the DEP's nighttime limits. The consultant said "there exists a significant body of consistent meteorological and sound data indicating sound levels greater than applicable limits." Village Soup
Wind turbines larger than one megawatt of rated power have become an unexpected surprise for many nearby residents by being much louder than expected. The sounds produced by blades, gearing, and generator are significantly louder and more noticeable as wind turbine size increases. Long blades create a distinctive aerodynamic sound as air shears off the trailing edge and tip. The sound character varies from a “whoosh” at low wind speeds to "a jet plane that never lands" at moderate and higher wind speeds. Blade-induced air vortices spinning off the tip may produce an audible “thump” as each blade sweeps past the mast. Thumping can become more pronounced at distance, described as "sneakers in a dryer," when sounds from multiple turbines arrive at a listener's position simultaneously. Wind turbines are not synchronized and so thumps may arrive together or separately, creating an unpredictable or chaotic acoustic pattern. The sounds of large industrial wind turbines have been documented as clearly audible for miles. They are intrusive sounds that are uncharacteristic of a natural soundscape. Village Soup
VINALHAVEN, Maine — The top executive of the company that installed wind turbines on Vinalhaven island said his experts disagree with a Maine Department of Environmental Protection consultant who concluded the turbines violate nighttime noise limits. The Boston Globe
It is undisputed in the scientific community that noise can cause adverse health effects. The wind industry itself maintains that wind turbine noise is no different than any other type o noise. It follows, therefore, that wind turbine noise can cause adverse health effects. Wind energy proponents claim that it has not been proven that wind turbine noise causes adverse health impacts. More to the point, it has not been proven that wind turbine noise does not cause adverse health effects. Health effects of wind turbine noise: Wisconsin
Within weeks of the towers first being turned on, Noel Dean began suffering adverse health effects. Australian newspapers quoted Dean this way: "I was waking up two days in a row with headaches, I'd have to take Panadol but they'd be gone by dinner time. When the wind is blowing north I got a thumping headache, like someone belted me over the head with a plank of wood and I didn't know whether to go to the hospital or what to do. You couldn't really work." Other symptoms he and his wife experienced included general malaise, nausea, sleeplessness and general uneasiness. For the whole Dean-Report go to Windaction
Neil and Elizabeth Andersen prefer open windows to air conditioning, but their home is now hermetically sealed despite the warm and breezy weather. Although Neil, 57, and Elizabeth, 53, have spent more than 20 years enjoying Falmouth's fresh air and working in their meticulous gardens on Blacksmith Shop Road, they now remain indoors and devote effort to blocking out the constant noise emanating from Wind I, the 400-foot-tall, 1.65-megawatt wind turbine whirling less than 1,500 feet from their front door. What started out as a welcomed clean energy source has now become a public health issue. Cape Cod Times
Wind power is sold as the answer to Nova Scotia’s quest for renewable energy, but we’re overlooking the health effects on people who live near windmills, and some serious questions about whether wind can really solve our electrical problems. The Coast
One of the most common alternative energy sources promoted by the U.S. government and the current Maine administration is wind power. In a paper that she wrote last February called “Wind Turbine Neuro-Acoustical Issues," Mills, an ardent proponent of wind power who denies sleep-related disturbances due to wind turbine noise, wrote that wind turbines in Maine would decrease the incidence of many diseases including asthma, allergies, lung cancer and cardiac diseases. The statement was based on the assumption that wind power in Maine would displace conventional electrical power plants' fuel of coal, oil and gas, and that the sacrifice of the mountain ridges for the erection of thousands of turbines was a necessary trade-off for the health benefits that would accrue to Mainers from the decreased pollution. On the surface, that seems like a reasonable position. But for those of us who have dug deeper into the hypothesis, the facts paint a very different picture that shows there is no connection between the goal of 2,700 megawatts of installed wind turbine capacity in Maine and improved air quality for Mainers. Benefits of wind are unproven, hypothetical Sun Journal
Nicholas Schaut of Meaford says he was so stressed from years of living near a Shelburne wind farm that he can’t stay long on return visits to his former home. He’s saddened to see that once happy community disrupted as wind farms pit neighbour against neighbour, some favouring them for the money they bring in, others opposed for reasons of health, noise and unsightliness.“This kind of industrial development is ripping communities apart,” Schaut told hundred of people who filled the main hall of Centre Wellington District High School Thursday night. If they allow Chicago’s Invenergy LLC to construct 25 to 35 wind turbines on 4,000 acres near Belwood, “I believe you will regret it,” he warned.“Turbines,” Schaut stressed, “do not make good neighbours.” Guelph Mercury
Towering turbines generate animosity in rural Illinois. One county’s wind farm may reap revenues, but some residents are sick over - maybe from - them. Maine Sunday Telegram
Amongst the participants were many of us who are neighbors of the turbines. Although our group overwhelmingly supported the project, we now live with the daily presence of turbine noise, 24/7. As one of the Fox Islands Wind Neighbors (FIWN) recently noted, "We support the windmills, but not the noise." Opinion: Hard lessons from the Fox Islands, by Sally Wylie. Working Waterfront
Maine Medical Association, 2009 Annual Session: Wind Energy and Public Health
Health Concerns and the Need for Careful Siting of Wind Turbines Statement of the Maine Medical Center
Mars Hill Wind turbine Project Health Effects - Preliminary Findings. By Michael A. Nissenbaum, MD
May 2006, the construction of a wind farm comprising eight 2MW turbines was completed 930m from Jane and Julian Davis's farm. One year later, they moved out. Julian Davis explains: "Our original view on wind farms was that we didn't believe there was anything wrong with them, we were in favour of the development. We had very little contact with the developers or the council prior to the build, but from most of the research we looked at, we couldn't believe there would be any problems in terms of noise or anything else. The family that left. Windaction
Government of Novia Scotia. Renewable Energy - Wind Turbine Noise gov.ns.ca
Please see these important links on Maine health effects of Wind Turbines and what has happened in Mars Hil and other places. Doctors in Maine are standing up and refuting false claims by the Wind Industry on this important issue. There are serious consequences to those communities naive to think that this doesn't exist, and who won't act via their ordinances and governing bodies in appropriate ways to protect their citizens. Wind Turbines and Health, an interview with Dr. Nissenbaum Windaction
Wind Turbine Syndrome is the clinical name I have given to the constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) people who find themselves living near industrial wind turbines: sleep problems (insomnia), headaches, dizziness, unsteadiness, nausea, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, memory loss, eye problems, problems with concentration and learning, tinnitus (ringing in the ears). As industrial windplants proliferate close to people’s homes and anywhere else people regularly congregate (schools, nursing homes, places of business, etc.), Wind Turbine Syndrome likely will become an industrial plague. By Dr. Nina Pierpont Wind turbine syndrome
Sound levels: Mars Hill Communication with Rick James link
Living with turbines - a personal account By Wendy Todd, Mars Hill, more than a year after the turbines went on line.
Discontent of Mars Hill residents leads to lawsuite against First Wind, citing noise and health concerns and seeking compensation of property value Read the whole text
An investigation into wind farms and noise by The Noise Association, UK. “Peace and quiet is the single most important factor people have in mind when buying a home – with one in five prospective homebuyers rating it as the most important consideration when choosing where they will buy.” Location, Location, Location
European wind noise study shows need for new guidelines Renewable Energy Foundation
The papers consider the effects of wind turbine acoustics on health, e.g., sleep deprivation and related adverse effects. Evidence from research papers confirms that noise radiation delivered with specific character and dosage can trigger serious health problems. Wind Turbines: Noise, health and human rights issues Noise, Health and Human Rights Issues
If we are to forge a reliable energy future that is respectful of both the environment and the rights of neighbors, we'll need to move past knee-jerk reactions on both sides, and develop best practices that can ensure that the landscape and local residents don't become long-term casualties of today's "Klondike Wind Rush. "Wind energy impact, by Jim Cummings Wind Farms and Noise
How loud is too loud? People often ask, "What is a responsible noise level from industrial wind turbines, to protect the health of nearby residents?" And, "How should background noise levels be properly measured prior to turbine construction, and how should noise levels be measured after the turbines are up and running?" Here are concrete answers from two prominent noise engineers. Wind turbine syndrome
Scott Miller of ATV.CA talks to three families who claim their lives have been ruined by the turbines. Wind turbines and public health Part 1 Video and Part 2...Video
This report appeared in an edition of Advance for Audiologists, a trade magazine for professional audiologists. "Noise pollution could be blowing in the wind, but more evidence is needed" Read the whole text
Noise and vibration coming from large turbines are behind an increase in heart disease, migraine, panic attacks and other health problems, according to research by an American doctor The Independent
Wind: the next battlefront. Janice Harvey is a freelance columnist and president of the New Brunswick Green Party. "Everything has limits, even renewable energy developments. Until we learn that lesson, we will continue to make big mistakes" Telegraph-Journal
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