Roxbury Selectman Mark Touchette suggested visiting Mars Hill. My husband and I chose a neutral area 400 miles away. The 220-foot windmill towers we visited were overwhelming. It was a reality check.
The swooshing and clanging of those industrial machines as they rotated were alarming. There was a persistent humming, strobe light-like and flickering shadows swirling around the cleared land that surrounded each turbine.
The rights to those particular turbines have been sold three times since their erection. Lost were those contracts and promises. Even though the wind farm was only seven years old, there had already been a turbine fire, and two which malfunctioned two years ago are still not fixed.
Knocking on doors at various distances to the farm, the residents there all said the same things as were said about Mars Hill. One described the clanging as if someone were constantly banging on his front door, causing him to come from his barn to check it out. Another could hear the noise pollution one mile into his woods.
There are documented cases of wind turbine noise syndrome, vibroacoustic disease and the physiological responses of one’s whole body to this noise pollution. The results can be sleep deprivation, acoustic radiation, and audible and inaudible noise problems – all infringements on our human rights.
Rob Gardiner of Independence Wind is now going door-to-door peddling his goods, trying to sway residents into his pockets of this big business, money-making venture.
No deal, Roxbury. No deal.
Michele Currivan, Rumford
5 May 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/05/05/no-deal-roxbury/