June 8, 2012
Massachusetts

Board of Health seeks DEP testing after receiving about 130 complaints about wind turbines

By Peggy Aulisio, Editor, www.southcoasttoday.com 7 June 2012

FAIRHAVEN – The Board of Health voted unanimously Monday to ask the state Department of Environmental Protection to do a sound study of the two industrial wind turbines on town land.

They also voted to request a mitigation plan from Sumul Shah of Solaya Energy, a partner in Fairhaven Wind LLC.

On Tuesday morning, health agent Patricia Fowle said she’d already e-mailed the DEP and Mr. Shah and would follow up that communication with formal correspondence.

The board has received about 130 complaints so far. Ms. Fowle said most were about “sound leading to some kind of sleep deprivation,” but also flicker. The flicker effect is the shadows the blades cast in someone’s home.

Ms. Fowle said a resident showed a video of the flicker effect in his home at Monday night’s Board of Health meeting.

“He has to produce a plan,” she said of Mr. Shah. “He’s done this in Falmouth and had a mitigation plan there.”

The Falmouth turbines were also installed by Mr. Shah’s company, but he’s said the ones in Fairhaven are quieter.

Ms. Fowle said the complaints are coming from a wide range or “bigger circle” within a radius of the turbines. She said they basically form a circle that includes Day Street, Jameson, Teal Circle, John Street, Timothy Street, Mill Road, Weeden Road and Shawmut Street. She said there were a few separate complaints from Mill Road.

“It is really when you live near them,” she said of the complaints they are receiving.

Ms. Fowle said a few residents who attended Monday night’s board meeting invited the board and the public to visit their homes.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/08/board-of-health-seeks-dep-testing-after-receiving-about-130-complaints-about-wind-turbines/