LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME



[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Blowin’ in the wind: Project Ocotillo residents decry dust raised by wind 

Credit:  By: Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine | eastcountymagazine.org 13 June 2012 ~~

Why hasn’t the Bureau of Land Management taken steps to protect Ocotillo area residents from clouds of dust in an area with high rates of childhood asthma and where soil reportedly contains potentially deadly Valley Fever spores?

Despite numerous complaints including photos and videos of dust billowing up from construction activities at Pattern Energy’s Ocotillo Express wind energy site, the apparent health hazard continues.

“This issue has been ongoing from the start of this project and someone needs to get control of it before there is serious health related issues,” said Jim Pelley, an Ocotillo resident, engineer and ECM award winning photographer.

On June 10, Pelley informed ECM that he could see the dust cloud from his home. That’s over three weeks after he lodged his first complaint.

“The dust was headed directly east toward the Ocotillo Community. “Why is this being overlooked and not taken seriously?” he asked, after filing various complaints that have gone unheeded by public health officials. “This is undisturbed land and I am really worried about the spores in the ground and the possibility of my family contracting Valley Fever, a deadly disease.”

Pelley provided photos and video documenting the massive dust plumes on different dates at the project site. The first was shot on May 17, one day after he filed his first complaint with the Imperial Valley Air Pollution Control Board: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBRLNHRgBy8&feature=plcp

Despite project mitigation requirements to control dust with water, Pelley wrote at the time, “No water trucks in sight; no water on the ground, dust can be seen for miles blowing right into homes and the County Park where kids play.”

ECM has contacted the Imperial Valley Air Pollution Control Board for comment, but the agency has failed to respond. Pattern Energy has repeatedly refused to discuss its wind facility project despite multiple requests.

Source:  By: Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine | eastcountymagazine.org 13 June 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share

Tag: Complaints


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky