January 25, 2013
Massachusetts

Officials disagree over early turbine sound test results

By Peggy Aulisio, Editor | The Advocate | January 24, 2013 | www.southcoasttoday.com

FAIRHAVEN – Town officials have been hearing about wind turbine sound study reports, but disagreed on how to describe them in the town’s Annual Report.

Selectman Robert Espindola disagreed with Select Board Chairman Brian K. Bowcock Tuesday on how the early results should be characterized in the report.

One sentence in the report says that as of early December, preliminary results showed no violations of the state’s 10 decibel threshold for how much higher the noise level could be raised by the turbines.

If the two industrial turbines on town land were shown to raise sound levels by more than 10 decibels, the state Department of Environmental Protection could shut them down, either full time or during certain periods like night time.

Selectman Robert Espindola said he’d contacted Laurel Carlson of the DEP, who is conducting the sound study, and that she told him, “She has not transmitted any report and believes it is premature to draw conclusions.”

Mr. Bowcock said, however, that, “She’s e-mailed people saying there are no violations that she’s identified…She’s already sent e-mails to people saying that they’re in compliance.”

At Selectman Charles Murphy’s suggestion, the board deleted a sentence that said the wind turbines are performing with the allowable decibel limit.

The board left in language that said as of early December, the sound study results showed no violations.

The Annual Report write-up does say that after the turbines started running, “almost immediately” the Board of Health started receiving complaints. Because of those complaints, the report says, “The Board of Health requested a sound study [ends]

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/25/officials-disagree-over-early-turbine-sound-test-results/