July 11, 2013
Letters, Massachusetts

My ‘turbine’ experience

The Recorder | July 10, 2013 | www.recorder.com

My name is Irving Mullette and I live in the Town of Florida; our property is approximately 2,000 feet from some of the industrial turbines in Monroe.

During the winter, without the leaves on the trees, we see seven of the windmills through our kitchen window – right now, we see two, unless we go outside. I also pastor the Rowe Community Church and a parishioner gave me the article in your paper which talked about Monroe’s “windfall” from the wind farm. Let me briefly mention the other side of the story.

Sunday morning we woke up and it was a beautiful day; we got ready for church and sat down at our kitchen table to eat breakfast and all of a sudden we knew we couldn’t eat at the table. Why? Because, when the mornings are clear and the turbines are heading the right way and the sun is at the right position, it begins to “blink” (strobe effect) as the blades turn. What happens is that it begins to affect us and we experience nausea if we stay in the room. This was at 6:45 a.m. on a beautiful Sunday morning. If we had still been in bed, as is the case some mornings, we have the same experience even with the shades down and curtains drawn – this blinking or strobe effect comes through and can be really disorienting! The noise level has not been as loud with the leaves on the trees yet it is always there and often produces headaches in both my wife and myself; sometimes at night we wonder, “Why are we awake? ­— it’s the noise from the wind turbines. At other times at night, when the blades are positioned a certain way, the red beacons create a reflection off the blades as they run and an explosion of red light travels up the 125-foot blade as it turns.

I hope that Monroe and also Florida realize that they may be getting some money, but others are paying the price every day for their “windfall”! These industrial turbines should NOT be placed anywhere near where people live; I don’t know what the “safe” distance is, but I do know they are all too close to us and our neighbors.

IRVING MULLETTE

Florida


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/07/11/my-turbine-experience/