The wind turbine debate spins on
The Boston Globe | February 24, 2017 | www.bostonglobe.com
Letter writer David Reich says (“Different spins on wind turbines,” Feb. 12) he “would take his chances with quiet, non-polluting radiation-free wind turbines.” He might have a different view if he walked a mile in a wind neighbor’s shoes.
Why? The #1 complaint is sleep disturbance.The pulsing noise was so bad in Falmouth that a judge ordered the town to shut down its turbines at night. Now, Kingston, Scituate, and Fairhaven have nighttime shutdown schemes.
Mr. Reich says students and teachers at the school near Hull 1 have no complaints, ignoring the fact that they sleep elsewhere and that others in town have complained.
Across Massachusetts, many residents who welcomed turbines soon began experiencing sleep loss, headaches, nausea, and other symptoms when near turbines.
Can we avoid the harm? Experts recommend a minimum distance of 1.25 miles from homes, and some recommend more. Massachusetts is a densely populated state, so the megawatt turbines across the state routinely exceed state noise pollution limits.
We all agree that we want clean air. But even the largest wind project in the state supplies only 0.0018 percent of the electricity used in Massachusetts. But eight times this output could be had if only half of our households had efficient refrigerators.
Louise Grabowski
Quincy
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/02/25/the-wind-turbine-debate-spins-on/