May 12, 2018
Indiana, Opinions

Wind farm neighbor: What you should consider

Nancy Carney, Guest Columnist | Pharos-Tribune | May 11, 2018 | www.pharostribune.com

As a Tipton County property owner, I did extensive research on the effects of having Industrial Wind Turbines. Our county was the first to attempt to have the turbines located close to residential homes and communities. I read online that Cass County is interested in having a wind farm. I would like to share my research regarding this situation.

I first thought these things were green, clean and would be great for the environment. I found out that I was wrong.

Some counties have changed their setbacks due to health risks. Whitley County’s setbacks are a half mile from the property line. Noble County has a 3,960 foot setback, a noise limit not to exceed 40 decibels at 1,000 feet from a turbine, and requires that a tower’s blinking lights be shielded. Tipton County’s setback is now 2,640 feet from a property line. Many other counties have a complete ban on wind farms. If there were no risks, why would all these counties require stricter ordinances? The World Health Organization recommends a minimum setback of 5,280 feet for children, elderly and the chronically ill. The ISO recommends noise limits of 25-35 decibels.

In February 2013, I submitted a letter to the Lafayette Journal & Courier asking for input from residents.

The following letter is from an individual who supplied her address in Fowler. My husband and I visited their home and experienced all of her claims first-hand. Due to word limits, I cut out some words but kept the integrity.

“I live in Benton County. Feel free to come to visit us. We are right in the heart of the wind turbines. I DO NOT like having them so close to our house. The noise REALLY bothers me, and I have never gotten used to it! Depending on which way the wind is out of, you can hear the noise in the house. It seems worse in the winter. I believe it’s due to the density of the air. This time of the year the “FLICKER” effect is really bad in the morning and in the evening. You feel like you always need to duck as you see the blades going around. When it is all said and done, the commissioners should have made the set back a lot further from the houses. We would still have the noise but at least we wouldn’t have the FLICKER effect. I wish I had known all this before they were put in. Everyone just kept on saying they will be good for the community. Then they wonder why nobody wants to live in Benton County. Don’t know that I want you to use my name because we, as well as many others, have received threats and property damage when we’ve complained.”

“In response to your letter to the editor, Thursday, February 14, in the Journal Courier, this information may be what you need. Personal property value will fall like a rock. Benton County houses located within the wind farms are selling for whatever the owner can get. Many land owners where these wind generators are located do not live in the county. The average age of the lease owners is retirement age. Wildlife has dwindled, but the rep for the company downplays this problem. Any time it snows, we go to where we used to see wildlife and there are no tracks to be found. Mosquito eating bats have disappeared too!

“The companies brag that the local economy will boom, but that is temporary until the company is done installing these monsters. They tout that they will create hundreds of jobs, but that is not true either. The companies bring their own machinery operators, and in the end there might be 5-6 people that maintain the turbines, or are guards, or both.

“In Benton County, this happened because few people knew about the turbines until it was way too late to do anything about it. This is how the companies manage to get this done everywhere. A decision of this magnitude should be decided after a debate over property values, who are responsible for that loss and other issues such as blinking lights, noise, which is nauseating, and the strobe effect from shadow flicker.”

I encourage all county officials, proponents and all of your residents to research the following: Shadow flicker, blinking lights, setback distances, low frequency and infrasound impact and decibel requirements, aesthetics, accidents, fires, wildlife impact, health issues, ice throw, wind turbine syndrome, property values, water aquifer damage, wind disturbance issues, lifeline helicopter landing limitations within a wind farm, bats and protected golden eagles and bald eagle deaths, China’s toxicity of rare earth metals, decommissioning clauses and aerial crop dusting.