May 25, 2018
Indiana, Letters

Proposed changes to wind ordinance still not enough

Journal Review | May 24, 2018 | www.journalreview.com

Can you tell me why the Montgomery County Commissioners are protecting birds, bats, muskrats and all wildlife in the Sugar Creek area with a setback from wind turbines of 2,640 feet?

Adults, children, livestock and wildlife living away from Sugar Creek have only a setback a little more than the height of the turbine, and our homes only 1,300 feet.

Wind turbine company employees are told, and in printed service manuals to stay at least 1,600 feet (Vestas) away from the turbines.

Indiana courts have ruled in other counties for setbacks of 2,300 feet or more from the property lines of non-participating land owners.

On Feb. 21, commissioners put forward an amendment to the county wind ordinance putting the setback at 1,500 feet from the property lines of non-participating land owners. Also reducing the decibel noise level from the 60 decibels to 48 decibels. This is still not low enough to stop health and sleeping issues.

A NASA technical paper on wind turbine noise states:

People who are exposed to wind turbine noise inside buildings experience a much different acoustic environment than do those outside. They may actually be more disturbed by the noise inside their homes, than they would outside. One of the common ways that a person might sense the noise induced disturbance of a house is through structural vibrations. Those same vibrations may shake the house apart, rattle doors and windows, crack the plaster and drywall and foundations. (Actual complaints from real people living near wind turbines.)

At wind farms in northern Indiana, vibration is so bad, steel access doors need to be re-welded back on the turbines on a regular basis.

There is also the problem when in nice weather, we like to leave our windows and doors open to enjoy the summer breezes and cool our houses at night while we sleep.

Don’t count on that either. A Vesta 4.2 MW turbine, is one of the highest producing low wind turbine in the industry, achieving a sound power level of only 104.9 decibels, to serve sound sensitive regions. How is that quiet noise?

According to wind company employees, you can learn to live with the noise at higher decibel levels. Keep all doors and windows shut at all times, buy better windows, sound proof the house, and at considerable costs, move away from the turbines.

But you would have to abandon the house if you can’t live with the sounds, who would want to buy the house and live there.

At a public wind company meeting in another Indiana county, a friend asked the wind company representative why there are so many testimonies, studies, lawsuits, documentaries, movies, books and no wind groups talking about the negative aspects of industrial wind turbines? His response was that they are all lying.

So, who will you believe about facts, figures and information? The people hired by the wind companies, local and out-of-state, who will tell you anything they want, true or not, in order to convince people there that there aren’t any problems with industrial wind turbines. Or, will you believe the people living, working and raising families and fighting to protect your health, safety, welfare and property rights.

Corrie Gallapoo

Crawfordsville

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/05/25/proposed-changes-to-wind-ordinance-still-not-enough/