Not everyone thinks it’s ‘great news’
The Cumberland Times-News | June 3, 2019 | www.times-news.com
This letter is in response to the May 5 letter, by Michael and Kathryn Russo, “Zoning board chairman should recuse himself,” and (what West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says is) the “great news” that West Virginia is planning a new wind farm at Black Rock. (See Justice comments in “Wind farm planned at Black Rock,” May 17 Times-News, Page 1A.)
There is a need for jobs, jobs, jobs here locally and I understand that initial construction of industrial wind turbines provides that, with lots of money involved for the builders and for those who lease their lands for these ventures.
Naturally, these entities would promote wind turbines.
What are the prospects for long-term, well-paying jobs in this area after the turbines are built?
What about property values declining for people who live near them? With wind turbines operating near Keyser, Frostburg and nearby Pennsylvania, do we need more in our area?
According to an article in Forbes magazine (Michael Shellenberger, May 6, 2019), wind farms take 700 times more land than natural gas wells, to produce the same amount of energy.
For some inexplicable reason, I’m “in tune” with the infrasound and vibrations (but thankfully not the strobing effects) of the turbines above Frostburg. (I’m not aware of any closer ones.)
I believe the vibrations travel through the corridor of Interstate 68 to LaVale, about six miles from there to where we live. I have read that the sound-vibrations can travel for long distances with little disintegration. The more turbines turning, the louder the noise.
Not everyone is affected by them, but I can tell you when they are turning and when they are not. They can run day and night continually for as long as six days before a respite arrives.
Then it is only two to three days of quiet before they start again – a disturbing experience, as the sound cannot be blocked. It takes precedence over all other normal household sounds.
The sound is like a constant unvarying wind. As I stated in a previous letter of Nov. 29, 2017 (See: “It’s monotonous and intrusive”), it is as if the noise is on the inside, as well as outside, of the house and body.
Sleep medication does not always work! Why can they not be turned off at night?
I believe they need to be located away from where people live. I have seen wind farms in the Midwest while traveling by air and they were not near communities.
There, some of the very best soil for growing crops has been taken for wind farm development. Also, where the turbines are built, the soil is compacted as a result, and crop yields are not as abundant as they once were.
Pushback is growing across the U.S. as it is in other countries. The Des Moines Register newspaper (Nov. 21, 2018) reported that in Fairbank, Iowa, $11 million was invested to build three wind turbines, which are now being torn down because local residents sued and won a legal contest against the turbines because of the noise they generated.
It’s the second time nationally that a judge had ordered them to be dismantled.
I would hope people in this area would do some in-depth research before entertaining the thought of putting up more turbines. I no longer have the quiet that existed for many previous years.
Nancy Lawrence
LaVale
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/06/04/not-everyone-thinks-its-great-news/