August 28, 2019
Letters, Missouri

Wind turbines should not drive me from home

Letter to the Editor | Columbia Missourian | Aug 28, 2019 | www.columbiamissourian.com

The health and welfare of a community should be at the top of the list when considering ordinances and regulations for an industrial wind energy complex.

Wind turbines produce noise, including vibrations below (infrasound) the range of human hearing. These vibrations make some people sick and have been found to have long term negative impacts on the human body.

However, there are some people who claim that the vibrations don’t bother them. The problem is that you won’t know if you are one of those afflicted until after a wind turbine is in operation near your home and by then, it is too late to do anything about it.

The only protection you have from the wind turbines being installed by your neighbors is the setback restrictions that are set in the beginning of a project. One set of proposed regulations that I have seen required “setback from a youth or adult camp, facilities for those with special needs or at risk, (and) hospitals shall be 1.5 miles.”

One Australian research stated that “serious medical conditions have been identified in people living, working or visiting within 10 km (6.2 miles) of operating wind turbine developments.”

I don’t know if I will be made sick by the wind turbines or how the vibrations may affect my future health or future medical equipment that I may need in my home.

But this is America, and I have rights, too. I should not be driven out of my home because of the proximity of a wind turbine installed on my neighbor’s property.

The minimum setback should be set at 1.5 miles from all residences without written approval from both the resident and the owner.

In all fairness, it should be 1.5 miles from the property line. Otherwise the future use of neighboring property is being impacted without approval or compensation.

Some may say that this is too restrictive. The truth is that wind turbines were not designed to be shoe-horned into bedroom communities with a high population density.

Fred Campbell lives in Clarksdale.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/28/wind-turbines-should-not-drive-me-from-home/