Wind facility opponent fears health impacts and lower property values 

Caroline Rogers, who lives on County Road 905, disagrees that there is nothing Carroll County Judge David Winter can do to stop the proposed 180-megawatt Nimbus Wind Facility she believes would surround her with three wind turbines that could be 500 feet tall. Rogers said the county could refuse to let the private company make changes necessary to transport the huge components on CR 905 near the steep mountain ridges that Scout Clean Energy said has plenty of wind for power generation.

“The county judge is the gatekeeper,” Rogers said. “If he says, ‘No. You are a private entity. You can’t make any changes to this road’, as far as I can see, that is the end of it. He cannot be dictated to by this a private company about what to do with this road. If Judge Writer refused to give permission to widen the road, I don’t see how they would get the equipment in to build the towers.”

Rogers said she doesn’t think most people can even envision 500-ft. towers with blades that could be 210 to 260 feet long. She has obtained a list of landowners who have leased for the project and has determined that she would be surrounded by three of the towers.

“I am basically going to be landlocked by these giant towers,” Rogers said. “That is the way I perceive it. According to studies I have read, wind turbines decrease property values near the turbines by seven to forty percent. The people with turbines would have increased property values because of the money they are receiving for leases. But the rest of us would have decreased property values resulting in lower property taxes for the county.”

Rogers is concerned about a lower quality of life in this now quiet and peaceful rural area. The concerns of Rogers and other opponents include placing a huge amount of concrete and steel on the fragile karst terrain that could lead to disruptions to wells, springs, caves, birds, bats, cows and other domestic wildlife, and destruction of trees to build roads to the turbines and the turbines themselves.

“Alternative energy is not green if it is taking away our trees and incidentally killing our eagles and bats,” she said. “They are collateral damage with no repercussions to the company.”

Rogers said experts who have been studying wind turbines for 20 years have documented negative health impacts to nearby residents. Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD, wrote a book, Wind Turbine Syndrome. Pierpont refers to negative impacts from living near wind turbines as vestibular disturbance disease, an illness associated with the ears, brain and coordination she said has been experienced by people who live near wind turbines.

“The ear doesn’t hear this infrasound, but it still negatively affects us,” Rogers said. “It can take a toll on the body. And there are safety concerns. Does Green Forest have the equipment to fight a fire at one of the turbines if it was hit by lightning and damaged components of the turbine caught on fire? There are also concerns about fighting forest fires that can be started by arcing in the transmission lines.”

Rogers said she is constantly surprised when people tell her they haven’t heard of the project, which would be the first commercial wind facility in Arkansas potentially paving the way for more such projects.

“If this is so great and a premier event for the state of Arkansas, why isn’t it in the headlines more?” Rogers asks. “What I’m hearing from other places that have gotten wind turbines is that they purposefully keep it hush-hush. They don’t want possible push back. They know there will be more against it than for it. I haven’t heard anyone who thinks putting these wind turbines on karst terrain is a good idea except the people who will make a lot of money on the leases. I think Scout needs to have an independent third-party analysis on the environmental impacts.”

She is also concerned that air evacuation helicopters won’t be able to land anywhere near the turbines, and of potential disruptions to the flight paths to the Carroll County Airport in Berryville.