Impact of Timbermill’s wind turbines: Light pollution angers locals 

Residents in Bertie County expressed their frustrations over the blinding lights of Timbermill’s wind turbines at a meeting with NC legislators. Approximately 60 attendees called for action against the lights’ disruptive nature, which blink 81,000 times per hour, significantly impacting local tranquility.

Around 60 very upset people attended a meeting featuring NC Senator Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, and NC Representative Ed Goodwin, R-Chowan, to share their concerns Tuesday evening at the Occano Pool House in Bertie County.

That pool house has a commanding view of the Chowan River. As the night sky grew darker during the meeting, this ink stained wretch looked out the bay windows to see a long line of the wind turbines’ orangish/red lights blinking nonstop across the river. OMG – those lights are insane!

To say those lights are terrible is a gross understatement – those annoying lights blink 81,000 times an hour, according to folks at the meeting. This is not the kind of light pollution that one can ignore as if it were a radio tower topped off with a red light high in the sky.

So imagine building or buying a home within the last year or so, then moving in, embracing the peace and serenity of a Carolina nighttime sky, then BOOM – your view of the river and landscape is RUINED. And that’s the view up and down the river in places like Colerain, Black Rock, Occano and Point Comfort to say the least.

So it is no wonder that residents in these communities are angry and asking their legislators and county leaders to do something about these damned blinking lights.

Timbermill insists that it is looking into the matter, but in some circles – the word “study” is synonymous with stalling.

That said, Hanig and Goodwin strongly suggested that residents pick up their pens and phones to contact legislators in Raleigh and Washington DC to let their voices be heard. Both men are seasoned legislators with a strong track record of service to Northeast NC, so their words hold extra weight.

After the meeting, residents and legislators went to two Merry Hill locations where the invasive lights have purged the peaceful serenity of a nighttime sky – 238 Gov Eden House Rd. and 115 River Lane.

Hanig said this was Timbermill’s first state-approved wind turbine project – jumping through all the regulatory hoops. Moving forward, he believes the company wants to do the right thing by remedying the matter.

Goodwin shared his personal story about dealing with injuries he sustained during the Vietnam War and the Veterans Administration’s red tape.

Touting President Donald Trump’s ability to cut through the red tape to help people, Goodwin suggested that folks contact their congressional representatives and never, ever give up – keep sending letters and phone calls because if ever there was a time to break through bureaucracy – to be heard – it is while Trump is in office.

No one from Timbermill spoke or made their presence known during Tuesday’s meeting. To be fair to Timbermill, here’s this statement from a previous story from Brian O’Shea, Director of Public Engagement for Apex Clean Energy. Timbermill Wind is a project of Apex Clean Energy, a national company specializing in utility-scale wind, solar and storage.

“Apex Clean Energy, the owner and operator of Timbermill Wind, is exploring the installation of an ADLS system at the project to significantly reduce the amount of time the FAA lights are active,” O’Shea said to the Albemarle Observer. “This process will involve consultations with numerous stakeholders, including the FAA, Department of Defense, Northeastern Regional Airport in Edenton, the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City, and others. We are also evaluating suppliers to determine which ADLS system would work best for the project, if approved. We will be sure to provide residents and stakeholders with further updates as we move forward and appreciate all community feedback regarding the project.”

Bare minimum, residents want Timbermill to install an approved Aircraft Detection Lighting System – red lights placed on top of the turbines to prevent pilots from crashing into the structures. The lights would only be activated when an aircraft approaches, not blinking from sunset to sunrise.

Moreover, residents questioned why, since there are so many wind turbines, all of them had to have blinking lights since it seems reasonable that of the shape and boundaries of the project’s footprint, there is no need to have all the lights lit.

Residents noted that since planes typically don’t fly as close to the ground as wind turbines’ height of 500 feet, whether day or night, why all the wind turbines had lights to begin with. Think about that – only crop dusters fly that close to the ground, and they’re not spraying fields at night – every other pilot flies high in the sky.

Formerly of Water Street in Edenton and now President of the Black Rock Development Owner Association on the Chowan River’s shoreline in Bertie County, Chuck Schmieler said there may be an alternative solution.

Schmieler is chairman of the Edenton Northeastern Regional Airport Commission so we’ll say this – former Edenton Town Manager Anne Marie Knighton, now retired, described Schmieler as a “very smart guy” – so that speaks volumes about his intelligence and character.

Sensing bureaucratic inertia may delay fixing this problem as it so often does, Schmieler said, he has been pondering workarounds that may solve the problem. That’s good news – more on that in a future article. Schmieler said that since there are already light towers around these wind turbine fields, that should be more than enough to alert pilots – who let’s face it – are probably not going to fly that low at night. He suggested that there may be another lighting solution, one that’s more practical.

Many people spoke at the meeting and made good points about the light pollution that underscore this story.

Gayle King, a key organizer for the meeting and an Occano resident, shared her thoughts.

“Our goal this evening is to give an opportunity for Senator Hanig to observe the obstruction lighting on the wind turbines. And, to bring attention to the growing frustration and negative impact caused by the wind turbines on the Bertie County side of the Chowan River,” she said. “While these turbines may have benefits for some, those of us who live across the river—and had no say in their construction—are left to suffer the consequences, particularly the never-ending blinking of their red lights at night. These lights, required by the FAA, flash multiple times a minute, polluting our dark skies and disrupting the peace and serenity that many of us cherish along the river.”

King continued, “This is not just about aesthetics; it’s about the mental, emotional, and even physical toll these turbines take on residents and wildlife. The constant blinking disrupts wildlife behaviors and undermines the serenity of the night, which is a key reason so many people choose to live or visit this area.”

And Timbermill could do something about it too.

“What’s most frustrating is that there are solutions, such as Aircraft Detection Lighting Systems (ADLS), which keep the lights off unless aircraft are nearby,” King said. “While Timbermill Wind has acknowledged this technology exists, they’ve claimed they need time to determine feasibility —despite this being a known issue for over a year now. Their response feels dismissive and indifferent to the very real impact their project has on our lives. It’s clear to me and other residents that they could act if they prioritized this issue.”

King said the community deserves public acknowledgment of the harm caused by these turbines and pressure for meaningful action.

“We understand the FAA requires safety measures, but Timbermill Wind has a responsibility to ensure those measures are implemented in ways that also respect the people and environment impacted by their operations,” King said. “We don’t want the turbines gone. We want them to fix the lighting issue and do the necessary work to install ADLS or similar mitigating systems. Until they do, the residents of the Chowan River/Albemarle Sound area will continue to bear the burden of a poorly executed project.”

Winston Bersch said after working for 40 years, he and his wife found their retirement home – one that’s just absolutely phenomenal – but then things changed.

“Our lives, the way that we’ve come to live them, is we get up in the morning, we watch the sunrise, right? We let the day come to us, and at night we watch the sunset and we allow the day to go away. And the darkness, the darkness of the night, which is also an incredibly healthy thing for, you know, the human being, right?”

Bersch continued, “We just love it here. I mean, it is just a wonderful place to be. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you know, these lights showed up and they’re fugly – (That’s the right word, yeah, we published it). I’m really trying to be nice. You know, one of the things that really strikes me is that as sovereign beings, and we all are, and we live in a sovereign country, these were shoved down our throats without our knowledge, without our permission, without anything. And they’re not healthy, they’re not good. And they just take away from everything that all of us have come to love. And I don’t see anybody shaking their head no. Okay. And, and this needs to stop.”

Paul Zdanek added, “Once we saw the windmills going up, we were like, well, this really sucks. And then they put the light, they got running and they put the lights on and we were like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I’m gonna tell you right now, two things. Number one: If we knew this, we would’ve never moved in. Number two: We’re actually thinking about moving out because this has destroyed a magnificent view that we had.”

Zdanek continued, “We’re just so disgusted and sick by it that even though, because of our wonderful neighbors who we love, we’re like, we gotta move and find a different place because this is not the Nirvana we thought it was when we moved in, they took it away. I hope we can do something. At least get rid of the lights. We can live with the windmills, those lights, you think they’re bad right here. Come up to Point Comfort, which is eight, nine miles up the road. And I’ll make you dinner. Bring your wives whatever you want. And look at the lights on some night out there and you’ll be like, oh my gosh, this is ridiculous.”

Pam Staneski talked about the wind turbines’ permitting and approval process – so she asked the legislators to pick up their pens to do something to preserve the future.

“I know this has been in the works and is the first project that was approved by the state of North Carolina, but I think that you need to tighten that up because we’re not gonna be the only area. If this continues, hopefully our president will be able to put a stop to that…You’re going to have to fix this for future projects or any kind of tower that goes up along our beautiful shorelines so that people who do move down here from the north, where transplants as well will not wanna sell and move out.”