Sunday, August 5, 2007

More communities affected

In the last several months my neighbours and I have directly spoken to many people whose lives have been affected by wind energy projects. It seems like there is not a project out there, large or small, that leaves a community unaffected.

We have most recently heard from Pastor Mark Harris of Mars Hill, Maine. Pastor Harris was here at the Seventh Day Adventist camp on the Gulf Shore this week. This camp sees an average of 1000 people per week through the summer season.

There is only one wind farm in Maine, and it is on Mars Hill. There are 20 families whose lives have been seriously and detrimentally affected by this project, built by UPC. Some turbines are extremely close to families. Complaints have been made from people living as far away as three miles.


They complain of sleep disturbance and migraines. A couple who was running a retreat for autistic children with riding horses and a petting zoo has had to stop business. Not because of the animals, but because the movement, noise and strobing from the wind farm was seriously affecting the children.


Pastor Harris and his wife had planned to build their retirement home on Mars Hill, but that plan is now on hold until the turbines issue is resolved satisfactorily.

They have 80 acres on the mountain off which he periodically cuts off fire wood. He describes how when he goes up there early in the morning, he can hear the birds in the trees, the rustling leaves, babbling brook and the thump, thump thump of the nearest turbines. After he puts on his hearing protection in preparation to cut wood, he can no longer hear the birds, leaves or brook – but he can still hear the thump, thump, thump of the wind turbine.

Hunters have noticed that large mammals have left the mountain. Bird and bat kill is only part of an environmental impact to wildlife – avoidance of the area is another part of it.


Pubnico, Marshville, Brookfield, Amherst NS, Elmira PEI and Mars Hill, Maine.


Direct conversations with people who have either moved away or would like to. In Rodney, there is a couple who don't want to move away at all – their families have lived in the area for generations – they just want the noise to stop. She would like to be able to lie in bed at night and not feel her chest vibrating. They have to run a radio in the garage when working in there, because otherwise the turbine noise reverberates so loudly, it makes use of the garage too uncomfortable.

There are some people who do not seem to be affected by the noise and vibrations – but for as long as there are people who are – these machines have to be located so as not to possibly affect anyone living near them.

It really isn't complicated. Keep them away from people!

http://www.barehillsoftware.com/Welcome%20to%20Mars%20Hill-PC.wmv

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

The main question now is whether governments and wind developers will take responsibility to place turbines far from housing or will they press on with their profit induced and purchased "no impact" environmental assessments and continue to destroy more communities, including ours.

Anonymous said...

I beleive the heading of this blog is "Pugwash windfarm", why are you talking about other areas.

This same person you are talking about vibrations in her chest also said the wind turbines are changing the tides, hmmm, is this person for real or just doesn't like change.

I sooner have problems of my chest vibrating or have the tides change, haha. Thanks goodness we don't have to put up with coal burning in Springhill. Ah, fresh air.

Unknown said...

Last comment, you are operating on a false premise. No wind turbine project in the world has EVER displaced any coal plant. It doesn't work that way. The fossil fuel plants will always be needed to back up the irratic wind power. The more turbines - the more fossil fuel plants you will need. Wind is a non solution. It is a diversion. For the most part they are symbolic gestures that would have us believe we are doing something good for our environment when in reality we are doing very little. Dig deeper and educate yourself.

Anonymous said...

Wind power is comparable to riding a bike while pulling a car behind you just in case your brakes fail.

Unknown said...

I'm a little disappointed to check in again and see that nobody responded to my post around August 1st. The only comments posted were about q-tips and other red herrings.
Is there anyone on this site interested in real debate? Because right now, this "argument" comes across as being very low-brow and catty.

Lisa said...

Thank you Rae for your interest in this subject and I agree, I wish there could be a little more open debate and a few less threats made (the police are aware of what was posted the other day).

The subject is obviously a very emotional one. There are those of us who do not wish to have industrial sized turbines imposed on our environment and there are these other people who make wild, threatening, off-the-topic statements which starts off a whole new series of 'tis tisn't comments.

I have decided not to moderate comments, as I do not have the time. Consequently, this section currently goes where it takes itself. However, I have warned this group before threats or idiotic tirades against anyone will result in turning off "comments".

As far as investigating smaller wind projects, that is definitely a future subject when we have the luxury of time. Right now we have to get the government - municipal, provincial and federal - to understand that these machines are problematic and must not be allowed to harm people or damage their environment.

Anonymous said...

Hi William, the statement was never meant to replace coal, I meant that I would rather have windturbines than coal in the air in Springhill. Times are changing and windturbines are much cleaner than coal, also this blogg is about Pugwash so I guess I'm supporting Rodney in the wrong place.

Anonymous said...

Good news! A new nuclear plant is being touted for New Brunswick. This should put a stop to idiotic wind power advocacy. Here's an expensive, dirty, potentially dangerous answer to those evil windmills.

No wind power advocate expects them to replace fossil fuel plants. Wind can , however, be part of the solution. In Denmark, wind produces 20% of the electricity used. When coupled with concervation, solar power, tidal generation, geothermal energy and other alternatives, this 20% is a fair chunk of a real solution.

In a world where every jurisdiction is experiencing skyrocketing electical demand, finding a combination to prevent the construction of new expensive dirty generation plants s vital. Status quo means more conventional gereration ie. new coal plants.

Cries that nothing can be done since winds are variable is pretty misleading. The sun sometime shines when it is not windy and the tides haven't stopped yet. Many people drive a pickup when its makes sense and ride a bike wehn it is appropriate. Rather than being a Scwinn towing a Grand Marquis, wind poweris an appropriate technology.

More progressive and realistic societies than our little province are developing systems ( some operational, some experimentl and some proposed) to store energy from non fossil sources for use when the sun deosn't shine or the wind doen't blow. Battery storage currently extends wind generation into windless periods. There are lots of hydro electric sytems that use off peak demand power to pump water back up into resevoirs. Wind turbines are being constructed to power some of these pumps. Compressed air storage works and projects to power compressers from wind generation are under develoement. Flywheel storage is alrady being used.

Super grids involving areas at the far flung ends of Europe are being mapped as a means of having the wind blowing in Spain deiver electricity to homes in Norway when the air there is still. Direct Current distriution is under development on a smaller scale as a pilot to a full grid. It is easy to see how the intermitant problem can be solved.

Wind power is now providing electricity during windless periods and phenominon will increase over time. The rope from the bicycle to the old Impala beater is fraying and will soon break.

John McManus

Anonymous said...

Hey John, why don't you reveal your relationship to windfarming? Are you a land owner with a lease or a land owner waiting on a lease?

Anonymous said...

....wouldn't it be smarter to teach the children of the world to run their lives with less electricity?

Anonymous said...

The generation of electricity by wind is not the issue on this blog.
The location of large "windfarms" near residential areas is.
Lisa's excellent reporting has helped to educate the public on the health related problems that accompany this type of electrical generation.
This has to be included in the equation where these are located.
(The wildlife in the forests where these go would also like some consideration!)

Anonymous said...

Lisa's de-excellent reporting has miss lead you all, read the entire story and specs on Wind Turbines, not what you want to hear.

Don't be a BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything)

Anonymous said...

Dear anonymous:
I have an interest in an energy future where a combination of concervation, efficiency and various non traditional energy sources help get our society off the dirty expensive track we are now following .

I own no land leased or to be leased for wind development. I own no part of any wind energy company. I have met with principals and investors in wind energy only at the same pubic meetings a number of people have attended.

If you have doubts, leave the information in a comment and I will contact you directly: after all I sign my comments.

John McManus

Anonymous said...

It seems very simple to me. Those who live near are against and can think of all kinds of weird symptoms to blame on windmills. Those who don't live near are not worried.
We all should be worried about the future of our consumption of fossil burning fuels. This is a petty issue with no scientific basis.

Anonymous said...

Hopeful alternative to Wind Farms

Story clipped from:
New invention to generate household electricity - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A West Australian inventor believes he has developed a way to generate electricity for homes using wind power.

Graeme Attey of Fremantle designed the concept which uses a modular wind turbine that is small enough to sit on a the roof of house.

Mr Attey says his modular wind turbine is about a metre in length and half a metre in height, and creates power using blades which are rotated by the wind.

There is a picture of the unit in the actual story at:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/27/1963676.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know how the utility companies and the government would feel about households producing their own power but the what ifs are awesome!

Great aticle, Lisa. There is a lot more great information, facts, opinions and first hand experiences posted by some of us living in the shadow of a wind farm and others who are fighting not to, come visit the City Data forum at:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/maine/50917-wind-turbine-noise-problem-mars-hill-24.html

Anonymous said...

Let's pass a law that every new homebuilder and whenever anyone buys a house that they have to buy this piece of machinery as quoted above. Wow that would be great eh!

By the way did you happen to find out how much the machine costs?

Anonymous said...

If you would rather we could build a coal or nuke plant in your county. Would you like that better?

Until you generate all the power you use, shut up.

Anonymous said...

http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wp-content/uploads/windpuffery.html

Anonymous said...

And who says this blog is not anti wind everywhere or anti renewable energy everywhere after the last posting. Simply by posting the website as your argument is very weak, because once again the arguments made on that site do not support your movement fully. A mix of renewable energy will reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, technology to store energy is improving everyday, a proper independant system operator could allow for a blend of all electricity coming onto the grid, so there was no top up and spill issues. All these things are only a few points which contradict the argument made at the above website. By the way when you quote a socialist organization like the Oxford Energy Institute you are only solidifying the views of those against you that you really are BANANAS!

Anonymous said...

BANANAS, hahahaha