On a quick read, it appears to be fairly well rounded and covers most concerns and issues. Of course, no one is going to be 100% pleased with it, and that is addressed in the report in that the authors recognise that this is a starting point.
There is a review of some printed/reviewed studies on turbine impacts, a comparison as to how other Municipalities/countries have dealt with turbines, options for policy approaches and a suggested model for future bylaws.
12 comments:
The motion of large wind turbine blades creates constant low frequency infrasound (pressure fluctuations).This is inaudible to the average human ear.
Curiously reference to this sound level is not being stated nor appear to be relevent in this report.It was reported levels approaching 90 dB was found in locations near the Pubnico site.
Decades of military research into the use of infrasound as a weapon have shown high levels as being capable of disrupting natural biological,physiological,and mental functions.This is believed to be due in part to unnatural resonances of bodily fluids,structures,cavities,etc.
The unclassified material is readily availble on the internet.It is purported that this avenue of mass destruction is still being persued in certain military minds of the world.
Infrasonic sound does not attenuate as quickly with distance as higher frequency sound does.
The long term health effects of the levels created by wind turbines is not well known as this is new technology and as this report states is dependent on a number of variables.The residents around these are the test subjects.
Similar health effects,symptoms as seen in military experiments have been reported by some of those living near wind turbines worldwide.
The generators also create electromagnetic fields.The fields from a collection interact and create very low frequency abberations in the realm of the natural biorythms seen in brain studies and believed to be tied to the Schumann electromagnetic resonances created in the ionosphere/earth cavity from lighting discharges.Life evolved within this and it is believed we are dependent on this for our natural well being and existance as living matter!.It has been demonstrated that it is possible via electromagnetic bioentrainement to alter ones' mental states/biological functions.
To jump into a large scale conversion to this method of electrical generation although good from its lack of greenhouse gas generation and reducing our dependence on unstable oil supplies (until the wells dry up) may prove to be detrimental to the life forms near these in the long run and they may be an environmental liability and carry
cost$ of their own.
Maybe the governments should concentrate their efforts on the unpopular idea of mandating the population to modify its lifestyle and mindset to use less day to day electricity.We could reduce our greenhouse gas emissions very quickly if we put our minds to it and save some oil so the children could adjust to their lifestyle without oil over a few decades longer.
So what does that mean anonymous above? If this report that was compiled by a group of experts does not account for your claims on infrasound than what does that say about your beliefs. While you talk about unclassified work by the military there is this very public report from Jacques that does not consider your argument to be relevant. I am going to side with the experts. I can only hope that the rest of the NIMBY followers of the Pugwash and Higgins Mtn. movement will do the same!
This report is about what anyone would expect. The information reviewed is the same as Cumberland planners concidered and expressed to us. The Cumberland bylaw would easily fit in this framework. Good job.
This report sure hit a lot of silly excuses on the head. Shadow flicker, piles of dead birds, ice and blade throw etc. were dealt with efficiently; they are not problems.
It seems surreal that yet another anonymous is now rising to proclaim the dangers of infrasound and goes so far as to declare that it is ignored in this document. I read it again ( do they pay by the word?) and saw what I thought. A search revealed no documented instances of problems.
Nina Pierpont is mentioned and included in the appendix. What is significant about her work is that it alludes to some unpublished anecdoatal evidence. Mention is made of research on the subject to be published in the future but in the past couple of years nothing has been published. Strangely, Pierpont appears as a source ( often the sole source) on almost every NIMBY site.
Dear anonymouse: information on this subject can be found in the archives of this blog. There you will find direction to sites that show infrasound in the 85dbC or G range at various wind farms and detail the lack of effect of infrasound below the level of perception ( 90 - 110 db depending on frequency).
The only study of electronic interferance with air traffic control or military communications I could find was done by Mass Tech. They found that no problem existed past either line of sight or 5 miles.
On PEI a NIMBY got a PHD from UPEI to check the dangerously high levls of electronic radiation around the new high tension cables coming from the East Point Wind Farnm. Mr. NIMBY , however , made the mistake of letting the professor inside his house. The readings were higher in the house than outside under the lines. Another excuse shot down.
It looks like every time the list of BANANA excuses is ripped to shreds green power opponents fall back on infrasound. Will electromagnetism join infrasound ? Both are undetctable so it's hard to disprove allegations of harm.
The Wentworth petiion has 118 names today, not bad for a months work. Too bad up to 10% of them are either anonymous or speaking in favour of the project. Kind of takes the wind out of their sails.
Some good news on the energy front. Work on tidal generation appears ready to begin in Parsboroand NB has approved wind projects on the Tantramar Marsh. Hopefully there will be more to follow.
John McManus
I forgot . There was a good giggle in the JW report.
Caution was reommended when using sound level requirements instead of setbacks. Measuring db levels, says Jaques Whitford, could result in shorter setback distances than now contemplated.
Be carefull what you wish for indeed.
.....MAYBE.,.. there is no mention by these experts of known adverse health effects of low frequency sound(infrasound) and the amplification caused by resonance effects and other oddities seen when mixing sounds of different phases/frequencies/etc because they don't want you to know !
.....MAYBE ...there is no reference to adverse health problems from the interference effects of very low frequency electromagnetic fields because they don't want you to know.
....MAYBE....these experts aren't experts when it comes to health!
Oh yes but there must be a great conspiracy afoot. The whole business community including those that are hired as independent consutlants to provide a free from biased and non-subjective opinion on something which they would know more about than you, must be hiding something. Perhaps you should call up Hector Jacques or Michael Whitford and tell them that their employees are rattling off reports that are hiding the real truth. Or maybe, just maybe you actually don't what you are talking about and that there really is no medical illness that can be attributed to wind turbines. Get a grip!
The point is that Nina Pierpont, who cannot be describes as anything but fiecely anti-wind, has over the past few years been unable to come up with any known adverse health effects. She has only repeated hearsay and anecdotal evidence.
Isn't is reasonable to infer that when someone, searching for problems so diligently, finds nothing it's because there is nothing to find ?
John McManus
MR.McManus
Why don't you get your neighbours together and offer your backyard as a test site to prove there's "nothing to find?"
Think of all the money you can make
(outside of your present wind fund investments) and you can breath a sigh of relief knowing that all the greenhouse gas you have created from your constant computer babble in this blog will not have not been in vain and you too can enjoy the soothing sound of a wind turbine
(as long as you don't sleep too close to your fridge which will drown it out of course)!
You know what you make an excellent point. As long as John places the turbine within the distance that is deemed to be acceptable by the muni now. After all it is his land and he should be able to to do with it what he wants.
But wait a minute there are a few more landowners who actually want to put turbines on their land, but apparently you know more of what they should with their land then they do.
What a bunch or irony!
I can't afford a Vensus 90 and I don't have enough room for one on less than an acre. I am getting my consumpion down to about 12 kwh a day ( average) and I'm bidding on small turbines on Ebay. It's hard to justify the cost ( only large scale projects are really economical ), but I live here and I should be helping.
You sir are abslutely correct. I can hear my fridge from my bed. This knowledge and the fact that I sleep every night is what makes me see the WHO level of 30 dbA as pretty silly. Besides, I love my fridge - it takes care of my beer.
There are other things I can hear from my bed before I go to sleep. The trains that run through here. Trucks on the TC highway whem my windows are open in the summertime. Irving's timber harvester working 24 hours a day. My furnace fan. Dumptrucks heading to the quarry in Westchester at 6AM. Snow plows. The tv when my wife watches a late movie. Birds waking up at dawn. Rain,sleet and hail. Wind. As I say: I sleep every night .
I would invest in renewable energy if I had any money, but I don't.
John McManus
from the yellow pages under Geotechnical engineers-
Jacques Whitford
Environmental engineering
Environmental sciences
Geotechnical
Concrete
Asphalt
Hydrogeology
Air quality risk consultants
Who you gonna call if your a developer of windfarms and need soils/loadbearing studies and concrete foundation design for dozens of Nova Scotia's highest structures over the next few decades?
If you are financially and politically motivated and need a report that doesn't stir up controversy over the unknown longterm health effects of a new technology who are you gonna call that has the least amount of expertise on the complex workings of living creatures?
If you answered -
Geotechnical engineers
you are probably correct!
To anonymouus:
Check out Natural Resourses Canada. Jacques Whitford is listed as an international company working throughout the world. Ares of expertise include " environmental protection, remediation, analysis ".
In the areas of wind, solar and tidal energy, they they " assess environmental, engineering, socio-economic factors".
Maybe they're not clowns after all.
I read the UNSM report twice. I saw no mention by Jaques Whitford of critria for environmental studies other than an overview of such studies done in other jurisdictions.
In fact, environmental studies in NS and PEI have been a boon to the academic community. University professers in different disciplines ( birds, bears, fish, frog , flowers, trees etc.) have been contracted for this work and will be in the future.
It is interesting to note that a company different from JW did the studies fot Irishtown Road and Higgins Mountain. I guess he JW plot to scam the cash failed.
There is a problem with my personal wind project. A grid tie inverter acceptable to NSPC is too expensive to make economic sense. Because I have cut my consumption to 390 kwh a month, I can save only $480 a year. If I hadn't tried concervation first, a payback could make more sense. Ironic eh?
John McManus
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