Wind turbine noise problem in Mars Hill (Augusta, Orono: sale, mortgage)

[JustSayNo]

Ah, one of the "whiney, selfish, only-one-of-a-few" residents testified on April 30 (published yesterday) to Senators, Representatives, and Committee Members. I think this may answer some questions as to why they "allowed" the turbines if they are so unhappy, and what the local gov. and agencies are doing (not much) to address the issues. A good read for all.

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/05/06/living-with-industrial-wind-turbines/ (broken link)

[GoldenCrow]

Living with industrial wind turbines:

Testimony made on April 30, 2007 to Maine legislature by Wendy Todd of Aroostook County, Maine. Ms. Todd lives near the Mars Hill wind "farm”, which went on line this past winter.

Senators, Representatives, and Committee Members:

Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Wendy Todd. I am from Aroostook County. I am a resident of Mars Hill and live approximately 2600 feet from the Mars Hill Wind Project. I am here today to offer testimony that residents around the project are suffering. There are 18 families that I know of that are negatively impacted on a regular basis from the noise, strobe effect and shadow flicker from the turbines. Most of these 18 families live less than 3000 feet from the turbines. There is no one that I know of from 425 East Ridge Road to 212 Mountain Road that does not agree that there are issues with noise. Issues that are changing the way residents view life around the mountain....

To read the entire statement, copy & paste this link into your browser: http://www.windaction.org/opinions/9373

[DavidoftheNorth]

Here's some "news" that may be of interest, or at least give you guys in Mars Hill an entity to complain to:

"Guv forms wind power task force

The governor is creating a new task force to study wind power development in Maine.

Gov. John Baldacci yesterday said the “Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power Development in Maine” will monitor advances in wind power technology, research benefits and incentives available to communities considering wind power projects. The task force wil also help developers find appropriate sites and propose statewide goals for Maine wind power in 2010 and 2020.

The task force will have 16 members; the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House may each appoint two members."
source: www.mainebiz.biz/daily.php (broken link)

[GregW]

Wind generated electrical energy CAN and IS stored on the distribution grid using pumped hydroelectric power plants. These are designed and built to level the supply/demand to allow for the most efficient use of the resources.

Claiming the "wind power is not storable" just displays the claimants ignorance and puts into question all their other statements.

IMHO anything that displaces carbon fueled electricity is a good thing. Can you imagine the fuss if the power company and it's evil investors tried to build a nuclear plant on the Aroostook River? NIMBYS are a general PIA.

[mollysmiles]

I haven't been up to Mars Hill, but we're hoping to be up north this summer. My only experience with the noise of a wind turbine was at North Cape in PEI, Canada. We drove to that end of the island (lighthouse buffs that we are!), and didn't know ahead of time about the turbines. I think there are 16 of them. While I definately heard them, I didn't think the sound was bad at all. Now to be fair: it was a rainy, windy day on an island peninsula, and in our subsequent trips back to PEI, we haven't driven back out there. I would love it if we could find a way to get away from fossil fuels, not just through wind power, but also by utilizing hydro power.

[GregW]

I think that hydropower should be a larger portion of our electrical energy supply. However most of the really good places are already developed. There are many old mill sites that have either been abandoned or are not generating because of previous electric company policies. These could be redeveloped using economic incentives similar to the tax credits for wind power.

Unfortunately many of the dams, which constitute most of the cost of a hydro development, have been destroyed by flooding, lack of maintenance or deliberate action. Some have been, unnecessarily in my opinion, removed to promote recreational boating and fishing. I do not think that recreation is nearly as important as recovering energy that may be used for productive work so I think that deliberately destroying a potential hydro development is a good thing to do.

[mollysmiles]

Currently there is discussion in the Eastport area about harnessing the power of the tides. This was actually a project once under FDR, called the Quoddy Dam Project, but was abandoned after only a few of the dams had been built. Actually, the causeway that connects Eastport to the mainland is one of those dams. The Bay of Fundy, which surrounds Eastport, has the highest tides in the world. Wouldn't it be great to tap into that!

I also think it wouldn't be a bad idea to look into wind power here in coastal Washington County. I don't know if anyone is doing it yet, but it seems like a no-brainer to me. It's windy 90% of the time, and the area is sparsely populated.

[mollysmiles]

sorry about that....reading back it's REALLY off thread!

[JustSayNo]

Nah Molly, not OT at all. Alternative energy is just that...an alternative to our current technologies. I think everything you posted is on topic.

This is ultimately a no-win situation, People form their opinions and stick to them. One side will never sway the other unless they are open to additional information.

What these issues really bring to the surfice is the state of our society. Clearly, most do not care about anyone other than themselves and immediate family. Neighbors do not care how their neighbors feel, townspeople don't care about someone on the other end of town, states people do not care what happen in an other part of the state, and the same for the country. Threads like this one make that perfectly CLEAR.

So we all have choosen our side and we will do what we can to make our opinions and feeling heard and count.

I can see that the Mars Hill folks will get no empathy nor sympathy from their fellow Mainers until those fellow Mainers have a turbine threatening their land.

Yikes, I thought NY'ers were bad, but I guess "it" is all over this country. What a society we have become.

[GregW]

My point is that if the society wants to capture the energy available in the wind it has to locate the machines where the wind is. Mars Hill is one of those places.

The fact that some of the residents of the hill have been upset/discomforted/damaged by the noise/sight/flicker of the machines is quite unfortunate. Perhapse they should have some financial compensation. After all their neighbors who own the property that the turbines are actually built on are getting paid for the use of their land.

However having to pay everyone " upset/discomforted/damaged" by an energy development would likely make the developments too expensive to build and operate.

It is a fact in our society and economy that some profit and others pay. For instance the some that own of a huge coal fueled powerplant are profiting from the development while the others that live nearby or far away that can be damaged by the climate change induced by the CO2 released will never be paid for their trouble. The key to survival is to be the some and not the others. Good Luck. I've been trying to be one of the "some" for years.