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The following is a letter (1/3/10) from Kay Armstrong (Clear Creek Wind Farm, Ontario) to a woman named Ginny, also in Ontario.  Ginny is facing the prospect of wind turbines in her neighborhood, and she wrote to Kay to ask about her experience—Editor.

Dear Ginny,

I can see 10 turbines from my sliding door in the back of my house. My garage and barn block another 11 to the east. 

I really can’t tell which ones are affecting me; whether it’s the face directed at me (sometimes two are pointed toward me at the same time?), or it could be because I’m downwind of the others.  Some people say it’s when the tips are pointed at the house.

Last night was really bad, a wind from the northwest.  I experienced the VVVD (Visceral Vibratory Vestibular Disturbance) that Dr. Pierpont talks about, and watched the water in my water bottle dimple. I think wind direction and speed is of the most influence.

Sometimes my neighbour, a minute’s walk away, can be affected but not me. I can walk down the road towards my neighbour, and walk into a wall of infrasound/low frequency noise/electricity. It’s like a very direct beam at this proximity to our houses, and the slightest shift in wind can turn it towards my house instead.

Electricity is another issue.  There is no way I would accept turning the turbines off for the night. Whenever these turbines are idle, there is a constant flow of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere.  The air is suffused with it, inside the house and out.  You can’t get away from it.  It penetrates.  It’s like a huge fluorescent light buzzing in the air.

Last week I was downstairs in my basement one morning, and suddenly felt really dizzy, more so than usual.  I thought I’d go upstairs to see what the turbines were up to.  They weren’t even moving.  This isn’t the first time and I’m not the only one to feel this; this a very uncomfortable, sickening feeling of fuzziness in the head, the whole body.

Nobody can or will tell me where this electricity is coming from.  I have no wires or cables close to me as a result of this wind farm. Neither the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) nor the wind company, by the way, is responsible for this aspect of the wind farms, and will direct you to the hydro company.

This makes me ask myself why the MOE is responsible for determining setbacks. The hydro company will inspect the wires, gridline, etc., but does not accept responsibility for the turbines.

Professor Michael A. Persinger, PhD
Behavioral Neuroscience and Biomolecular Sciences Programs
Laurentian University (Ontario, Canada) 

The 18 turbines we live with are connected directly to the grid.  Sometimes I think they forgot to put a check-valve in their wiring, and we’re getting backflow from the grid.  Sometimes I wonder if the grid operators haven’t overestimated the need for consumption, and the surplus electricity is getting dumped at the end of the line, on us.  Why else would the turbines not be turning on a windy day?

I don’t know how many turbines you’re slated for, Ginny, or how close they’ll be; but this what I live with. I have experienced—I do experience—all the symptoms listed in Dr. Pierpont’s book on a constant basis.  It’s now really just a matter of how intense these symptoms are. 

It’s when they become unbearable that a person needs to escape. The problem is, a person doesn’t know when it’s going to get this bad. A person doesn’t know how long these episodes will last.  It’s a long drive to our safe house, especially at this time of year. One doesn’t know what kind of weather they’ll be driving into in the middle of the night.

There have been occasions when I didn’t leave, when I thought I could stick it out. I ended up sitting down on the couch with my eyes tightly closed because I knew I wouldn’t see straight (blurry eyed, vertigo), squeezing my head in an attempt to still the vibrations.

It’s not good. The only cure for Wind Turbine Syndrome is to get out. This is what I would do if you’re really worried about living in close proximity to industrial wind turbines.

Kay Armstrong
Clear Creek (“Turbine Town”)
Ontario
1/3/10