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—Roger Whitten, Oakesdale, Washington (6/17/11)

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My case against Whitman County, State of Washington, is a property rights case.

Does surrounding a residential property with an industrial wind turbine development decrease the value of the residential property?

Does placing one (or in my case, eight) industrial wind turbines within 3,500 feet of a residential property create a health threat? (At First Wind’s Mars Hill, Maine project, of the people who live within 3,500 feet of the turbines “82% of exposed subjects reported new or worsened chronic sleep deprivation, versus 4% in the non-exposed group.”)

Considering one must disclose possible health threats before selling a property, does residential property that is entirely surrounded by an industrial wind turbine development become completely unmarketable?

Is it wrong to dump 70 decibels of noise pollution onto a home all day and all night for days on end?

Is it wrong to place the “Danger Zone” of an industrial wind turbine over residential property? The “Danger Zone” is the turbine manufacturer’s term for an area of danger that extends thousands of feet.

Is it wrong to place the “Danger Zone” of an industrial wind turbine over the only public road that provides access to a residential property?

Does blocking safe access to a residential property with a “Danger Zone” decrease the property value?

Has the Whitman County government gone too far when it allowed an industrial wind turbine development to completely surround a residential property?

Has Whitman County’s land use decision concerning industrial wind turbines placed an undue hardship on the owners of residential property that is completely surrounded by the turbine development?

How you answer these questions and how our government answers them are two different things.

There is something seriously wrong with government when it responds to facts in a manner that is diametrically opposed to the will of the people.

Consider the possibility that government is not for the people, but, rather, government is for itself.

The time to change government is when you see government taking away your neighbor’s rights. If you wait until government steals your rights, it might be too late.