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Editor’s note:  Watch this video of Dr. Ron Holland, a Vermont physician, explaining why he felt obliged to resort to civil disobedience—leading to his arrest and a court appearance—to protest the destruction of ridgelines by wind turbines.

Dr. Holland, an Internist and Emergency Room physician, was arrested with 6 other protestors, along with (believe it or not) a reporter.

In the words of fellow-patriot, Suzanna Jones (age 50) “who lives with her husband and family off the grid (in Walden),

This is not renewable energy development. This mountain will never recover from the hideous crime committed in the name of renewable energy. Vermonters should come take a look at this crime and decide for themselves if this is what they want for another 200 miles of ridgeline. I certainly do not.

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… the following is reprinted, with appreciation, from Mountain Talk (12/20/11)

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Newport, VT—The six Mountain Occupation activists arrested two weeks ago at Green Mountain Power’s Lowell wind project site were arraigned at Newport Superior Court earlier today. Each of the six pled “Not Guilty” to charges of trespassing on land leased by Green Mountain Power. The legal ownership of the land is disputed and adds an interesting complication to the case. Each was released after agreeing to a singular condition: that they return for a hearing when scheduled.

Prior to entering the courthouse a group of supporters—buffeted by a brisk wind off Lake Memphremagog—convened on the sidewalk holding the Vermont and U.S. flags along with signs saying “Stop Destroying Vermont,” and “Detour to Honest Energy Policy.” The same signs and flags were carried by the protestors when they were arrested on the ridgeline on December 5.

Following the hearing before Judge Gerety the Mountain Occupation group held a press conference with about 50 in attendance. Each defendant spoke briefly as to why they had been at the site and what they witnessed there.

“The ridge has been blasted into a crane path while the legal dispute sits unresolved,” said Anne Morse, 48 year old Sterling College instructor from Craftsbury Common. “I live off the grid and support the transition to renewable energy sources, but after seeing the destruction on the ridge, it’s clear to me that this is not about renewable energy but instead is about corporate profit.”

Ryan Gillard, a 23 year old ecologist and educator from Plainfield, Vermont said he, “Blocked the crane path to bring attention to the massive destruction the project is bringing to the area’s ecology.” He also added that, “The permitting process must be broken if the PSB would approve such a destructive project; these impacts cannot be mitigated.”

Robert Holland, a physician practicing at North Country Hospital and a member of the local school board discussed how the PSB failed to take into account the environmental costs when assessing the appropriateness of the project. “Although the Board is required to include the environmental costs of any project in its analysis, in this case the value of preserving an intact ecologically sensitive montane forest and mountain system was determined to be worthless. This is a tragedy for our state and the future of our environment.”

And Eric Wallace-Senft, 48, of West Woodbury, when asked why he has been protesting GMP’s wind development of the Lowell Mountains said, ” “I’m on the ridgeline for my daughters and their future in Vermont. Elected officials and the PSB have been bought out by Gaz Metro-GMP. It’s time to stand up as Vermonters and defend our way of life from corporate interests.”

“David Rodgers, a stonemason and writer from East Craftsbury, when asked the same question said: “Four miles of blasted ridgeline in the Lowell Mountains is not an example of forward thinking energy policy. It’s an environmental tragedy and an economic disaster. Our mountains are a reflection of our values.”

Suzanna Jones, 50 who lives with her husband and family off the grid–in Walden–said, “This is not renewable energy development. This mountain will never recover from the hideous crime committed in the name of renewable energy. Vermonters should come take a look at this crime and decide for themselves if this is what they want for another 200 miles of ridgeline. I certainly do not.”

At the conclusion of the press conference the six arrested Occupiers led those in attendance in singing the Vermont state song, “These Green Mountains.” As they have done in the past, the group raised their voices for the line, “These Green Mountains are my home.”

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Contact info:

Steve Wright, 802-595-1045 (c), 802-586-7705 (h) salmo@vtlink.net

Ron Holland, 802-754-6354, (H) blackriverfarm@comcast.net

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“State’s wind report is poor excuse for a ‘health impact study'”
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—Louise Barteau (Fairhaven, MA), Op-Ed in South Coast Today (1-21-12)

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I have wasted a perfectly good day reading the “Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of Independent Expert Panel” January 2012, prepared for the state departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Public Health (DPH).

I have to start by questioning the very title. Only two of the members have any experience with wind turbines. The two (Manwell and Mills) that have wind experience are both pre-disposed to find against adverse health effects. Mills has already testified in 2009 that according to previous literature searches she performed while employed as a public health official of Maine, she found no link to adverse health affects with turbines. So we know she didn’t have an open mind.

Manwell runs the UMass Amherst Wind Energy Center, which studies and promotes the use of wind turbines. So he is also pre-disposed to find no problems with wind turbines. His academic reputation and funding depend on the wind industry and funding from the state. Hmm.

We all know what this is called: Stacking the deck.

I did notice with interest that the panel included in the bibliography the Phillips article from the August 2011 Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society. I know they must not have had too much time to read it, because the Phillips article argues convincingly that the omission of thousands upon thousands of adverse event reports from citizens affected by proximity to wind turbines is not only indefensible scientifically but dishonest and immoral to boot.

Adverse event reporting is how new diseases become identified. So ruling out first-hand self-reported health, social and economic events that occur after the arrival of wind turbines in communities across the world, basically prevents any true investigation from taking place.

You notice I use the term “true” investigation. That’s the next problem. No one in most local governments and certainly not the wind developers have created and carried out such a study, despite problems being reported by ordinary citizens all over the world.

So if I understand this whole situation correctly, the report from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not look at or include adverse citizen reports of symptoms from Falmouth, and then found no evidence of adverse health effects because they didn’t include the data that would form the basis of any claim to the contrary.

That doesn’t seem right to me.

What if we had collected the evidence from Falmouth residents? Why didn’t the panel gather the event reports, interview and perform tests such as EKG’s and EEG’s from Falmouth residents while they were experiencing symptoms in their homes. Those results could have been correlated with the results of turbine and wind speeds, noise levels and infrasound data. That’s what the citizens of Falmouth asked for from the town, the developers and the state.

Instead, the state picked a secret panel that met a total of three times. They only reviewed literature and further seem to have been pretty selective about what they reviewed. The Phillips article is just one of the articles in the August 2011 Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, yet the entire issue is devoted to the problems with wind turbines, noise (including infrasound), public health and social justice. But for some reason they only looked at the Philips article. Why not also look at the articles written by Bronzaft, Krogh, Shain or Thorne?

Not once was the suggestion ever made that perhaps the evidence of adverse health effects could and should be looked at in a cumulative way. Yes, perhaps one study has its limitations, but put that study in context of other studies and, well, just think if the “study” had included adverse health events and testimony from the good citizens of Falmouth; it might have been hard for the panel to come to the conclusions it did.

I think we should be clear that we are asking a small part of the Fairhaven community to bear the potential health, economic and social costs for the presumed, although as yet also unproven, good of the greater Fairhaven community. I don’t think that’s fair. Shouldn’t the state and wind industry be required to prove that wind turbines are not harmful to neighbors, not demanding that neighbors prove to DEP and DPH that they are being harmed, as in the case in Falmouth? They should also be required to indemnify neighbors to turbines from health harm, property value loss, safety concerns, etc., and guarantee to compensate neighbors should anything adverse happen to them from the turbines.

And I certainly don’t think this report proves anything. All this report has done has insulted the intelligence of anyone who has done their homework, and the integrity of anyone who has reported health symptoms from proximity to wind turbines. I guess that’s why citizens from Falmouth went to the Statehouse this week to complain about the so-called “study.” I wish I had gone with them.

Editor’s note:  The author of the following piece, Maurice Newman, is former chairman of Deutsche Bank, the Australian Securities Exchange and, most recently, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation..

Dr. Maurice Newman (Australia)

Against the wind

The pursuit of clean energy has relegated ordinary people to the status of “collateral damage”

by Maurice Newman (1/23/12)

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Even before they threatened my property, I was opposed to wind farms.  They fail on all counts. They are grossly inefficient, extremely expensive, socially inequitable, a danger to human health, environmentally harmful, divisive for communities, a blot on the landscape, and don’t even achieve the purpose for which they were designed, namely the reliable generation of electricity and the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Even if you buy the anthropogenic global warming case, experience shows that wind energy is not the answer. How is it, then, that governments around the world have embraced this technology with abandon, in the process spending hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money in a shameless wealth transfer from the poor to the rich? Surely the economic effect of taxing hardest those who can least afford it was thoroughly examined ahead of politically motivated empty gestures designed to placate climate change alarmists?

Apparently not.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but we have witnessed the birth of an extraordinary, universal and self-reinforcing movement among the political and executive arms of government, their academic consultants, the mainstream media and vested private sector interests (such as investment banks and the renewables industry), held together by the promise of unlimited government money. It may not be a conspiracy, but long-term, government underwritten annuities have certainly created one gigantic and powerful oligopoly which must coerce taxpayers and penalize energy consumers to survive.

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Click here to read the remainder

Editor’s note:  This note was written today by Sue Hobart of Falmouth (MA) and circulated to a number of her friends.

Clearly, government officials and corporate wind energy shills are very happy with the effects of this Big Wind scam, which has shattered many lives in so many circumstances—mine among them.

Yet they cover their asses, with no remorse.

I cannot go to the Falmouth (MA) Board of Health meetings, or any more meetings.  It’s completely futile and draining all the good that’s left from this poor, wrecked life of mine.

The “hate” this has instilled into my soul is going to take a long time to exorcise.  It no longer matters if they leave the turbines on of shut them off.  This life is broken.

How many more do they get to break before the big lawsuits begin?

Somehow (thank God!) it reached a woman named Karen Bessey Pease, in Maine . . .
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Hi Sue,

You don’t know me (probably most of you here don’t) but I’m a fellow wind warrior from up in Maine.  There are a couple of Maine acoustics experts who happen to be friends of mine, so I know quite a bit about your ‘story’.

Please, sweetheart—don’t give up hope.  I’ve watched as many have reached ‘burn out’ and a break from the fight is critical.  That’s why soldiers have ‘leave’.  No one can battle non-stop.  We all need respite and down-time in which to rejuvenate.

But know this—there are legions gearing up all around the world who are in your corner.  People who feel just like you feel, and who’ve decided they aren’t going to take it anymore.

They aren’t willing to be guinea pigs, or collateral damage. They will not allow themselves to be taken advantage of. They won’t sacrifice their health or quality of life or their ethics for something which is based on lies and supported by a few in power who falsely believe that the ignorant masses will continue to be malleable and docile.

Please take a break from this and pay attention to YOU and to what gives you happiness and peace.  But then . . . please come back.  Come back with more ‘pissed off’ than ‘dejected’.  The ‘pissed off’ will win the day.  I truly believe that.

Every autumn, on warm days, hornets alight on the southern exterior face of my old homestead.  Just like the Japanese beetles do . . . but those ‘ladybugs’ are seen as benign.  The hornets, on the other hand, inspire fear.  They seem powerful. Lethal.

One September afternoon, when my daughter Josie-Earl was in first grade, she got off the school bus and ran towards the front door.  Before she reached her destination I heard her let out a wail, and she darted off the porch and ran back to the cherry tree, which stood in the middle of the front lawn.

I opened the door to see what the matter was.  Tired from a long day at school, and crying, she told me she didn’t dare come inside because of all the hornets buzzing around.  There were a lot, for sure.  But they were (mostly) benign . . . and she couldn’t stay outside until dark, when the hornets returned to their homes.  So . . .

I went outside and sat under the tree with her.  I told Josie that I’d been afraid of a lot of things in my life.  But I’d also learned that bullies—bullies such as abusive ex-husbands and hornets—fed off fear.  And the only thing that takes away a bully’s power is to NOT be afraid—or at least, to not show your fear.  To NOT let them ‘control the scene’.  To stand up to them! Show them they won’t—canNOT—win.  And I told Josie that God or Mother Nature or whoever was in charge of such things, gave us adrenalin for a reason.  I told her that a blood-curdling scream worked wonders at pumping us full of piss-and-vinegar and that I bet that—if she screamed at the top of her lungs—she’d find the courage to run right through that bunch of mean old hornets and straight through the kitchen door (where a yummy after-school snack awaited).

Like a couple of idiots (there’s a reason we live in the middle of the woods) we inhaled a lungful of moxie and exhaled a couple of bellows designed to make the maddest of hornets quiver in fear.  Holding her hand, we ran—screaming—up onto the porch and into the kitchen.

Before we reached our destination, Josie was giggling.  She not only felt infused with courage and satisfaction at conquering her fear . . . she felt quite foolish.  Which is okay.  We have to be able to laugh at ourselves, so it doesn’t hurt so much when others laugh at us.

I guess my point is—there is power in fear.  Fear grows anger, and anger grows courage.  No one can charge into battle without courage, but it is rooted in being afraid and in being mad.  When there are injustices—we are empowered.  And those with the most power are those who win wars.

Please take a well-deserved break, but don’t feel defeated.  There are bucket-loads of us here who have your back.  We’re here for you and won’t quit until we’ve brought empathy and common sense back into the picture.

Take care, Sue.  And thank you for having the courage to speak out.

Kaz

Kaz Pease

Our frigate takes fire,
The other asks if we demand quarter?
If our colors are struck and the fighting done?

Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,
We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part of the fighting.

Only three guns are in use,
One is directed by the captain himself against the enemy’s mainmast,
Two well serv’d with grape and canister silence his musketry and clear his decks.

—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

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Editor’s note:  This is now the burning question, is it not?  “To pee or not to pee on peer review?”  Doubtless there are many scholarly contexts where peer review is a valuable exercise in “quality control.”  (Though not infallible, mind you.  I spent a university career both performing peer review and being subjected to it.  I could write an entertaining book on the “uses” and “misuses” of peer review.)

But in the case of Wind Turbine Syndrome, the question is especially acute.

Consider this.  Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS) is really almost laughably simple:

(a) People are hale and healthy before turbines turn up in the neighborhood.

(b) The turbines go up and start spinning and these same people complain of the same dozen symptoms—the same damn list, all over the world!  The same list is described by people in as many languages as Pierpont’s book has been translated into.   Japanese.  Czech.  Italian.  French.  German.  Polish.  Turkish.  Seven, so far, with number 8 (Estonian) on the way.  (Danish was abandoned when personal matters overwhelmed the translator.  Keep in mind, all these translations were done at the request of these translators in these various parts of the world—pro bono.  Pierpont did not ask them to translate her book.  They contacted K-Selected Books and they translated it for free.)

(c) People not infrequently sell their homes, and even abandon them, merely to escape their WTS.

(d) When these same people are away from the turbines for a significant period of time (a weekend, a week, or more), the symptoms disappear.  When they return to the turbines (whether it’s their home or place of work), the symptoms reappear.  They find, moreover, that over prolonged exposure, their symptoms worsen.  I.e., they don’t “get used to it.”

(e) Many of these people either had no opinion regarding the turbines or in fact vigorously supported them.  I.e., they were not NIMBY’s.

On closer inspection, the fact of WTS is not a matter for medicine to adjudicate.  The illness does not require “medicine’s” stamp of approval in order for it to, presto, become real.  The same goes for courts of law or lawyers or government agencies.  Because (ready for this?) common sense plainly, screamingly, shows it exists.  

(Remember Descartes’ famous, “I think, therefore I am!”  Here it’s, “Jeez, I’ve got sleep deprivation panic awakening headaches ear pressure tachycardia nausea vertigo dizziness tinnitus spatial-memory problems anxiety/irritability vibrations in my chest.  Good Lord, I’m sick!”)

“Cogito, ergo sum!” (Descartes).  “Infirmus sum, ergo sum infirmis!”  (Sue Hobart, Falmouth, MA).

We all have common sense.  At least a smidgen?  You don’t need an M.D. degree to see that WTS exists.  You might require an M.D. or Ph.D. in neurophysiology to explain the patho-physiology of this fascinating constellation of symptoms.  (Which is what Pierpont, with both a Ph.D. and M.D., did in her 300-page book.)  But, to deny the symptoms—or dismiss them as self-inflicted fabrication—is palpably absurd.  Denial is not “medicine”; denial is stupidity.  At this point, given the voluminous evidence, government & corporate denial of WTS is tantamount to a crime against humanity.  

Absurd.  This is exactly what the State of Mass. just did—something monumentally absurd.  It empaneled a group of Ph.D.’s and several M.D.’s and charged them with deciding whether turbines make people honest-to-god sick.  (As opposed, presumably, to whether people are “faking” it—malingering, in other words.)  The Commonwealth of Mass. set the wrong goal:  The question isn’t “Are people getting sick?”  The question is, “What is the pathological mechanism for their illness?”  (Pierpont’s answer:  “Fucked up signals to the vestibular organs.”)  And, “What is it about wind turbines that causes the illness?”  (Pierpont’s answer:  “Infrasound, chiefly from the blades passing the tower and other blade/air dynamics.”)    

(Back to ham-handed bureaucratic comedy in the Commonwealth of Mass.)  The Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s concluded turbines don’t make people sick.  They gave turbines a clean bill of health.  (No, they didn’t interview a single victim.  No, they didn’t do any on-site, primary research.  No, they didn’t interview any physicians who have interviewed or treated WTS victims.  Yes, they conducted their meetings in secret, in private.  Yes, several of them have monumental conflicts of interest with wind energy.)  

This is not a case of peer review gone awry; this is plain orneriness and cussedness on a scale of the Emperor disporting in his “new clothes.”

Does one call this Mass. WTS Report an exercise in “academic stupidity”?  Maybe.  These people are certainly not stupid.  But, collectively, the report they just crafted is stupid beyond words and perhaps beyond comprehension.

I repeat, the Mass. WTS Report is not a matter of corrupt peer review, since “peer review” wasn’t solicited.  Rather, it’s an instance of—stupendous academic bullshit, maybe?  Academic bullshit wrapped in scholarly pretense?  (I keep having the image of the Emperor parading down main street, bare balls, loudly announcing his costume is real.)

But I digress.  Eric Bibler, a redoubtable critic of wind-turbines-in-everyone’s-backyard, has written (below) a satire worthy of Jonathan Swift.  (Notice Bibler’s reference to “a modest proposal.”)  Bibler lays bare the absurdity of “peer review” in adjudicating whether WTS exists.  His response is an unequivocal, “Now is the time to pee on peer reviews that deny the unbelievably obvious (as the nose on your face!) fact of Wind Turbine Syndrome!”

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Dear Victims of Wind Turbine Syndrome,

As you may already know, the current Commissioner of the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection, Ken Kimmell, was the co-author of the failed “Wind Energy Siting Reform Act” (WESRA) legislation which sought to deprive local Mass. communities of their autonomy over the siting of land-based wind energy projects by consolidating control in the hands of a siting board appointed by the governor.

Mass. DEP Commissioner, Ken Kimmell

The panel of “experts” named by the Dept. of Environmental Protection & Dept. of Public Health were nothing of the kind and a number of them had ties to wind developers. The panel operated in total secrecy — despite promises to the contrary — refusing to deliberate in public or to provide any information on their activities.

I think that this report by the DEP/DPH might ultimately prove to be a blessing in disguise because it is so transparently biased that I think that it can be discredited relatively easily.

The headline in the Cape Cod Today newspaper proclaims “Wind Turbines Not Harmful” and says that the panel found “No Evidence” that wind turbines harm people.

Really? Well what about the thousands of first person accounts to the contrary — like the woman in Nantucket who lives near the high school and has been traveling to Boston for CAT scans?

No one can credibly say that there is “no evidence of harm.” They can say that they don’t know the cause, or that they don’t understand the mechanism, but they cannot say that there is “no evidence” of harm.

I would pose the same question to this panel that I posed to the selectmen in Falmouth:

Are all of these people lying — all over the world? Is it a coincidence that they all report similar symptoms; that the symptoms commence with the operation of the wind turbines; and that the symptoms disappear when the victims remove themselves physically from the influence of the wind turbines?”

Why is this not “evidence of harm” — regardless of whether some “peer reviewed study” — or a whole sheaf of them — provides a statistical tabulation of victims, their age, their symptoms, distance from the wind turbine, size of the machine, wind speed, etc?

» If you put your hand on a table and I hit it with a hammer, does it hurt? How do you know……without a peer reviewed study? If you don’t have a study to prove the harm, does that mean that there is “no evidence” that it hurts?

» Twenty-four centuries ago, Socrates drank hemlock and died. Was it the hemlock that killed him? How did they know? Did they have a peer reviewed study to prove it? If his students understood that the hemlock was poisonous — and the cause of his death — I’ll bet they couldn’t begin to tell you why it was toxic and how it killed him. They knew that it killed him, but they didn’t understand the mechanism. Does that mean that there is “no evidence” that the hemlock was fatal — despite the fact that this has been accepted at face value — for obvious reasons — for centuries?

» If a man robs a bank, is captured, and half a dozen eye witnesses identify him, by recalling their personal experience in the bank and picking him out of a line-up, leading to the bank robber’s conviction, should we let him go because these first person accounts are “not peer reviewed”? Are these first person accounts by credible witnesses — all of them corroborated with each other to inspire faith in their accuracy — invalid as evidence? Are they meaningless?

All of the above examples are subjected to the same “peer review”: first hand experience that provides compelling evidence of cause and effect.

We know that these things are true because there is no other reasonable explanation for the end result, other than the obvious cause.

We all know that if you hit your hand with a hammer it hurts like hell because we’ve figured out since the age of two (or earlier) that blunt force trauma is painful.

The Greeks knew that hemlock killed Socrates (and he knew it would kill him) because every time someone drinks hemlock, they die.

The witnesses could identify the bank robber as the perpetrator of the robbery because they remembered what he looked like and what he was wearing.

Barry Funfar, Sue Hobart, Mark and Annie Cool, Neil Andersen and his wife — and thousands of others — know that wind turbines are harmful because as soon as they start to spin, their lives become a living hell.

But as far as the DEP is concerned, this is not “evidence” of harm. These are “mere anecdotes.” This information is not “medical literature” and it is not peer reviewed.

May I make the following modest proposal:

I suggest we visit Mr. Kimmell at his next press conference — and bring a five pound hammer. I suggest that we insist that Mr. Kimmell allow us to smash the fingers of his right hand against the lectern, where he is speaking in front of the assembled ladies and gentlemen of the press, taking care not to break any bones, which might provide obvious evidence of “harm.”

Then I propose that we observe Mr. Kimmell’s reaction to this “mere annoyance.”

If Mr. Kimmell protests — even if he howls — we will inform him that although we “sympathize” with his distress, we respectfully ask that he get hold of himself and refrain from unnecessary “hysteria” over his condition. Regrettably, there is no “peer reviewed study” to confirm any harm and “smashed finger syndrome” is not an established medical condition. So, therefore, there is no harm.

And since there is no harm, Mr. Kimmell — as our panel of experts have established, beyond a doubt — no further study is needed — we’d now like you to place your other hand on the podium so that we can repeat the exercise — to confirm for the audience the lack of harm.

If, as we suspect, there is no harm to the left hand, we would like to extend our research to your toes; and your elbows; and your kneecaps.

Regardless of any additional “hysteria” which may ensue, we feel supremely confident that, in the absence of any peer reviewed medical studies that relate specifically to Mr. Kimmell, his age, the time of day, the size and shape of the hammer, and so forth, we can pronounce that “there is no evidence of harm” to Mr. Kimmell.

Mr. Kimmell may wish to differ from this assessment. But Mr. Kimmell is no doctor — and therefore, not qualified to evaluate this situation. And — let’s be honest — Mr. Kimmell can hardly be considered to be an objective observer in this exercise.

Even if Mr. Kimmell has a point; even if we give Mr. Kimmell the benefit of the doubt, and admit that there may, indeed, be some modest degree of “annoyance” — which may actually increase over time, as we move from his hands, to his feet, to his elbows, to his kneecaps — I think that we can all agree that some sacrifice is necessary — and beneficial — in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Who is Mr. Kimmell to stand in the way of progress; to assert his selfish desire to be left alone, frustrating our need to know — to confirm — that there is no real harm to us from smashing his fingers, toes, elbows and kneecaps?

Even if Mr. Kimmell does experience some “annoyance” or some “mild discomfort” from having his extremities smashed, I think that we can all agree that our experiment will “only affect a minority of the people in the room” — namely, Mr. Kimmell.

I think that we can all agree that this is an acceptable price to pay — that some “collateral damage” is always necessary, in the name of progress. And that Mr. Kimmell should be willing to endure this “annoyance” for our sake, in light of the greater social good that we will achieve, on balance.

After the “experiment” is concluded — to the satisfaction of everyone but Mr. Kimmell; and after this experiment proves what we already knew — that there is no credible medical “evidence” to support Mr. Kimmell’s unproven claim that “that goddam hammer hurts like hell!” — we might offer a bit of unsolicited advice to Mr. Kimmell.

It just won’t do, Mr. Kimmell, for you to complain about your so-called symptoms. And don’t think that you are winning any sympathy from your erstwhile friends and neighbors by parading around in those bandages. It’s unseemly, really. And it will do you no good.

In fact, it’s embarrassing — by which we mean, we’re embarrassed for you. If you continue to complain, people in your community will abandon you — and ostracize you — because no one wants to be reminded of your stubborn refusal to submit to our experiment, without complaint. So if you know what’s good for you — and I’m telling you this for your own good — you’ll submit in silence to this “annoyance” and “discomfort” because, the fact is, we’ve already decided that we’re not going to pay any attention to you anyway.

It is possible that this experiment, even if it were carried out, would not convince the redoubtable Mr. Kimmell, current Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and co-author of the infamous Wind Energy Siting Reform Act (WESRA) — which even the Massachusetts legislature eventually understood to be a naked outrage and a scam — might not be persuaded. After all, Mr. Kimmell was nobody before Governor Duval Patrick plucked him from obscurity to do his dirty work — first with WESRA, then at DEP. It is possible that Mr. Kimmell’s loyalty runs very deep.

In that event, I offer another modest proposal: summon the “expert panel members” assembled by Mr. Kimmell to the podium, one by one, and repeat the previous experiment.

We can use the “data” from Mr. Kimmell’s response as a “baseline” for comparison with the results obtained from each of the other panel members as we determine whether there is any harm in smashing their fingers, toes, elbows and kneecaps.

I will hazard a guess that, in the absence of any peer reviewed studies specific to the age and weight of the panel members, the time of day, the size of the hammer, and so forth, we will have no more luck proving that any harm exists than we had in the previous case of Mr. Kimmell.

But perhaps — and admittedly, I am speculating here — perhaps we may persuade some of the panel members to reconsider their steadfast conclusion that, in the absence of any “peer reviewed medical studies” to confirm it, there can never be any harm.

I suppose that depends upon how many fingers, toes, elbows and kneecaps the “expert panel members” are willing to sacrifice before this new knowledge is revealed to them.

Perhaps the true result of this series of experiments will be to prove another unfortunate, but equally obvious, fact: namely, that “visionaries” like Governor Patrick, Mr. Kimmell, the expert panel members, et al., are all too willing to sacrifice the welfare of innocent victims, like people in Falmouth and elsewhere, in the pursuit of their grandiose schemes — so long as there is no sacrifice to themselves.

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Eric Bibler (Connecticut)

Eric Bibler
(The glasses and nose are real.)

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Editor’s note:  An Ontario (Canada) farm couple, Sylvia & John Wiggins, is suing their neighbor for “hosting” wind turbines.  

The Wiggins are confident they can prove the value of their home dropped substantially once the neighbor’s lease with the “wind factory” became public knowledge.  

The Wiggins are suing the wind company, as well.  

They are being ably represented by a prominent Canadian trial lawyer, Eric K. Gillespie.  Mr. Gillespie was attorney of record in the celebrated “Ian Hanna” case a year ago, and was lead counsel in a parallel case involving wind energy and the Ontario government.  Gillespie intends to build on the gains achieved in those two cases, to win this one.  

We wish Mr. Gillespie and the Wiggins all the best.  And we urge other people, anywhere in the world, who are likewise facing unscrupulous neighbors and rapacious “wind developers,” to follow suit.
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For Immediate Release to the Media, January 18, 2012

From:

Eric K. Gillespie, L.L.B.
Professional Corporation
Barristers & Solicitors
Suite 600
10 King Street East
Toronto, Ontario  M5C 1C3
Canada

Email:  egillespie@gillespielaw.ca

Regarding:

Wind Developer and a Farm Owner Are Being Sued over a Proposed Wind Turbine Project

Wind developer WPD Canada and a farm that signed a lease to host wind turbines are now both being sued. The claim seeks an injunction and $2 million in damages related to the proposed Fairview Wind Farm in Stayner. “This claim seems unique because the owner of the proposed farm is also being sued,” said lawyer Eric Gillespie. “Landowners who decide to allow turbines may need to look carefully at their legal position and potential liability,” he said.

The claim focuses on alleged devaluation of property. The plaintiff, Sylvia Wiggins, and husband John, listed their home for sale in 2011. Showings started but, they say, ended shortly after the project was publicized. Recent data shows when a wind company bought out homes near another Ontario project, on resale the company lost almost 35% of their value. “These kinds of things appear to be happening with wind farms. We decided to do something now,” said John Wiggins.

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Editor’s note:  This “call to outrage” is written in reply to the State of Mass. issuing, yesterday, its shameful “report” on Wind Turbine Syndrome.  Click here for the report.  Click here for a reasonable article on the report in today’s Boston Globe.  (Unlike the self-proclaimed “expert panel” which created the report, the Globe reporter in fact interviewed Dr. Pierpont and a Falmouth WTS victim, John Ford.)

—Marshall Rosenthal (Massachusetts)

To all my brothers and sisters in every nation and land, let today, a day of infamy and disgrace committed by the State of Massachusetts at the behest of its deceitful Governor Deval Patrick, be the day that we come together in the common resolve to end the torture and dismissal of the suffering of the victims of the onslaught of Industrial Wind Turbines.

You who live in the shadow of these monsters, are the evidence. You will not be found in the closely vetted scientific journals that are edited by academic fascists in order to safely skew the so-called “facts” to promote a conspiracy driven by power and greed. They know the Ceasar to whom they are beholden for their grant monies.

We must now consider our real options. I have called for the outlandish bringing of our case before the International Court of Justice. I am driven to do this because it is clear to me that no other peaceful recourse is open to us. Industrial Wind Power relies for its perpetuation on projecting a repeated lie to the proportions of a “green” religion upon the world consciousness.

We can pick this lie apart, piece by piece, as the Big Wind perpetrators would like us to do, OR WE CAN CHALLENGE THEM FOR THE WORLD CRIMINALS AGAINST HUMANITY THAT THEY ARE.

We, Jews, learned the mantra “Never Again” after the Nazi Holocaust. Now, a new holocaust assaults the world. The enemy has been very canny in marginalizing its victims. We are seen as cranks, complainers, and such, not to be taken seriously. In their private meetings we are considered as so much collateral damage, political roadkill, to be ignored and swept aside as so much garbage, just like the six million of us Jews were gased and burned up in that other Nazi nightmare.

I am their worst nightmare! I am of the generation that survived their efforts of extermination! I am the evidence of humanity that reaches out with arms of love to every victim, to every person who has or will be made to pay with their well-being for the profit grubbing combine of corporate industry and cowardly state liars that comprise the rotten fascist cloth of industrial windpower.

Let us stand up now. Let us find the ways to build the international case against these criminals against humanity. Let us hold EACH of them accountable for the harm that they have done. Let us tell them and the whole world, NEVER AGAIN!

“Marsh” Rosenthal

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There is no evidence for a set of health effects, from exposure to wind turbines[,] that could be characterized as a ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome.’ *

—“Wind Turbine Health Impact Study:  Report of Independent Expert Panel,” Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection and Mass. Dept. of Public Health (Jan. 2012), p. ES-7.

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* Editor’s note:  The self-styled “expert panel” didn’t interview a single Falmouth, MA, “Wind Turbine Syndrome” victim.  No kidding!

Nor did it speak to Dr. Pierpont or Dr. Sarah Laurie (Australia) or Dr. Robert McMurtry (Canada) or Dr. Amanda Harry (UK) or to any of the peer reviewers for Dr. Pierpont’s book.

Really, no kidding!

Best we can tell, they did a (cherry-picked) “literature search.”  Then they subjected that literature (which included Pierpont’s book) to a set of “scientific” criteria which rendered the evidence for WTS … null and void.  “Where the complex equation equals zero” (Rilke).

Hence, all you people who have abandoned your homes or been forced to sell them to the rapacious wind developers, and all you people who are still at home and suffering—your symptoms and experience are, by all canonical “whistles & bells” of science and medicine, meaningless.  What you are experiencing is unintelligible & inscrutable to real science and medicine.

I repeat, your symptoms cannot be “measured” or otherwise “properly” documented and “proven.”  Or, at a minimum, your symptoms have not been hereto properly measured or documented, and hence they remain unproven.  (And quite possibly, unprovable, given the manner whereby science and medicine slice and dice “evidence.”  By the way, forget about Pierpont’s book; it’s nothing more than journalism.)

In sum, real, honest-to-god science & clinical medicine have no place for you lost souls.  You are ghosts, self-created phantoms, conjured up through your own fervid imaginations.  You are living a self-inflicted … conjecture.  A conjecture which, in your hysteria, translates into self-torture.

As far as Big Brother Science is concerned, all of you are a self-fabricated, irrelevant, and noisy anecdote.  A case study in NIMBYism taken to extreme, yet bogus, clinical lengths.

End of story.

Sigh.  Ruminating on this report, I think of A.E. Housman’s remark, “Nature, not content with denying Mr. X the faculty of thinking, has endowed him with the faculty of writing”—in this instance, 164 pp. of it.

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Wind Turbine Syndrome and the Brain

Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD*

15. November 2010

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Das Nachfolgende ist der Text von Dr. Nina Pierponts Vortrag zum “First International Symposium on the Global Wind Industry and Adverse Health Effects: Loss of Social Justice?” (Erstes Internationales Symposium zur Globalen Windwirtschaft und Nachteiligen Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit: Ein Verlust Sozialer Gerechtigkeit?) in Picton, Ontario, Kanada, 30.Oktober, 2010.

Im Anschluss daran folgt eine Diskussion mehrerer anderer relevanter Symposiumsbeiträge von Dr. Alec Salt, Dr. Michael Nissenbaum, Dr. Christopher Hanning, and Mr. Richard James.

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Zusammenfassung

Jüngste Forschung – wie im nachfolgenden dargelegt – legt folgenden Wirkmechanismus für das Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS) nahe: luft- oder bodenübertragener, niederfrequenter Schall stimuliert das Innenohr direkt und unter Hervorrufen von physiologischen Reaktionen in sowohl Cochlea (Gehörschnecke) und Otolithenorganen (Sacculus und Utriculus, Organe zur Erkennung von Lage und Beschleunigung des Körpers).

Die Forschung hat nun schlüssig dargelegt, dass physiologische Reaktionen in der Cochlea einen Höreindruck niederfrequenten Schalls unterdrücken, die Cochlea aber dennoch Signale an das Gehirn sendet. Die Funktion dieser Signale ist zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt noch größtenteils unbekannt. Die Reaktion der Cochlea auf WKA-Lärm ist zudem ein Auslöser für Tinnitus und für jene strukturellen Veränderungen auf Ebene der Gehirnzellen, für die Tinnitus das typische Symptom darstellt. Diese strukturellen Veränderungen haben einen Einfluss auf die Verarbeitung von Sprache und die grundlegenden Lernprozesse, die mit dieser Fähigkeit zur Verarbeitung von Sprache in Verbindung stehen.

Neue Forschung zeigt ebenfalls, dass die „Bewegungssensoren“, die Otolithenorgane von Säugetieren auf luftübertragenen, niederfrequenten Schall reagieren. Physiologische Reaktionen auf Signale der Otolithenorgane sind dafür bekannt, ein breites Spektrum an Reaktionen durch das Gehirn hervorzurufen. Diese beinhalten Benommenheit und Übelkeit (Seekrankheit, med. Kinetose, jedoch ohne die auslösende Bewegung), Angst und Aufschrecken (Schreckreflex, Schlaflosigkeit) sowie Schwierigkeiten beim Lösen visuell-räumlicher Aufgabenstellungen.

Erhöhte Erregung in Folge von WKA-Geräuschen stört den Schlaf, selbst wenn sich Menschen nicht daran erinnern, aufgeweckt worden zu sein. Eine Bevölkerungsstudie in Maine zeigt deutliche Störungen von Schlaf sowie mentalem Wohlbefinden bis zu einem Abstand von 1400m zu den Turbinen, mit abnehmenden Effekten bis zu einem Abstand von 5km.

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Klicken Sie hier für ein PDF des gesamten Artikels

Editor’s note:  Monsieur de Bonneville has written and apologized for getting the distance between his home and the 6 turbines, incorrect.  Initially, he wrote 4.5 miles in one email, and 7 miles in another.  We silently corrected the latter to 7 km, figuring it was a typo (4.5 mi = 7 km).  

Now it turns out it was not a typo; it’s more interesting than this. “The turbines are 11.5 km away from my house, as a bird flies,” he clarifies.  “I got mixed up between miles and kilometers, writing 7 kilometers, whereas it is 7 miles.  I’m sorry.”  In fact, 11.5 km = 7.1 mi.  (We have now corrected the distances in the text, below.)  

We find M. de Bonneville’s mathematical blunder interesting, especially in a man who writes technical manuals for a living (and writes about cultural matters as an artist).  We suggest this may be illustrative of the cognitive deficits he describes so poignantly and vividly, below.

After posting the above 3 paragraphs, conjecturing that M. de Bonneville’s cognitive problems have affected his ability to “spatially” calculate the distance from his home to the turbines, he sent the following confirming email:

I just read the “Editor’s Note” you posted on the site at my article.  Well, you’re right, perfectly right:  I’ve had problems with figures; I keep mixing some things up, now.

A few days ago—did I tell you?—while helping a friend of mine build dividing wood walls in my house (I don’t help much, I’m afraid, depending on whether I’ve slept the previous night or not), I had to saw a 54.8 cm-long piece of wood—and I made the same mistake four times in a row, sawing four pieces at 54.2 or 64.8, etc., although, after the first mistake, I tried to concentrate and although I knew, each time, I had done it wrong just before.  (Emphasis added.)

I stopped doing anything after that. Merely passing him the tools he needed.

And that same day (I had previously been “hammered” by the turbine noise all night long), my friend tells me:  “How come your deep freeze is unplugged?”  “What????  It’s unplugged????  When on earth did I do that,” I answered, totally bewildered.

Well, the deep freeze was full, and the food was there, floating in water.  I threw everything away.  Couldn’t remember when I had made a mistake with the extension cord.

I’ve lived in this house for nearly 14 years and I’ve never unplugged my deep freeze or got mixed up with the plugs!  Who would do that?  (Editor’s reply:  Someone with Wind Turbine Syndrome, would!  That’s who!)

Work in my house, with a friend’s help (he THINKS and CALCULATES for me, I just can’t any more), is advancing well.

This house will soon be ready to rent or sell.  (Editor’s reply:  How about “abandon”?)  

I know I’ll be out of this, away from this house, in two or three months.

In response to our question, “Who’s the turbine manufacturer and what is the nameplate capacity for each turbine,” M. de Bonneville wrote the following:

The manufacturer is Enercon (a German company).  Nameplate capacity is 2 MW each.  Click here for the website.

There was, as far as I know, a prior company involved in their installation, “SIIF Energie.”  That’s the company which obtained the building permit, but in fact “EDF Energie Nouvelles” was behind that first company, and now “SIIF Energie” seems to have disappeared. This seems to be characteristic of the financial finagling of wind energy companies.

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Hubert de Bonneville
La Chapuze
43260 Saint Julien Chapteuil
France

Dear Dr. Pierpont (12/4/11)

I’m writing to you from France.

I’ve known about your study on Wind Turbine Syndrome, and recently watched some of your interviews of people destroyed by WTS, and since doing all this I’ve been feeling, well, less alone.

And I now know I’m not crazy, which is a rather reassuring thought for me.

So, thank you; your work does help me, even from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

I’ve been living a real nightmare for more than 15 months, now, and found out about its direct cause only weeks after it started ruining my life: Six giant wind turbines I don’t even see from my house have deprived me from sleeping since I began to hear them at the end of May 2010.  (The turbines are 7.1 mi = 11.5 km distant from my home, as a bird flies.)

(Editor’s note:  M. de Bonneville tells us the turbines are each 2 MW, manufactured by Enercon.

I live in a mountainous area.  The wind turbines are above me, away up in the mountain, but they seem never to stop and I hear their extremely low frequency noise whatever the direction of the wind. The high place where they are is windy, so they rotate nearly all the time, but wind is rare around my home (I live in a very quiet place, now literally filled with those turbine sounds).

I’m very worried because I’ve noticed that since about 6 months I clearly suffer from more than a regular lack of sleep or its terrible consequences: the “noises” themselves I hear are UNBEARABLE and deeply affect my brain and my morale. I’ve lost all energy, all kind of drive (motivation), and I can’t work any more because I can’t concentrate anymore. A number of the WTS symptoms you describe do happen to me. What I hear day and night, that noise alone, not just the lack of sleep, drives me crazy. Believe me, I “can see myself” simply collapsing: it’s terrible and scary. And what you say is true: as soon as it stops or I’m away from it, I feel relieved immediately. But those moments are rare and I’m desperate, hardly surviving.

What I hear cannot be easily described. It’s like extremely low “MMMMMMMMMM………MMMMM …..MMMMMMMMMMMMMM……….MMMMM… etc.” with seconds of pure silence between them, and nothing can stop those crazy MMMMM vibrations, not even the earplugs that were made especially for me. I’ve noticed that this very intrusive and lethal noise (I know what “lethal” means in English) is louder in small closed spaces, like a car (windows up and engine off, to me it’s like a test that reveals the presence of the turbines sound) or a basement, even tunnels, MILES AROUND the turbines. This is just crazy. Thousands of people in my small corner of France alone are exposed to what they cannot hear and I seem to be the only one around to hear, which incidentally doesn’t help my case (some people, hopefully, believe me).

That loud and unnatural sound I hear has nothing to do with any kind of “inner” tinnitus, believe me. I can see those turbines from near my house and every time they’re at a stop or rotating very slowly (which is rare), I don’t hear that sound. Same thing when I’m at a place where no turbines are around: no such crazy noise. It definitely comes from the outside (often, I can even hear it outside, I mean it’s everywhere in the countryside, and in any case much amplified in houses). It is UNSTOPPABLE and expands very far.

I tried last month to go 10 miles away to try find some sleep at friends’ and I couldn’t: the noise, though a bit weaker there, was still around and I slept very badly. Badly enough to see one small hope of living normally from time to time—vanish.

I’ve read a lot about the effects of wind turbines and I strongly suspect infrasound to be the direct cause of what is happening to me. Are we sure the people who can’t hear the infrasound are safe, just from not actually hearing them? They’re simply destroying me, anyway.

I imagine you must receive thousands of e-mails, but if you think you might be interested in my account I could then be more specific or answer any questions you might have for me.

After one year in the dark, I’m beginning to think of other people like me around the world.

I’m still in great danger, but the thought of others sharing the same nightmare as mine, well, helps, if I may say so.

In any case, Dr. Pierpont, many thanks to you for your help and for the help you provide to people like me.

Yours sincerely,

Hubert de Bonneville

…………….

Dear Dr. Pierpont (12/12/11)

I’ve been away from home lately and I’m about to go away again for one week, to a place where there are NO turbines.

I’m experiencing a sort of “brain laziness” sometimes, and find it difficult to put my ideas together or simply writing emails like this one, but I wanted to say THANK YOU!  Thank you so much for responding so quickly and for the information you gave me! You are helping.

Last month, I “ran away” for 2 weeks, and on my return I couldn’t take it, so last week I literally ran from home again and spent three days in Clermont-Ferrand at friends’, like a refugee.  No turbine sound there!  What a relief!

Then, from there, I went to Béziers, France, on Friday, to see an ear specialist who seems to be internationally known.

Nice man but, God, how difficult those scientists are to convince!

The only thing I bring back from that visit is that my ears are normal, perfectly OK, despite a slight loss in the treble, but nothing serious.  (I’m 53).

But as far as my hearing of turbine infrasound (or extremely low frequencies) is concerned, the doctor is skeptical. . . .

I paraphrase our conversation:  “Let’s suppose you hear what you say you hear.  It can’t be that terrible. You’re certainly overreacting, which can be an effect of depression. You should see a shrink and work on that. And don’t move houses, you’d avoid solving the problem!”  Etc.

He was not as assertive or blunt as I have rendered it, but nonetheless part of his hypotheses is based on some kind of problem with me, goddammit!  (Excuse my French!)

I must say he’d never heard of any kind of WTS problems before, and I gave him a copy of our latest mails (from Dr. Sarah Laurie and your husband, Professor Martin). He took them. (You see, I’ve begun educating those people, as Dr. Laurie and Prof. Martin been suggesting! I’ve been doing the same with my local physician, for some time now.)

Finally, the ear specialist asked me to let him know about any further developments of my “turbine problems.”

I asked him if I could send him information by mail, he said OK. I WILL!  Especially the WTS.com site (he can read English). And from there, if he wants to, he’ll be able to go places—very interesting places for someone like him.

I must say I could have done better trying to convince him, but you know how it is with people like me undergoing WTS; we’re not very good at defending ourselves or finding the right words to make our point.

At one time though, I had him puzzled. He was explaining that depressed people are always waking up at night.  (Of course I’m depressed! After 17 months of that crazy turbine nightmare, who wouldn’t be?) So, since I’m of course depressed, I wake up at night, and then I hear the turbine noise, and then my brain focuses on it (how simple!). Well, there, I reacted: “You’re telling me I wake up at night, on my own, sort of, and then I hear the turbines? I can assure you that if someone was smashing your front door with an axe at night, the noise would wake you up during your sleep. Now, if such a thing happened to you, you would first wake up for psychological reasons and only then hear the guy smashing down your door????? and focus on it, at that, why not?  Is this what you’re telling me, Doctor?”

There, he responded nothing. For a second, I thought he believed me, as if he was saying to himself, “God, that makes sense. . . . ”

It’s a pity I couldn’t convince him more. He’s a nice man; he could have helped.

But in the end the scientists are trapped inside their knowledge, and they simply reverse the cause and the effect.  To this kind of person—these people who are convinced they scientifically understand depression—some kind of misinterpretation by the brain is the cause; it can’t be from an exterior cause such as turbine infrasound.

The problem is that the human mind has every means to build up an infinite set of causes for different problems, without any exterior causes, and the people who deny WTS always have a good explanation that allows then to avoid setting foot in “the unknown.” Then, they desperately cling to what they know (“Question the others, not yourself”). They won’t “play your game” and they have many good reasons not to, that’s the problem. But by doing so, they blind themselves to what may be true.

For my part, I’ve always thought that, in life, things add up; they don’t always substitute for one another. I don’t know if I’m clear here: I mean it’s not A or B, it can be both, at the same time. Many scientists use what they know to be true on one side to deny the reality of another side, and that’s a bit simple. Unfortunately, WTS fits perfectly into what they think the human brain is capable of building up on its own, within the field they think they know. Of course, there is no room for “infrasound effects” in psychiatry.

This is an insult to people like me, and to open-minded people who believe us, like you.  Thus the research is retarded, or, worse, impeached by the very people who should be doing the research.

Fortunately, real scientists like you and Dr. Laurie and Prof. Alec Salt, and many others who are tackling issues other than WTS, do fight for scientific truth.

For the majority of our western scientific community, however, “We know” means “We don’t hear you” (or the turbines . . .). Real scientists should never know. Then, they would learn something.

If only such persons could hear what I hear or what so many people like me hear. . . . (A terrible thought, I confess.  I don’t really wish that, even to my worst enemy, who doesn’t even exist—but you see what I mean.)

Let me tell you now about the latest symptoms I’ve noticed.  I already told you about very long and strong headaches when I’m under long exposure, and about my eyes automatically attracted by existing black things within my range of vision, and about dizziness right after being wakened in the night, but nothing like the kind of dizziness one experiences when getting up rapidly.  One or two times I’ve found myself awakened abruptly by the turbine noise, with my heart beating very rapidly.  (Scary!  That happened last year, at the beginning, not since then.)  I’ve also mentioned that I’ve not been able to concentrate for work for more than one month now.

Well, I’ve noticed something new, lately: On several occasions, in the middle of a long period of permanent day and night exposure to that crazy noise, I woke up at night with a strong fever, wet as if I’d been out of a bath without drying, and then, once awake and out of bed, the fever would vanish immediately, not after seconds, but immediately as if by magic. This is not my usual experience of fever (I rarely have fevers anyway).

I have a theory about this: I think that during my sleep, when the noise occurs, my mind struggles to keep me asleep, to ignore the noise, to reject the aggression—and fails to do so after a moment. The fever would then be some kind of physiological reaction from my mind finding itself completely at a loss, unable to cope.

Last night, although the noise was not as loud as it usually is (a sort of “washing machine” noise in the background), I had the sensation my heart was beating with the turbine noise, as if both of them “were going together somewhere.” That thought went through my mind, and then I went back to sleep.

Last Saturday, a friend called on the phone at 11 am. We were to meet at a restaurant in the nearby town of Le Puy-en-Velay with the team of writers I’m part of for a local magazine. “Could you meet my father in St Julien (my village, 1 mile from my home), outside the town hall at 11:30 and drive him to the restaurant?”

“Of course!” I responded. “See you in a while at the restaurant!”

And then, I found myself outside my house calmly waiting for the guy to arrive. At 11:40, the thought flashes through my mind: “Oh my god, I must pick him at the village!  He’s not coming up here!”

The phone call had taken place half an hour before, and I had already forgotten the message!

Needless to say, I was appalled by this sudden blank, because if I happen to forget things from time to time, like everybody I guess, I’ve never drawn blanks on such short notice, if I may say so.

I know that for more than one month, now, I’ve not been able to concentrate on work—but blanks like this?  It’s a first time in my life.

I’ve also noticed that I can’t keep track of the book I read at night. I used to read a lot (that “used to” is terrible). I read much less now, don’t have the mind to, but I still do sometimes, either when the night is quiet (rare) or to distract myself from the turbine noise, even by reading aloud. Well, I don’t know why I keep reading: I noticed last night that I still had no idea who’s who in the present book or what the hell is happening in there! I go on with a ritual, reading at night, without having the faintest idea of what I’m reading!

I think I’ll leave my house again tonight or tomorrow, for one week, then I’ll be away again for a few days in the coming winter holidays, with the hope of being able to work again in January.

I’m trying to solve the problem of making my house saleable, which requires my presence here (it is my house, I never thought of having to leave it), when at the same time I can’t live in it.

I’ll write again. My love of the English language compensates I think for my lazy, weakened brain, but I still take a long time to produce anything.

Kind regards,

Hubert

………..

Dear Dr. Pierpont (12/18/11)

I was away from home recently, now I’m back.

Today is Sunday. I could sleep last night because I couldn’t the night before because of the crazy infrasound noise, and I was exhausted. The “MMMMMM…………MMMMMM…………..MMMMMMMMMM…….” noise woke me up several times during the night (last night), but I was so tired I managed to stay in bed and go back to sleep. At one moment, I woke up with the noise and a slight fever but I went back to sleep immediately. I was too tired, I guess, and the turbines didn’t have me that time, but I can see a pattern in this fever thing.

Yesterday morning I noticed a pain in my chest, left side, for 10 minutes. This kind of pain never happens to me.

There’s something I noticed last year, shortly after the arrival of the turbine noise, and I’d like to tell you about, because I don’t understand it. I’d also like to know whether anybody has ever experienced this kind of thing.

This has been true ever since, I test it regularly and I can be positive about it, believe me:  When the “MMMMMM…….MMMMMMMMM……MMMMMMMMM…” noise is there, if I rapidly shake my head once, the noise disappears for half a second and then immediately goes up again. But with any kind of other sound, music, people talking, a plane in the sky, whatever, this won’t happen.  Those other types of sound do not fade away for half a second when I shake my head while hearing them; they keep being continuous.

I’ve also noticed that, at night, when I lay still in the silence and the noise is there (no silence, then . . .) it does the same thing:  it goes away for half a second if I move an arm or my shoulder. But if I keep moving, the noise reinstalls itself and moving has no effect any more. Same thing if I keep shaking my head for a few seconds: the noise reinstalls itself after a time and shaking my head does not interrupt it any more.

Thanks again for your help,

Hubert

……………

Dear Dr. Pierpont (12/20/11)

As you predicted, I’m not feeling better with time. . . .

I had chest pain near the heart, for maybe 30 seconds, the day before yesterday.  Never had that before, and again fevers at night on brutal awakenings due to the noise. Didn’t sleep a wink for two nights out of the past three (hmm, correct?) and, well, I know: I have to move away from here. It’s so hard for me to have to leave my home, but I’m working on it.

On Friday, I’m going to Geneva for Xmas, I’ve got a very good friend there, I go there regularly.  Last month, I spent 2 weeks there, already running for shelter.  Last week, I spent 4 days in Clermont-Ferrand.  Shelter again.  I think I’ll hop like that, from place to place, until I can live at some new place of my own, but not before spring, I’m afraid.

My kindest regards,

Hubert

………….

Dear Lilli Green (1/2/12)

First, I wish you a Happy New Year!

I’m writing at the suggestion of Dr. Sarah Laurie, to tell you I’d be interested in meeting you and your husband to talk about the way 6 turbines near my home have been seriously affecting my health for more than a year and a half.

The turbines are 11.5 km (7.1 mi), as a bird flies, from my home.  I can’t see them—this is a mountainous area—but I can hear the extremely low frequencies/infrasound they emit whenever they’re on, which is the case most of the time.

The stronger, worse noise occurs when the wind is blowing from the South: I’m then in the turbines’ wake and unfortunately south winds are the prevailing ones up there where the machines are located. But I always know when they’re on, even if the wind is favourable. It’s in the air, the noise is always in the air when the turbines are rotating, and it’s there miles around and, unlike everybody else I know, I can hear it, as a noise/vibration coming from the outside. A strange, unnatural noise that finds its way down to uncharted paths in the brain and the body and I can’t do a thing to stop it. God, it’s airborne, it’s in THE AIR, and what are we if air itself brings harm to people? Where to go on this planet?

After about a year’s exposure, I am experiencing many of the WTS symptoms Dr. Pierpont describes in her book (I’m reading it now).

I had noticed these symptoms long before I knew they existed, and Nina’s book confirms I had not been dreaming or just “hearing things.” I’m astonished, “appalled” would be the appropriate word, when I read what hundreds of people say about WTS!  Everybody seems to describe the effects of turbine noise in exactly the same words!

The scariest thing happening to me is the now repeated loss of some cognitive function, plus sleep deprivation and the usual loss of motivation (to say the least . . .), etc. The strangest thing is that when the noise is not around, I immediately feel relieved and positive again about life. But then it doesn’t last; the noise always comes back and this also is killing me. If we meet, we’ll talk about all that.

I stayed completely lost and down, not understanding what was happening to me, for a whole year, and then I wrote to Calvin Martin. He responded immediately and gave me Dr. Sarah Laurie’s email address, and since then I’ve been in contact with both of them. Their attention, kindness, concern and advice triggered some life in me, and I sort of woke up and began to do something about my situation.

God bless them!  I was dying here, going down and down, literally stuck in my nightmare.

Life can be given at a distance, over the oceans of this planet. . . .

Now I’m in contact with people around here who also help me face the situation.  A retired physician and people from a local association fighting IWT’s. The doc wants to build up a “health dossier” (neurological angle), and the guy from the association helps me in establishing connections between wind directions and what I feel. I’m also in contact with government authorities.

Seriously thinking of Calvin’s and Sarah’s main piece of advice, I’ve also started to be careful about exposure and have made arrangements to go sleep at places away from my home from time to time while waiting for a more definitive solution about moving away.

That’s the picture, right now.

Kind regards,

Hubert

“Scene from the top, looking NW over Buzzards Bay”
(from the NOTUS Clean Energy website)

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From:  Donna Benevides, Harwich, MA
To:  David Carignan, Health Agent, Town of Falmouth Health Dept (click here for an editorial on this gang)
Date:  December 27, 2011
Regarding:  The NOTUS wind turbine at Technology Park, Falmouth, MA

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Dear Mr. Carignan:

I work full time at 81 Technology Park Drive in Falmouth in a building that is approximately 650 feet from the NOTUS wind turbine [scroll down to see a satellite view—Editor].  Since this turbine went into full operation, I’ve been suffering from vertigo, dizziness, tinnitus, and a feeling of pressure in my ears.

The pressure can best be described as the feeling you get when driving up a mountain; except that yawning or chewing gum doesn’t ease the pressure as it does when driving up a mountain.

The vertigo is constant, even when I’m at home in Harwich (MA).  If I look up, down, or turn my head quickly, the room seems like it’s spinning rapidly and I have to hold onto something so I don’t fall down.  When I lay down in my bed at night, the room spins, and the same thing happens if I turn over in bed.  This sometimes causes nausea.

I also have trouble concentrating at work, but not at home.

I am in perfect health, with no history of motion sickness, ear problems, or vertigo.  I do not take any prescription medications and have normal blood pressure, etc.

I was excited when the turbine was being constructed, because clean energy and reducing our dependence on foreign oil is important.  My opinion on wind power has not changed.  However, I have learned these turbines need to be placed far away from where people live and work.

I was home in Harwich for four days during the Christmas holiday, and my vertigo lessened so much that I could move my head with only minor dizziness, rather than needing to grab onto something to keep from falling.  The blocked feeling in my ears cleared up, as well.

Today, I returned to work and my ears feel blocked and the vertigo is worsening.

Since I do not own property in Falmouth, this is not a case of “not in my backyard” [NIMBYism].  My symptoms are not caused by lack of sleep, because I sleep in Harwich, and generally get a good night’s sleep, except for when I roll over and the vertigo wakes me up, but I am able to go back to sleep after it passes.

I do not know any of the people who live near these turbines, but my heart goes out to them.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

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Click here for a copy of Donna’s letter

Donna Benevides

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Editor’s note:  Here is a satellite map of the location of the NOTUS (Webb) turbine, Donna Benevides’s workplace, and the home and business of Sue Hobart (Hobart’s Fine Florals).  Click here and here for the Hobarts’ experience with Dan Webb’s “NOTUS” turbine.  Click here for an interview of Sue & Ed Hobart by Dr. Pierpont.

Compare the Hobarts’ description of their Wind Turbine Syndrome with Donna Benevides’s.

While you’re listening to Dr. Pierpont’s interviews with Falmouth WTS victims, be sure to listen to Pierpont’s interview with noise engineers Robert Rand and Stephen Ambrose, who describe their WTS experience while doing NOTUS wind turbine noise & vibration & pressure measurements at the Hobart home.  Read the peer-reviewed Rand & Ambrose report here.

Notice that many ignorant people, including clinicians who should know better, maintain that wind turbines affect only sleep—and that it is the sleep deprivation issue which causes all the other host of symptoms.  Dr. Pierpont has repeatedly demonstrated that this is erroneous.  Donna Benevides’s letter confirms this, as does the Rand & Ambrose report.

In a week or two, the State of Mass. will deliver itself of a health report on wind turbines.  The report will be total and utter horseshit.  Guaranteed.
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Editor’s note:  The following manifesto was written by a woman who’s been suffering terribly from Wind Turbine Syndrome for the past several years.  In Falmouth, MA.  Sue Hobart.  Click here to watch her interview with Dr. Pierpont.  

Sue wrote the following in response to a jackass politician from a nearby Cape Cod town—a bozo calling for a double-blind study of wind turbines and health.  (He obviously had not read Pierpont’s book.)  

I think Sue’s plain-spoken response speaks for many of us.

(With appreciation to Google)

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Nobody who already knows the answers gets to talk to me anymore. . . . I am OVER with the peer review double-blind scientific bullshitometer they all hide behind. . . . Come see me and tell me to my face how much I am lying [about my Wind Turbine Syndrome]. . . .

My hysterical NIMBY neurotic whining life is obviously a choice I made as soon as that Webb* turbine went up. . . . What else could explain why I need to find a new home and job and have had 4 times more medical issues this year than ever before?

I know what I know. . . . If anybody cared to ask the victims, they would, too. . . . Oddly, only turbine experts seem to know the answers. . . .

Tilt. . . . I am so so so so over this!

Sue Hobart
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* “Webb turbine” is the name of the industrial turbine thumping away, near Sue’s home.

Editor’s note:  The following is from Dr. Sarah Laurie.
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Could you please post this document?  (Click here.)  It is Steven Cooper’s acoustic report for the Flyers Creek submission, and includes data which confirms Rob Rand & Steve Ambrose’s findings of infrasound and low frequency noise inside homes. Steve Cooper’s measurements were taken from a couple of houses at the Capital wind development near Lake George (Australia).

The report includes a good critique of the South Australian wind farm noise guidelines, which are widely promoted as the best in the world. The critique is relevant for many other jurisdictions, as it shows some of the ways the wind industry acousticians have allowed the petpetuation of this situation.

Sarah Laurie, MD
Medical Director
Waubra Foundation (Australia)

Engineer demonstrates the “dis-connect” between wind developer claims and actual energy output
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—Willem Post *

Kibby Wind Power I and II, a 132 MW windplant, capital cost $330 million, is owned by TransCanada and was built, after a lot of destruction, on one of the most beautiful ridgelines in the State of Maine.

TransCanada and Vestas (the Danish turbine manufacturer) claimed the capacity factor would be 0.32 or greater. According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, “66 MW [became] operational beginning October 16, 2009 and the remaining 66 MW [became] operational beginning November 1, 2010.”

Its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) designation is Trans Canadian Wind Development, Inc., in case you wish to look up the data, below.

In 2009 and 2010, the facility had a lot of startup problems and its energy production was negligible.

In 2011, it had a capacity factor of 22.5% for the first 9 months.

For the 3^rd Quarter of 2011, it was 14.42%.  Monthly capacity factors were as follows:

July 18.48%

Aug 12.31%

Sept 12.41%

Why are the CF’s (Capacity Factor) so low?

Winds on ridgelines have highly-irregular velocities and directions. This does not show up when one does wind velocity testing for feasibility, but when rotors are 373 feet in diameter, one part of a rotor will likely see a different wind velocity & direction from another part.

This results in highly inefficient energy production and CFs. Wind vendors (sellers) are very familiar with this, but neglect to mention it. However, all is explained in this article. I recommend the Vermont Dept. of Public Service and (Vermont) House Environment and Energy Committee, and all others, finally read this article, before “leading” Vermont into an expensive energy La-la-land.

The Bolton Valley Ski Resort wind turbine CF also does not live up to claims.  (Click here.)

The New York State wind turbine CF’s also do not live up to claims. The Vendor promises were for capacity factors of 30% to 35%, before installation.  The reality, after installation:

Installed capacity, MW: 1035.5 in 2008; 1,274 in 2009: 1,274 in 2009; 1,348 in 2010

Production, MWh: 1,282,325 in 2008; 2,108,500 in 2009, 2,532,800 in 2010

Capacity factors: 14.1% in 2008; 18.9% in 2009; 22.7% in 2010

The above data were obtained from the 2011 New York ISO (Independent System Operator) Gold Book.

Because no wind turbines were added during 2010, the 22.7% capacity factor of 2010 is the best proof of the lack of performance of the New York State wind turbine facilities.

This reality is not unique to Maine, Bolton Valley and NY State. It has replicated itself in The Netherlands, Denmark, England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc. The production is invariably less than promised. Add this to the fact that the CO₂ emissions reduction is much less than claimed, as shown in these articles (click here and here and here and here and here), and further investments in wind energy clearly become an extremely dubious and expensive proposition.

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* Willem Post BSME (Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering) New Jersey Institute of Technology, MSME (Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MBA (Masters of Business Administration) University of Connecticut. P.E. Connecticut. Consulting Engineer and Project Manager. Performed feasibility studies, wrote master plans, and evaluated designs for air pollution control systems, power plants, and integrated energy systems for campus-style building complexes. Currently specializing in energy efficiency in buildings.

Contact: wilpost@aol.com

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–Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

Would you sign this contract?  These two sections are quoted verbatim from a wind developer contract currently making the rounds in Ontario, Canada.

I guess, if (a) you don’t actually occupy your 200 acres and (b) you really don’t give a damn about your neighbors—I imagine such scum bags sign with glee.

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Grant of Effects

Lessor grants to lessee a non-exclusive license for audio, visual, view, light, flicker, noise, shadow, vibration, air turbulence, wake, electromagnetic, electrical and radio frequency interference, and any other effects attributable to the wind power facilities or activity located on the leased lands or on adjacent properties (“effects of license”).

The burden of the effects of license shall run with and bind the lands and every part thereof and benefit the lessee’s interest in the leased lands and such other lands that the lessee may have a real property interest in the leased lands from time to time and which form part of the project.  If requested by the lessee, the lessor shall execute and deliver to the lessee such separate and registerable transfer of easements which reproduce the terms of the effects license.

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Waiver of Setback

To the extent that (a) lessor now or in the future owns or leases any land adjacent to the leased lands; or (b) lessee leases or holds an easement/license or a lease over land adjacent to leased lands and has installed or constructed or desires to install or construct any power facilities on said land at and/or near the common boundary between the leased lands and said land, lessor hereby waives any and all setbacks and setback requirements, whether imposed by law or by any person or entity, including without limitation, any setback requirements described in the zoning by-laws of the county and/or province or in any governmental entitlement or permit heretofore or hereafter issued to the lessee.

If so requested by lessee, lessor shall promptly, without demanding consideration, therefore execute and, if appropriate, cause to be acknowledged, any setback waiver, setback elimination or other document or instrument required by any governmental authority or that lessee deems necessary or convenient to the obtaining of any entitlement or permit.

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Editor’s note:  Want to read the State of Oregon’s official view of wind turbine health impacts?  Click here.

Want to tell Oregon it’s a lot of wind industry smoke & mirrors and, well, horseshit?  Or tell them it’s dandy?  You’re welcome to!  See, below.  (Note:  If you tell them it’s horseshit, they will ignore you.  If you tell them it’s brilliant, they’ll use you as evidence that they’re correct.  We have not yet read the report.  It could be junk or dandy.)

Our appreciation to Steve Thurston, Maine, for alerting us to this document.
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This report is being released for public comment. This is an opportunity for anyone to review and comment on the document. These comments will be considered for the final version of this report.

Public comments must be submitted by 5 PM (Pacific Standard Time) on March 30^th, 2012. Public comments can be submitted via email to windhia@state.or.us, or via postal mail to:

Wind HIA Comments
Office of Environmental Public Health
800 NE Oregon St., Suite 640
Portland, OR 97232

The Oregon Public Health Division will consider every comment received by the deadline.  Because we anticipate a large volume of comments, we do not plan to respond individually to each comment submitted.

 —Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

Somehow, over the centuries, Americans lost their power.  I mean ordinary schmucks like you and me.  (Disclosure:  My ancestors settled tidewater Maryland in the 17th century.  They fought in the French & Indian Wars, American Revolution, and so on.)  We made a Big Federal Union on the back of (eventually) fifty Big States and, over time, allowed Big Business to take over and run the whole shebang—and style itself Big Government.

Now we’re well into the 21^st century and even more shackled to Big Government.  Yeah, they make roads—levy taxes—run the Postal System—levy taxes—wage war—levy taxes—set up endless regulatory agencies—levy taxes—blah blah blah.

Here’s a dumb question.  Is any of it truly necessary?  I mean, couldn’t all this stuff be done by the Citizenry instead of Big Business?  (I live near a large Amish community.  The Amish would answer with a thunderous, “Yes!  The people can do it themselves!”)

Wait a minute!  Didn’t the signers of the Declaration of Independence envision a Government of “We, the People” doing it ourselves?  (Little-known historical fact:  Between the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution, and continuing into the early years of the new Republic, there was a 2nd, quiet Revolution tilted very much in favor of Big Business.  Oops!)

Amish barn raising

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Maybe all the so-called good stuff done by Government is a sideshow orchestrated by Big Business to convince all of us dumb bastards that Government is necessary and doing something essential.  Whereas the real business of Government (aka Big Business) is to levy taxes and screw us with regulatory agencies and laws—and, above all, have us buy stuff.  (Did you perform your patriotic duty today, and go shopping?)

Till now, it was Big Business (aka the Government) screwing the other guys—overseas.  Now, it’s here; now Government screws its own citizens.

Has your community been “fracked” yet?

Has it been “windfarm-fucked” yet?

Has it had all its manufacturing moved “offshore”?  (That’s the story of Franklin County, NY, where I live.  Once prosperous.  Could still be.  Now, the poorest county in the state.)

Abandoned factory, Malone, NY (Photo by Mindy Robinson) 

How about toxic waste dumped nearby?  (Talk to the Mohawk Nation, just to the north of me.  They’re about to go to war over the toxic shit dumped by Big Business on the rez.  Yeah, soaring cancer rates.  Dr. Pierpont used to be the pediatrician for the rez.)

Hey, how about Gulf Oil Spill Sickness?  Haven’t heard of that one, right?  ‘Cause the NY Times won’t report on it.  Click here for the scoop.  Prepare to shit your pants!  (By the way, the Times won’t report on WTS, either.  We tried, but someone got to the head of the Op-Ed Dept at the last minute.)

How about Wall Street bank bailouts?

All the above is really necessary stuff, for sure—right?

But wait!  It’s not Government; it’s the big imposter, Big Business.  And we’re not Citizens; we’re Consumers.

If I’m right, it’s Big Business screwing Consumers—all under the pretense of Government caring for its Citizenry.

Have a splendid 2012 voting for the Big Imposter.  (And remember:  Shop till you drop!)

Editor’s note:  The Town of Falmouth, MA, turned off its “Wind 1” turbine in November 2011, I believe, just before Thanksgiving.  Annie Hart Cool, a local realtor, and her husband Mark Cool, an air traffic controller, had suffered from Wind Turbine Syndrome for the years the turbine was operating.  Click here to watch Nina Pierpont’s interview with Annie & Mark, two months before the turbine was shut down.  

Now that it’s turned off, their WTS has—vanished.

–Annie Hart Cool (Falmouth, MA), 12/13/11

My husband and I live 1600 feet from Wind [Turbine] 1.  Our experience is well documented.  I will say that these last few weeks without the whirling, thumping and the vibrating have been phenomenal!

We had Thanksgiving for the first time in 2 years!  We put up a Christmas tree for the first time in 2 years!  We have entertained!  We have slept through the night!  We have not slept in the basement!  We are rested!  Headaches are a thing of the past!  Dizziness, teeth grinding, vertigo—all somehow at bay!

To the people who said, “You’ll get used to it?” or had me doubting myself as “imagining” the health effects, and to those who said “So it’s annoying!  Get over it!”—now, more than ever, I know there are health effects!  I am solid in my experience that life now (with the turbine off) is remarkably different from the period of time when Wind 1 loomed loud over our house.

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“Farm Girl,” with appreciation to the artist

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—Samantha Stepnell (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia)

We recently signed up our 16-year-old daughter, Courtney, for a 4-year farming apprenticeship. As she works long hours, she is now exposed to the same damaging environment as Carl and I.

Courtney’s physical symptoms are now becoming obvious. Ear pressure, nausea, headaches and dizziness. This is her life, this is the career she has chosen and is so good at.

Since the day Acciona’s Waubra Wind Farm (Victoria, Australia) began operations, members of my family have experienced various symptoms, including excruciatingly painful ear pressure, severe headaches, severe nausea to the point of being unable to keep food down, profuse nose bleeds, disabling dizziness, chronic and severe sleep disturbance, severe depression, and worrying chest pains.

These symptoms occur only when we are home and the turbines are operating. Our doctor advised us to move from our home, which we have done, which has partially improved the situation. But our farm is our workplace, and we now travel back there to work, and still get many of the symptoms when we are out there, and the turbines are operating.

It has completely changed our lives, the way we run our business.  We are now cut off from our old way of life. As soon as we are ten kilometers from the area where the turbines are operating, our symptoms disappear.

We are no longer able to employ anyone at our farm with confidence that our workplace is a safe environment. This is a huge concern for us as we do not know what position we would be in if one of our employees became ill as a direct result of exposure to turbines too close to our property. (We employ a casual farm hand, who is normally quite healthy. He now experiences frequent headaches, ear pressure and hypertension.)

We have recently signed up our sixteen year old daughter, Courtney, for a four year farming apprenticeship. As she works long hours, she is now exposed to the same damaging environment as Carl and I.

Courtney’s physical symptoms are now becoming obvious. Ear pressure, nausea, headaches and dizziness. This is her life, this is the career she has chosen and is so good at. The serious and damaging health effects wind turbines cause is a huge concern, even a threat to the industry, firstly on our farm but anywhere these wind energy facilities are operating or where permits have been granted.

Waubra is a very poorly planned development with no obvious guidelines to protect landholders from unintended consequences. We are collateral damage.

Are we not supposed to be encouraging young people to have a career in the rural industry? As parents to Courtney, do we not have a duty of care to protect her health and well-being?

In the mad rush of governments to produce clean, green energy, they have ignored the plight of their constituents, and abdicated their duty of care to protect human health.

We hold the federal and state and local Ggovernments, both elected representatives and public servants, directly responsible for the extremely difficult situation we have been placed in, and the ongoing damage being done to our family’s health.

Over a period of two and a half years, I have made numerous complaints about all this to state and federal Members of Parliament, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health, the Pyrenees Shire and Acciona Energy—to no avail.