Violated in Massachusetts (Wind Turbine Syndrome)
Jul 26, 2012
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—Preston McClanahan, Professor Emeritus, RI School of Design (7/26/12)
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To the Legislators and Representatives of the People of Massachusetts.
In November 1972 the citizens of Massachusetts approved at the ballot Article 97, which became the 97th Amendment to the State Constitution. The amendment reads:
The people shall have the right to clean air and water, freedom from excessive and unnecessary noise, and the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic qualities of their environment; and the protection of the people in their right to the conservation, development and utilization of the agricultural, mineral, forest, water, air and other natural resources is hereby declared to be a public purpose.
“The general court shall have the power to enact legislation necessary or expedient to protect such rights.”
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People with Wind Turbine Syndrome in Massachusetts whose Constitutional rights are violated:
» Sherman Derby, Hancock. .05 miles distant from turbine. “Sounds like a jet plane. We just can’t sleep.”
» John Methia, Fairhaven. 2,000 feet distant from turbine. “Sound is like a jet flyover that doesn’t stop.”
» Karen Isherwood, Fairhaven. 1,500 feet distant. “I will have to abandon my home.”
» Louise Barteau, Fairhaven. 1,400 feet distant. “Pressure behind my eyes, confusion, and nausea.”
» Doreen Reilly, Kingston. 900 feet distant. “My Children are losing sleep.”
» Tim Dwyer, Kingston. 1,600 feet distant. “Headaches, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, ear pressure, vertigo.”
» Neil Anderson, Falmouth. 0.25 distant. “Headaches, head and ear pressure, ringing in ears, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, loss of sleep. Completely wiped out financially. Forced from home, lawyers and doctors fees dissolve our life and retirement funds.”
» John Ford, Falmouth. 2,300 feet distant. “Depressed, high blood pressure, headaches, earaches, anxiety, stress, vertigo.”
» Barry Funfar, Falmouth. 1,558 feet distant. “My doctor’s advice is to move away from the noise.”
» Mary Zawoysky, Falmouth. 900 feet distant. “Infrasound bombards my home so I can’t sleep.”
» Nan Cook, Newburyport. 1,000feet distant. “The vibration comes through the walls in some houses.”
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Two Solutions to Wind Turbine Syndrome are:
(a) To discontinue the quest for energy from wind, realizing that wind is not a solution to our energy problem. Wind’s low productivity and high expense in public tax monies, public health and environmental devastation are evident in the factual evidence from around the nation and the world. Those who still believe in wind energy are either uninformed, blind followers, have an ambitious career agenda, are motivated by profit alone and may have any combination of the above.
(b) To legislate adequate setback distances of industrial wind turbines from occupied homes.
The difficulty is that the loudest noise components are from the blades for which there is no effective noise control except distance, or shutting the turbines down. If the turbines are installed, the distance is set. At that point, complaints and civil lawsuits about noise impacts can be addressed only by shutting the turbines down. The developer has no recourse with the manufacturer and there are no engineering controls that I am aware of for this design class of wind turbine, the large three-blade elevated horizontal rotor design.” Robert Rand, Rand Acoustics, 65 Mere Point Road, Brunswick , ME.
Comment by Marsh Rosenthal on 07/27/2012 at 10:55 am
Good on you, Preston!
Comment by mark duchamp on 07/27/2012 at 1:45 pm
It sounds to me like a class action suit would be warranted. What are the obstacles to going that road?
Comment by Pauline Davis on 07/27/2012 at 2:52 pm
A clear reminder of yet what soon will become a reality for some folks who are to be the next recipients of Wind Turbines, “complements” of OUR government’s energy policies, the government “WE” elected, so let us not forget to thank ourselves too!
Talk is cheap.
Yes, we have been learning all the facts and KNOW the SOLUTIONS all too well, now, and what must be done thanks to the tireless efforts from the experts around the globe like Dr. Nina Pierpont and Calvin Luther Martin’s Wind Turbine Syndrome, Dr. Sarah Laurie, Dr. Alec Salt a cochlear physiologist, Dr. Robert McMurtry, and the physicists, acousticians, noise engineers, energy experts, climatologists, wildlife experts, the victims and the whistle blowers who violated wind industry gag orders, the lawyers, and the countless others, and thanks to many organizations like National Wind Watch, The North American Platform Against Windpower and the European Platform Against Windfarms.
We need to take back our counties, our land, water, air, trees, rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, hills and valleys, our natural resources, our cities, towns and villages from the corporations who control OUR governments and STAND UP for what we are our RIGHTS.
But how?
The Answer: Action, civil disobedience, get up… STAND UP, speak out, be engaged, be involved! We must get our proverbial heads out of and away from our distracting electronic DEVICES (you know what I am talking about) and STOP SITTING on our LAURELS.
Or …we live and let die!