“Why didn’t they tell us about health problems before we signed leases?” (Michigan)
Jun 21, 2014
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“Why on earth would they want to?” — Editor
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— Dianne M. Ziegler, Cadillacnews.com, Michigan (6/19/14)
I signed a wind turbine lease in 2008. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have signed.
Since the turbines went up I have had frequent headaches lasting three days. I never had these before. My mother has ringing in her ears and headaches. I have spoken to others in the community who have been affected by the turbines. One has dizzy spells. Another does not feel healthy until she leaves McBain. They are now planning on moving, but have been told by realtors that they will have trouble selling their home because of the turbines.
Because it takes so long for the entire wind farm to become operational, the signs of how the turbines worsen health and quality of life take a long time to be noticed. One person I talked with thought her dizziness was “just getting older,” but this person is young.
Why hasn’t anyone spoken out before? People are afraid of being shunned. They don’t want anyone to know they are having problems.
Is money more important than health? Is this what we gave away for $10,000 a turbine and monthly payments, with leases that will never end? We gave up our beautiful community, we are giving up our health, our electric bills have risen, and there doesn’t seem to be anyway out except leaving.
The wind companies have talked to people in McBain and I believe they know there are problems with noise and with health. Why don’t they take action? Why didn’t they tell us about the health problems before we signed leases?
I now believe that the only safe place for turbines is at least a mile and a half from anyone’s home.
Comment by Marshall Rosenthal on 06/21/2014 at 7:42 pm
IWTs are lethal. If you can’t break the lease and win in court, you should try to evacuate. Keep fighting!
Comment by Bill Carson on 06/21/2014 at 7:52 pm
Falmouth Massachusetts is ground zero for poorly placed commercial wind turbines in the United States
Any family you speak with says the noise from a local turbine has “pretty much destroyed their lives.” In fact, wherever there are wind turbines—Cape Cod, Canada, or Denmark—there are also complaints about stress, anxiety and mental health.
Falmouth is in the middle of a global and very emotional debate on whether wind turbines make people sick. It’s a question that’s divided Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Prior to the Falmouth wind turbine installations the state of Massachusetts was aware of two distinct types of noise from wind turbines:
On page 14 Mattapoisett wind test study – this section eliminated prior to Falmouth Wind 1 Installation
Noise
Noise considerations generally take two forms, state regulatory compliance and nuisance levels at nearby residences:
A. Regulatory compliance: Massachusetts state regulations do not allow a rise of 10 dB or greater above background levels at a property boundary (Massachusetts Air Pollution Control Regulations, Regulation 310 CMR 7.10). This sound level is very unlikely to be a reached incase at the sites we examined.
B. Human annoyance: Aside from Massachusetts regulations, residences must also be taken into consideration. Any eventual turbine would be sited such that it would be inaudible or minimally audible at the nearest residences. At this stage, to check for “fatal flaws,” a rule of thumb can be used: to minimize possible noise impacts,site wind turbines at least three times the blade tip height from residences. Distances from mixed-use areas may be somewhat shorter.
http://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/15538111/tri-town-orr-preliminary-site-analysis
Comment by Andreas Marciniak on 06/21/2014 at 10:45 pm
It’s always about the almighty dollar! The fact is, there is no safe distance for wind turbines. NOT GREEN, NOT CHEAP, NOT RELIABLE, and come with a very BAD side EFFECT on people and the ENVIRONMENT.
There is nothing GREEN about WIND TURBINES. SAY NO TO WIND TURBINES!
— from a wind turbine refugee in Australia
Comment by Jackie on 06/22/2014 at 3:28 pm
What a wonderful little story to pass on to my “leaseholder” neighbours. I copied and pasted it in an email to my neighbor who is in contact with all the other leaseholders. I asked them to pass it on.
I wonder if they will, or will they be too embarrassed?
Comment by BARRY FUNFAR on 06/23/2014 at 12:00 am
Having two, 1.65 MW IWTs within 1600 feet of my back door, I can relate, with a, now, four-year-long sob story. You are right in describing the lengthy learning process of how these mammoth machines slowly and systematically deny us victims the rights and freedom to enjoy on our own property. IWTs are nothing but STRESS GENERATORS.
With the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ help, the Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, has made some of us “collateral damage,” second-class citizens. “Tough shit” is their response to our pleas for fairness.
Despite our Zoning Board of Appeals overruling the Building Commissioner and declaring the WTs a nuisance, our own Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, has now twice sued its own Zoning Board over its WT nuisance decisions. We are now unfortunately relying on the courts to right the wrongs that our town has heaped upon us, costing us our precious time, money, and definitely shortening our lives.
As off-track as our government is, I find it distasteful to depend on the judicial system for relief. My guess is that many judges carry a bias for the political party that appointed them. In Massachusetts, I expect this to be an unfavorable situation.
Comment by Itasca Small on 06/23/2014 at 12:10 am
I must be hard-headed; I still don’t understand why those trusting, uninformed people who sign leases under false pretenses, believing those nice wind industry minions when they say there are no problems and these wonderful mechanical demons are quiet, can’t sue the companies for fraud. . . .
Oh, that’s right, in America at least, our court system is so subverted and perverted that our state and federal constitutions are treated like wastepaper as judges and lawyers control the outcome by dictating the procedures and the evidentiary input allowed. The Founding Fathers would be appalled — but, probably not surprised — by the perversion of American justice in our day.
But, if I had a lease that guaranteed me $10,000. per turbine and monthly income for the rest of my life, I could at least try to exact justice in the courts. I would do my best to get my neighbors who are also getting that blood money to join me in a class action suit. It would seem to be the least we could do: to at least try to correct the wrong we are participating in against our other innocent neighbors. (I do believe many leaseholders are also innocent because of the lies they are told. But, in their shoes, once informed, I’d be the biggest thorn in the side of wind energy they ever felt, because I’d feel guilty for what I’d done to my neighbors. . . .)
Ahh, but, I don’t have a lease, my neighbors don’t have leases, and we don’t have the money to even talk to an attorney about seeking justice against those who are destroying our lives, which, sadly, does include the leaseholders raking-in all that blood money at our and their own expense.
Lest my righteous indignation be misinterpreted, I am very sorry and indignant for the wrongly duped leaseholders and the terrible position in which they find themselves.
As my fellow-wind energy refugee, Andreas, reiterates yet one more time, above, “The fact is, there is no safe distance for wind turbines.” Warriors Against Wind Energy across-the-globe MUST reach the conclusion that:
Wind energy will NEVER “save the planet,”no matter how far the monsters are sited away from human beings! Nor will solar energy, for that matter.
Until we stop conceding ground to the lying, evil purveyors of wind energy, by naming a NIMBY-based calculation for how close we will let them site their death machines, we will not defeat this planetary scourge!
As long as “setbacks” are agreed-to, declared and/or imposed-upon, we, the victims, our own demise is just as certain as if we actually said, “Put them wherever you want, we have to save the planet. Just NOT IN MY BACKYARD!”
Well, I’m not a NIMBY—I say, “NOT IN MY BACKYARD; NOT IN MY NEIGHBOR ACROSS TOWN’S BACKYARD; NOT IN MY FELLOW-ARIZONAN ACROSS THE STATE’S BACKYARD; NOT IN MY FELLOW-AMERICAN IN MAINE’S BACKYARD; NOT IN THE BACKYARD OF MY HUSBAND’S CANADIAN BIRTHPLACE; NOT IN MY FELLOW-HUMAN IN AUSTRALIA’S BACKYARD, ETCETERA, AD INFINITUM!!!
And not in my fellow-creature’s backyard anywhere in the world!
Oh, and not in Earth’s Backyard, where man’s wind monsters ARE actually causing “Climate Disruption” in weather patterns and making regions of Earth more arid; desertifying the very ground from which we obtain our daily sustenance!
WE’RE FOULING OUR OWN BACKYARD, MANKIND! Will we wake-up and say, “NO MORE”? Or, will we continue to commit homicide and suicide by wind turbine infrasound until Earth is rid of us all?
May I say it one more time? THERE IS NO SAFE DISTANCE FOR WIND TURBINES ON PLANET EARTH!
Itasca Small
Wind Energy Refugee from Iberdrola’s Dry Lake Wind Power Plant in Navajo County, Arizona, U.S.A.
Comment by Shannon Baden on 06/23/2014 at 5:43 am
I wish our Commissioners would listen to us. We have had professionals talk at meetings, along with lawyers. We have been fighting for a year and a half to no avail. It is in the courts, now.
The evil people who do these turbines need to be sued. They come in under secrecy and get people to sign leases years before the rest of the community finds out. They wine and dine prospective leaseholders and take them to other wind farms, offer them an exorbitant sum of money — and money, as we all know, is very persuasive.
What people don’t realize is these leases are for 30 yrs, with the option for 20 more. Folks here didn’t realize this.
I pray that these foreign companies are taken down!
Thanks,
Shannon Baden
Sharpsville, Indiana