{"id":2170,"date":"2009-03-19T12:03:22","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T16:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2012-02-02T08:00:45","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T13:00:45","slug":"wind-company-employee-gets-wind-turbine-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2009\/wind-company-employee-gets-wind-turbine-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind company employee gets Wind Turbine Syndrome (Altona, NY)"},"content":{"rendered":"

—by Calvin Luther Martin, PhD<\/h4>\n

When Noble Environmental Power<\/a> of Essex, Conn., came to the North Country [of New York State] to investigate the possibility of establishing wind farms in northern Clinton and Franklin counties, officials of the company assured us that, while of course aiming to capitalize on the enthusiasm over green wind power, they also wanted to be honest and straightforward with residents<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They wanted to befriend the people living here and assure them wind energy was safe, clean and inexpensive. It would be a welcome replacement, little by little, for foreign oil on which the world perilously relied. They hoped for a long, happy relationship with people who embraced wind power and even those who didn’t.<\/em>\u00a0 (Emphasis added.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My friend Bob Grady, Editor-in-Chief of the Plattsburgh Press Republican<\/a>, wrote those words.\u00a0 Bob wrote them in an editorial published March 12, 2009<\/a>, in response to Noble’s “disappoint[ing] response to the first calamity here of the wind-farm era”:\u00a0 the spectacular disintegration and burning of Noble’s turbine in Altona, NY.\u00a0 (Click here <\/a>for aerial photos\u00a0and here<\/a> for video.)<\/p>\n

He titled it, “Noble response far from noble<\/em>.”\u00a0 Indeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"wind-liar-447x292\"<\/a>
\nFrom<\/span> plataformahorta.org<\/a>, with appreciation<\/span><\/p>\n

My dear Bob, allow me to correct you.\u00a0 The crashing and burning of Noble’s turbine was not its first calamity.\u00a0 I invite you to send a reporter to visit a woman named Cheryl LeClair, 349 Duley Road, Altona.\u00a0 On second thought, better go yourself.\u00a0 (Denise Raymo’s pious balderdash on Noble is nearly as hopeless as\u00a0the Shelly Livernois’s in the Telegram<\/em>).\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cheryl describes an experience equally calamitous to the turbine disaster.\u00a0 Although I’m not at liberty to reprint Cheryl’s letter, I shall paraphrase parts and quote other passages, according to the Fair Use<\/em> principle in publishing and journalism.\u00a0 Note that her email was sent to my wife, Dr. Nina Pierpont, along with State Assemblywoman Janet Duprey and Altona Town Supervisor Larry Ross, bearing the plea, “I\u00a0am appealing for any help that you can give to me.”<\/p>\n

Bringing this sordid matter to public attention is the best help I can think of.<\/p>\n

I have several reasons for discussing Cheryl’s letter.\u00a0 One is directed to the Franklin County District Attorney, Derek Champagne, who is a member of the New York State\u00a0task force charged with monitoring and enforcing wind company ethics.\u00a0 I think, Bob, that between your unease with Noble and its spectacular equipment failure and subsequent rhetorical cover-up and obfuscation, and between my unease over Cheryl’s plight, below, it would behoove Derek Champagne to convene his committee and summon Noble brass to a meeting where tough questions are asked, and real answers demanded.\u00a0 Not platitude, not warmed over advertising copy, not blah blah blah—but God-honest truth.<\/p>\n

\"Pied<\/a>\u00a0
\nWith thanks to<\/span> Windtoons.com<\/a><\/p>\n

You end your editorial, Bob, urging Noble “to adopt a policy of candor with the public.”\u00a0\u00a0I couldn’t agree more.\u00a0 “Were the naysayers right after all,” you ask?\u00a0 (I was one of them.)\u00a0 “They warned of bird kill, noise and maddening flicker from the revolution of the blades, but nobody talked about the 400-foot-high towers actually breaking and falling to the ground.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Um, Bob, maybe you weren’t listening real carefully as you and the Press were whooping it up for wind energy—but we did in fact talk about\u00a0(and present documentation of) these\u00a0huge structures falling over, and we talked about fires.1<\/sup>\u00a0(To refer to those who did their homework and recognized these hazards four years ago, as “naysayers,” is an epithet akin to referring to you and your news staff as “wind shills.”\u00a0 A cheap shot which avoids the hard questions.\u00a0 Wouldn’t you agree?)<\/p>\n

But I digress.\u00a0 Cheryl LeClair is a hardworking\u00a0woman who, as I say, lives in Altona.\u00a0 Some years back she bought her dream home.\u00a0 (\u201cI have lived here for ten years, enjoying the serenity, the view, the peacefulness.”)\u00a0 She is an avid oudoorsperson, as she takes pains to describe in her letter.\u00a0 Loves nature, loves being outside, loves gardening and feeding the birds and working in her yard.\u00a0 Even washing her truck—because it means she’s outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Except that her ecstasy is\u00a0in the past tense, now that\u00a0her home and property are menaced by Noble’s turbines.\u00a0(\u201cMenaced”?\u00a0 You will see in a moment why I choose this word.)<\/p>\n

Before going further, realize that Cheryl was a Noble employee.\u00a0 This makes her story doubly interesting—both to the rest of us and, especially, to Cheryl herself.\u00a0 She’s flabbergasted at the shabby way Noble treated her complaints.\u00a0(In fairness to Cheryl and Noble, she does acknowledge that Noble was a good employer.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what happened to Ms. LeClair?\u00a0 Noble built its turbines, turned ’em on—and Cheryl’s quality of life crashed and burned.\u00a0 Here are excerpts from her letter.\u00a0 This first passage was written to Dr. Pierpont, Assemblywoman Duprey, and Town Supervisor Ross on 2\/12\/09.<\/p>\n

\n

The visual effects of the windpark are very disorienting. I can see turbines from all but one window. They give me a feeling of motion sickness and dizziness. The sound on a breezy day like today is maddening.<\/em> I have been told that I am in a unique position in which the sound reverberates\/echoes\/concentrates on\/to my home. I am constantly expecting to see an airplane overhead. At night the flashing lights have four or five tempos\/patterns between all that I can see and that are currently running, not in sync.\u00a0 (Emphasis added.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I direct your attention to the line, “I have been told I am in a unique position in which sound reverberates\/echoes\/concentrates on my home.”\u00a0 Wind energy companies always tell Wind Turbine Syndrome sufferers this.\u00a0 Visit Dr. Pierpont’s website (click here<\/a>) on Wind Turbine Syndrome, and start reading\u00a0what’s turning into\u00a0an endless parade of people around the world experiencing exactly what Cheryl describes.\u00a0 (Find these account under Diaries and Reports<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is Cheryl’s experience unique?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Wind developers use this argument to avoid responsibility and accountability.\u00a0 It’s time—Derek, are you reading this?—that this charade and farce gets stopped by the government.\u00a0 There are too many Cheryl LeClairs getting hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consider this passage written by a man in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin—a man likewise suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome.\u00a0 His name is Gerry Meyer.\u00a0 He’s a retired postal carrier.\u00a0 The salt of the earth is Gerry.\u00a0 (He refers to himself as\u00a0 “just an average person.”)\u00a0 I have come to know Gerry because he has appealed to Dr. Pierpont for help, if only in understanding his family’s new, turbine-generated\u00a0health problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

March 3, 2008, the turbines began turning.\u00a0 When I walked out of the house and looked for a jet in the sky that in reality was the turbine 1560′ north of our house, I was ticked. I decided to keep a diary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have complained to the town board one time, and a friend has complained directly to Invenergy<\/a> (the energy company) 8 to 10 times, and many others have complained to the town, Invenergy, or the county health departments. At meetings, energy companies will recite that Fond du Lac and Dodge County health departments have received no complaints about health effects from the wind turbines<\/em> (I live in Fond du Lac County), and when the USA Today<\/em> story about us appeared on November 4th, 2008, a woman spokesman for Invenergy told the reporter they have received no complaints.<\/p>\n

It appears, unfortunately, that the only way they will consider a complaint [to be] a [genuine] complaint is if there is a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

It is so sad that today with all the protections enacted and all of the concerns about people’s rights (at least some people), that … the reckless placement of wind turbines all over the country can take place.\u00a0 (Emphasis added.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where’s the candor from Invenergy<\/a> about these health complaints?\u00a0 Reading Gerry’s letter, you get the distinct impression that Invenergy considers him and his suffering neighbors invisible—which is right up there with Cheryl LeClair being told she’s “unique.”\u00a0 As in, Gee, nobody else complains about health effects and disrupted TV reception, Cheryl!<\/em>\u00a0 You’re really unique!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Unique,” here, has the connotation “you’re a nut case.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I say, Bob, read through those endless Diaries and Reports on the WTS.com site.\u00a0 Lots of unique nut cases, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back to Cheryl.\u00a0By early January 2009 she realized something was horribly\u00a0wrong.\u00a0 Cheryl was still on Noble’s payroll (through January).\u00a0 On 1\/14\/09 she wrote a desperate letter to Lisa Vigneault, with copies of Dan Nugent and Brett Hastings—all of these being Noble employees.\u00a0 She prefaced her letter by saying “I need to voice my frustration, concern, disappointment and anger, and hope\u00a0for some relief.”<\/p>\n

The letter goes on to list her complaints:\u00a0<\/p>\n

(1) Television reception messed up.\u00a0 (\u201cOne night last week, the interference was ‘keeping time’ to the turning of the turbine.”)
\n(2) The flashing red lights.\u00a0 She calls them “horrendous.”\u00a0 “They leave ‘trails’ when you look away, as well.”
\n(3) The “whoosh whoosh” noise of the turbines within her home.\u00a0 “It is not anything like the steady hum of a refrigerator,” she points out.\u00a0 This being a sarcastic jab at Noble’s advertising.\u00a0 (See “People who state that wind turbines are very quiet are probably good candidates for a lobotomy<\/a>,” by Wisconsin homeowner, Larry Wunsch.)\u00a0 Open Noble’s website, click through to its propaganda about the glories of wind energy, and open Wind Fact Sheet #5:\u00a0 Are modern wind turbines noisy?<\/em>\u00a0<\/a> Start reading:<\/p>\n

Are modern wind turbines noisy? No. It’s true that some older turbines designs were noisy. However, the wind turbine manufacturers have worked hard to improve turbine design. Modern wind turbines are much more efficient and make much less sound … nowadays, they are actually pretty quiet. A commonly used reference is that at a distance of 750 to 1,000 feet a modern wind turbine is no noisier than a kitchen refrigerator or a moderately quiet room (American Wind Energy Association<\/a>). While proper “setbacks” from homes are still essential, at 1,000 feet, the sound of a modern turbine is practically indiscernible over the background noise associated with the environment in which a turbine is placed. Very often, one of the loudest background noises is the wind itself!<\/p>\n

So, one more time … are wind turbines noisy? We often use the word “noise” to refer to “any unwanted sound.” It’s true that wind turbines make sounds … but whether or not those sounds are “noisy” has a lot to do with who’s listening. It’s also worth noting that studies have shown that a person’s attitude toward a sound—meaning whether it’s a “wanted” or “unwanted” sound—depends a great deal on what they think and how they feel about the source of the sound. In other words, if someone has a negative attitude to wind turbines, or is worried about them, this will affect how they feel about the sound. However, if someone has a positive attitude toward wind energy, it’s very unlikely that the sounds will bother them at all.\u00a0 (Emphasis added.)<\/p>\n

—from Noble Environmental Power, “Wind fact sheet #5: Are modern wind turbines noisy?<\/a>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\""No
\nR. Forrest Martin<\/a>, with appreciation<\/span><\/p>\n

A clarification.\u00a0 The “studies” Noble refers to appear to be nothing more than speculation by noise engineers, who, by the way, have zero clinical training.\u00a0 (See the pronouncements of a physicist\/acoustician who has done consulting work for Noble, Dr. Geoff Leventhall<\/a>.)\u00a0 Dr. Pierpont, a physician, has used published clinical studies to demonstrate that people’s aversive reactions to wind turbine noise are the result of disturbance to the organs of balance, and motion and position sense, within the inner ear.<\/p>\n

\"Human
\nR. Forrest Martin<\/a><\/span>, with appreciation<\/span><\/p>\n

Low frequency noise from wind turbines sends false signals to these highly sensitive structures (utricle and saccule, and semicircular canals), causing dizziness, vertigo, and nausea, along with cognitive and memory deficits, and anxiety and panic attacks.\u00a0 Pierpont shows that these symptoms are not under voluntary, conscious control; they are completely involuntary—as involuntary as puking when you get motion sickness (carsick or seasick).\u00a0 Indeed, she demonstrates that Wind Turbine Syndrome basically operates by triggering chronic motion sickness.\u00a0 (WTS is a constellation of symptoms, including sleeplessness, and involves several sensory systems besides the inner ear being dis-regulated. Even so, the inner ear structures are vital to understanding the pathophysiology of Wind Turbine Syndrome.)<\/p>\n

\"Inner
\nInner Ear (illustration \u00a9Max Brodel 1934)<\/span><\/p>\n

To suggest that a person’s physiological reaction to wind turbine noise depends on whether she likes or dislikes wind turbines, is cruel and callous and irresponsible—and Cheryl rubs Noble’s face in it.\u00a0 Indeed, you will see when you watch the Helen Fraser video, below, that there are people experiencing these symptoms who started out\u00a0 with a very positive view of wind turbines in their midst.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All along,” continues Cheryl,\u00a0\u201cI have been told how ‘worth it’ this was going to be, how unobtrusive they would be, how they wouldn’t really affect me much. Now I am being asked, Didn’t I know this was going to happen?\u00a0 Wasn’t I shown maps?\u00a0 Why didn’t I speak up sooner?<\/em>\u00a0 By the time I ever heard anything about Noble coming to town, Ron Hoy, Cory Lucia and Terry Boyea had already been signed up. What could I have done? I did not sign anything until Terry was going to lose a turbine. Prior to that, I refused all agreements with Noble.”<\/p>\n

This last point is interesting:\u00a0 how Noble went about signing up property owners.\u00a0 From reading Cheryl’s letter, it appears to have been surreptitious at first.\u00a0 By the time she got wind of wind energy (and Noble), apparently several of her neighbors were already signed up.\u00a0 “What could I have done,” she asks?\u00a0 I call it the Domino Effect.\u00a0 “Prior to that, I refused all agreements with Noble.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Domino Effect:\u00a0 You’re gonna have to live with these damn turbines on your neighbor’s property, anyway.\u00a0 Noise, shadow flicker, having them degrade your view and\u00a0disembowel your property value.\u00a0 So you, too,\u00a0might as well host one or two.\u00a0 At least this way you get some cash out of the deal<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0An ingenious, yet devious, strategy used by wind developers everywhere to win the hearts and minds of property owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bob, how “honest and straightforward”—transparent and decent—was Noble\u00a0with residents?\u00a0 Cheryl’s letter suggests the answer to this is, “not very.”<\/p>\n

“The wind park has completely ruined the quality of my life in this home that I love.”\u00a0 With this she ends her 1\/14\/09 letter.<\/p>\n

Evidently the letter had little impact on the cheery young men and women occupying the cheap trailers on Lost Nation Road.\u00a0 (I love the ironic gloss this name has acquired.\u00a0 Lost Nation Road<\/em> indeed.)<\/p>\n

A week and a half later (1\/26\/09), Cheryl fired off another desperate plea.\u00a0 This one likewise addressed to Lisa Vigneault, Dan Boyd, and two other Noble employees.\u00a0 “You all need to come here and experience this,” it begins.\u00a0 “Dots and elevation lines on a piece of paper mean NOTHING.”<\/p>\n

\n

I have just stood in my kitchen recording the flicker (8:15 am January 24, 2009). My head and body are trembling, dizzy, vibrating; the right way to describe what is happening to me right now eludes me. I do know that it is very uncomfortable. This feeling is from standing in my kitchen and subjecting myself to the flicker for about six minutes in order to document what has happened to my home. This is unbearable. I can not even imagine what I am going to do this summer if I am not able to buy another home.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Shadow
\nR. Forrest Martin<\/a><\/span>, with appreciation<\/span><\/p>\n

She goes on to compare her home to an “airport runway (lights), an airplane hovering overhead steadily, or an under-maintained amusement park ride (sounds), and a discotheque (flicker).”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nR. Forrest Martin<\/a><\/span>, with appreciation<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am emotionally and physically sick and distraught over this. I am not in a very good position to purchase another home as my job is done on Friday.”\u00a0 What has the wind park done to the value her my home, she asks?\u00a0 “In my eyes,” she responds,\u00a0\u201cit has erased ten years of blood, sweat, tears and considerable money and hard work.”<\/p>\n

Jeez, Bob, didn’t Noble tell us all along that\u00a0living in a “wind park”<\/em> (love that name!) had absolutely no negative impact on property values<\/em>?\u00a0 I could almost swear I read that in some of Denise’s articles, and Shelly’s (Telegram<\/em>), too.\u00a0 And I know I heard it at public meetings.\u00a0 All the wind developers swear absolutely this is so.\u00a0 (Derek, are you still reading this?)\u00a0 They produce documents to prove it.\u00a0 Reams of paper with lots of blah blah blah and tables, proving it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alas, Cheryl doesn’t believe them.\u00a0 Nor do I.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Referring to a conversation she evidently had with Lisa Vigneault, Cheryl continues, “I don’t think it fair of anyone to think I should shut up and accept what happened here just because I was an employee for a relatively short time or because somewhere in thousands of pages the town was warned.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Awnings and drapes won’t fix it, she fires back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“TV reception? I have already purchased my Digital Converter boxes. They didn’t help. What are we waiting for on that? I am at my wits’ end. I need solid answers from you, not Lisa [Vigneault] calling and quoting what is in the town laws, studies from other areas, statements in the DEIS and FEIS, etc. I am a real person with a REAL problem. I am asking very seriously for solutions, not rhetoric and quotes. Again, I invite any and all to come experience this firsthand….Come see and hear what I do.\u00a0 I’m quite sure that no one could HONESTLY say there is nothing wrong with what happened here.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bob, still reading this?\u00a0 Derek, you too?\u00a0 Again, revisit Diaries & Reports<\/a> on Dr. Pierpont’s website, and appreciate the fact this is happening virtually everywhere wind turbines are installed too close to people’s homes.\u00a0 Cheryl’s story is not unique.\u00a0 This is an industrial plague.\u00a0 (Derek, where’s the legal oversight on this?)<\/p>\n

She continues:<\/p>\n

\n

I suggested to Tim McNeil that Noble Operations buy the house. It would be a perfect site for an Ops building for the Altona Park. Tim remarked that it is in the middle of nowhere, why would they want it? \u00a0Well, maybe because it is in the MIDDLE of the damn park.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“I also think that any future development team should be aware of and see the ramifications before this happens to someone else.”\u00a0 God bless Cheryl LeClair:\u00a0 she has ethics!\u00a0 Why doesn’t Noble promote her to CEO?\u00a0 Instead, they laid her off.\u00a0 “I have been warned not to send this email as it may impact the offer of a contract to return as a consultant or to be rehired in the future. I find that disturbing, but if it is true, so be it. I have been a good, loyal employee and have earned my keep. This is my future.”<\/p>\n

This is the future of many people in Clinton and Franklin counties.\u00a0 A future of being locked up in the nightmare from hell.\u00a0 I grant that not everyone who lives in one of these so-called wind parks is experiencing what Cheryl describes.\u00a0 But that’s not the point.\u00a0 If a single individual suffers like this, then there’s obviously something wrong with the siting of these wind factories.\u00a0 The answer is a no brainer:\u00a0 They don’t belong anywhere near people’s homes, for pity’s sake<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s a crap shoot figuring out who’s going to be a Cheryl LeClair and who’s not.\u00a0 The stakes are too high for this\u00a0\u201cEeny Meeny Miney Mo” nonsense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lest someone reading this think it’s only neighbors who complain, and not leaseholders:\u00a0 Watch this video.\u00a0 The man speaking is the Town Justice for Cohocton, NY.\u00a0 Judge Hal Graham.\u00a0 He’s describing his experience with First Wind’s turbines, that started up last month.\u00a0 At least one of them is on his property.<\/p>\n

[Judge] Graham said he was a strong supporter of wind energy and studied any potential noise problems extensively by observing other wind farms in the state and asking questions.<\/p>\n

Both he and a neighbor each have a turbine on their properties, he said.<\/p>\n

“When I signed the contract, I was assured there was no noise,” he said. “Well, people can’t sleep at night, in the winter, with the windows closed. As the wind speed increases, the noise level rises. It rattles our windows…. It’s like a jet engine going full blast.”<\/p>\n

The noise can be heard in neighboring hamlets of Ingleside, Atlanta and North Cohocton, according to Graham and other Cohocton residents at the meeting. Other residents complained about a lack of sleep and disturbed animals.<\/p>\n

—Mary Perham, Gatehouse News Service<\/em>, reporting on Prattsburgh (NY) town meeting, 2\/17\/09<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/embed><\/object>
\nJudge Hal Graham, Cohocton (NY), February 17, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

(Click here<\/a> for a radio interview with a Cohocton, NY,\u00a0homeowner experiencing Wind Turbine Syndrome from turbines on his and neighbors’ land.\u00a0 Canisteo Valley News.com<\/a>, 2\/17\/09. Interviewer is Kevin Doran.\u00a0 The man being interviewed requested anonymity, but is widely felt to be\u00a0Judge Graham.)<\/p>\n

Finally, watch this video.\u00a0 Helen Fraser, Ontario, Canada.\u00a0Excruciating headaches, sleeplessness, tinnitus, confusion, memory problems, nocturia, body aches, heart palpitations, panic: Helen describes classic Wind Turbine Syndrome. Dismissed by her physicians, laughed at by the municipal government, ignored by the province and blown off by the wind developer, she and her husband moved away—and all their symptoms disappeared.\u00a0 (To play the video, first click on the triangle at the far left of the video’s navigation bar:\u00a0 see bottom of video. You then get a message that the video is buffering. Once the buffering is done, you can watch the video by clicking on the “speech bubble” located immediately to the right of the triangle. To pause the video, click on the icon where the triangle was.)<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object>
\nHelen Fraser, Shelburne (Ontario, Canada), January 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

I almost forgot.\u00a0 Cheryl made a YouTube video.\u00a0 As of this writing, it’s still up.\u00a0 “Disco Kitchen,” she called it.\u00a0 Be sure your speakers are turned on.\u00a0 (I wonder how long it will remain on YouTube before it’s yanked—at someone’s urging.)<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object>
\nCheryl LeClair’s “Disco Kitchen”<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re wondering what became of Cheryl?\u00a0 I wonder, too.\u00a0 Last email I got, she was desperately hoping Noble would buy her out, ending her ordeal.\u00a0 (Is this what wind energy has come to?\u00a0 Driving people out of their homes?\u00a0 Even if they’re lucky enough, or make enough uproar, to be favored with a buy-out?\u00a0 Is this legal?\u00a0 Derek, are you still reading this?\u00a0 If it’s legal, it sure as hell is unethical and downright contemptible.\u00a0 I call it gangsterism.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before she disappeared from my radar screen, Cheryl acknowledged that she had signed what’s called a Good Neighbor Agreement.\u00a0\u00a0Oops!\u00a0 (Good Neighbor Agreement =\u00a0in return for an annual payment of $1000 or $2000, you agree to accept and not publicly complain about how you’re getting screwed by the wind\u00a0developer.\u00a0 Good Neighbor Agreements are for neighbors<\/em> of wind turbines, not leaseholders<\/em>.\u00a0 Leaseholders sign a gag clause, typically, agreeing to essentially the same terms.)<\/p>\n

My guess?\u00a0Well, you can guess what I’m thinking.\u00a0 Several possibilities flash to mind, none of them savory.\u00a0 For her sake, I hope Cheryl got bought out.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, Cheryl LeClair disappeared from my email inbox, even after I contacted her with, “Hey, what was the outcome?”<\/p>\n

Cheryl Leclair is a hero.\u00a0 A courageous and valiant woman.\u00a0 She has stood up to the sleaze and chicanery (illegality?) of Big Wind.\u00a0 She reminds me of these lines from a Carl Sandburg poem.\u00a0 “The people will live on,” he begins,<\/p>\n

The learning and blundering people will live on.
\nThey will be tricked and sold and again sold
\nAnd go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
\nThe people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
\nYou can’t laugh off their capacity to take it.<\/p>\n

Cheryl LeClair:\u00a0 tricked and sold and again sold<\/em>.\u00a0 But I expect she will go back to the nourishing earth for her rootholds<\/em>, \u2018cause she’s one strong woman.\u00a0 People like Cheryl:\u00a0 You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it<\/em>.\u00a0 And take it.\u00a0 And keep taking it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now, Mr. Robert O’Grady (forgive me, it’s St. Patrick’s Day; the leprechauns prompt me to tweak your fine Irish name), it’s your journalistic responsibility to continue probing and dissecting Noble.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Derek Champagne, I hope you take this as a bugle call to re-start the engines of justice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bob, let’s wrap it up with a few lines from that past master of journalistic wit and wisdom, H.L. Mencken, whom I know you admire as much as I do.<\/p>\n

The only way that democracy can be made bearable is by developing and cherishing a class of men sufficiently honest and disinterested to challenge the prevailing quacks.\u00a0 No such class has ever appeared in strength in the United States. Thus, the business of harassing the quacks devolves upon the newspapers. When they fail in their duty, which is usually, we are at the quacks’ mercy.<\/p>\n

—H. L. Mencken, Minority Report<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 See, for example,\u00a0Martin & Pierpont, “Wind Farm in your yard?\u00a0 Think about it!” Press Republican<\/em> (October 18, 2004), p. A4; Anne Britton, “Nothing looks bad without details,” Malone Telegram<\/em> (April 29, 2005), p. 4; Advertisement, “551 wind turbines to be installed between Brandon and Altona,” Malone Telegram<\/em> (May 28, 2005), p. 5; Martin & Pierpont, “The wind factory next door,” Press Republican<\/em> (November 25, 2004); Pierpont, “Response to Noble Environmental Power’s DEIS and FEIS.”\u00a0 This is but a sampling of Letters to the Editor (Telegram<\/em> & PR<\/em>), editorials (Telegram<\/em> & PR<\/em>), and paid ads (Telegram<\/em> & PR<\/em>), all pointing out hazards from disintegrating turbines and turbines catching fire.\u00a0 In addition, these issues were repeatedly raised at public hearings in Ellenburg, Churubusco, Altona, Chateaugay, Malone, Brandon, Beekmantown, and Burke over the past four and a half years.\u00a0 Consider Nina Pierpont’s widely circulated, “Health, hazard, and quality of life near wind power installations:\u00a0 How close is too close?<\/a>” (March 2, 2005):<\/p>\n

\u00bb<\/span> Falling over<\/p>\n

A nacelle (generator and gearbox) weighing up to 60 tons atop a 265 ft. metal tower, equipped with 135 ft. blades, is a significant hazard to people, livestock, buildings, and traffic within a radius equal to the height of the structure (400 ft) and beyond. In Germany in 2003, in high storm winds, the brakes on a wind turbine failed and the blades spun out of control. A blade struck the tower and the entire nacelle flew off the tower. The blades and other parts landed as far as 1650 ft (0.31 mile) from the base of the tower.1<\/sup> (Note that all turbines discussed in this article are “upwind,” three-bladed, industrial-sized turbines. “Downwind” turbines have not been built since the 1980’s.) Given the date, this turbine was probably smaller than the ones proposed for current construction, and thus could not throw pieces as far. This distance is nearly identical to calculations of ice throw from turbines with 100 ft blades rotating 20 times per minute (1680 ft).2<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00bb<\/span> Fires<\/p>\n

Most fires in wind turbines are started by lightning and fueled by up to 200 gallons of hydraulic oil in the nacelle. Fire-fighting at 265 ft (26 stories) may not be possible with the equipment of a rural town. A fire may leave wind turbine controls malfunctioning until the equipment in the nacelle is repaired or replaced, making it more susceptible to the kind of accident described above.<\/p>\n

\u00bb <\/span>Setback<\/p>\n

Based on these health effects and hazards, turbines should not be placed within 1700 feet of any road or dwelling. Those living within \u00bd mile (2640 ft) should be apprised that they are likely to experience very bothersome levels of noise and flicker, which continue (though to a lesser degree) to a mile or more from the turbines. At 2 miles, noise is sometimes heard, but few people are bothered. In Lincoln Township, WI, after two years with the turbines, 73% of people said they would not consider buying or building a house within a mile of the turbines, and 23% wished to be at least 2 miles away (212 people sampled).<\/p>\n

It is significant that each of these setbacks (the first for hazard of falling objects, the second for noise) is supported by two unrelated pieces of data yielding the same result. For noise, the data from two wind installations of different ages in different countries, one by resident survey and the other an engineer’s measurements, yield the same distance at which noise stops being bothersome: at something greater than 1-1.2 miles. Thus the age or specific type of equipment is not relevant to the noise issue, and specific measurements, properly done, support what neighbors of wind installations are saying.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, based on these data, wind turbines should not be built within 1.5 miles of people’s homes. Let it be understood, however, that there will still be health and life quality problems caused by wind turbines beyond this radius. People living 1.5 to 3 miles from a proposed turbine site should be notified of potential health and life quality effects, and for this they should be appropriately compensated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Confused<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wind company employee blows the whistle on reckless siting of turbines close to people\u2019s homes\u2014her home, in fact\u2014after she begins suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome. Cheryl LeClair’s pleas to her employer to \u201cfix\u201d the problems fell on deaf ears. Finally, she pleads for a buyout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}