I must admit, I have not had a chance to read the entire blog...but this opening description intrigued me and I can certainly empathize with this family....
"we would like our blog readers to know that we are not angry people that go around all day bashing renewable resources. we love life, our neighbors, and people who don't necessarily agree with us. we count our blessings and life goes on. we are not going against the aesthetics of windmills, we are calling for increased setbacks because of constant noise and other issues. we are a small family going up against a very large company who have hired experts to support many of their misleading statements. we are the experts now, because we live with the turbines. 1400 feet is way too close! we would like wind companies, state representatives, county boards, landowners, planning and zoning committees, etc... to realize that they need to make larger setbacks so other residents can be
spared from the issues we (and so many others) are enduring.
thank you for reading."
Our Life with DeKalb Wind Turbines
http://lifewithdekalbturbines.blogspot.com/
I COULD HAVE WRITTEN THE FOLLOWING ENTRY...I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THESE PEOPLE, AND THIS POST LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE SOMETHING I COULD HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG!!!! HOW CAN WIND DEVELOPERS AND POLITICIANS SAY THERE IS NO PROOF....THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING...HOW CAN SO MANY SO FAR APART HAVE THE EXACT SAME COMPLAINTS AND DESCRIPTIONS!!!???!!! TIME TO WAKE UP AND "FEEL THE VIBRATION", SO TO SPEAK....
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Sound is horrible today
it's Sunday afternoon, 89 degrees, winds SSW at 17mph. the sound is horrible today and turbine number 30 is whistling again. we were outside on the front porch and had to come in because of the noise. sitting at the computer now typing this out and can still hear the sound through the walls. it is so upsetting to our family that this is happening. we're going to have to move someday. we are being forced to move from our dream home that we designed and built (with our own hands), the home we brought all our babies home from the hospital, the home that is close to our family/friends/and neighbors, the home where we have created such great family memories, the home that is close to a wonderful school where we volunteer and our children attend....HOW COULD WE POSSIBLY PUT A PRICE ON OUR HOME? we wish the turbines could just be turned off. we could deal with what they look like, just turn them off. we reported this disturbance to the Next Era hotline and the planning and zoning office of dekalb county. this is a noise that NO ONE should have to live with. it's heartbreaking that the wind industry misleads voting members in saying that turbines don't affect people. we are proof that they do! wind companies who are reading this, please tell the truth in your presentations to county board members, landowners, residents, etc... we agree, yes they can sound like a light swishing, babbling brooke, a refrigerator as you claim. but, the reality is that they don't always sound like that. most of the time they sound like jet plane engines in your yard and in your home. the quality of sound and low frequency hum is a nuissance that no one should live with. as a side note....say they did sound like a refrigerator all the time (which they don't)....who would want to sleep next to their refrigerator, bike and walk next to one, have a refrigerator running next to you as you push your child on the swingset, listen to a refrigerator as you sit on the front porch...and so on. that would be a nuissance....to ANYONE! these turbines are way too close to homes. we are calling for the wind companies to be honest in their presentations to county board members, planning and zoning committees, residents, landowners, etc. we heard 2 presentations last week from 2 different wind companies claiming the same thing...very minimal sound. live with them for a month and you will know what we're talking about!
Dwarfed by Turbines
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
May 29th - two nights of the BEST sleep!!!
Thursday night was an amazing night sleep for all of us! The wind was from the North which is unusual, and not extremely heavy but just enough to enjoy a great breeze through the house. We were actually able to open our windows and take advantage of the breeze and not hear the turbines. They were not turning much, and the wind was in a better direction for us as far as noise goes...I think we all had the best sleep we have had at home in probably over a year!!! Last night was almost as good....Too bad we couldn't keep these conditions, but soon, we will have to close up the house tight as can be in a feeble attempt to block the noise of our "monster neighbors"... In the mean time, the windows open upstairs is amazing and wonderful - imagine, a world where you could sleep with your windows open in the country and not have to hear the sounds of giant mechanical monsters in the distance....I wonder if our children's children will ever know what silence truly is? Or, will our world be so determined to "advance" technology at the cost of beauty, nature and even human well-being that peaceful country evenings on the porch watching the sun go down will be something only seen in old movies or read in historical books....???? That is a sad, sad, thought.....G'night....Nik
Thursday, May 27, 2010
May 27 - Debate on effects of wind turbines still raging on
May 27th - we did not sleep at home last night so I am not sure how the turbines were, but thankfully, the night before they were not running or if they were, very slowly and quietly so nothing new to report, however, please read the article from the Daily News below and also, Read the letter I have been given permission to share written by Barb A to Dr. King after her report came out. A great letter in my opinion with many, many valid points..
Debate on effects of wind turbines still raging on
Posted By DANIEL PEARCE, QMI AGENCY
Chatham Daily News Article May 26
The controversy over whether industrial wind turbines can make people who live near them sick just won't go away.
Last week, Ontario's chief medical officer of health declared them safe. Well, not so much safe as not proven dangerous.
"According to the scientific evidence, there isn't any direct casual link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects," Dr. Arlene King announced in a media release.
There's a lot of wiggle room in that statement.
Somebody standing before a judge could be guilty of a crime they are charged with but is set free because it can't be proved.
The fact that the turbines could be harmful hasn't been ruled out. Their harmfulness just can't be proven.
Rather than toning down the debate going on in Norfolk County about the wind farm in the far southwest corner of the municipality, King's report is only going to rev it up.
A group of people living in the former Houghton Township area continues to insist the windmills that have gone up in their area over the past few years are making them sick.
It's easy to dismiss their charges. People become ill, especially as they get older. Headaches? Dizziness? Sleeplessness? These things happen to people all the time.
But if you listen to their stories, something disturbing starts to emerge. Outspoken critic Stephana Johnston insists her problems disappear once she leaves her Lakeshore Road home to sleep in a room she rents in Delhi. Another woman offers a sober, detailed account of the problems she faces: the low level noise from the propeller blades of surrounding turbines, she says, creates vibrations in her house and in her body.
On the surface, it may sound far-fetched, but a Portugese study concluded the phenomenon does happen and is harmful. Vibrations can be set off inside body cavities and soft organs damaged. Their study is referred to in King's report and dismissed.
"This finding has not been recognized by the international medical and scientific
community," her report notes. "This research group also hypothesized that a family living near wind turbines will develop vibro-acoustic disease from exposure to low frequency sound, but has not provided evidence to support this."
Whether or not turbines are a health hazard is an important question for Norfolk County. The province announced recently that another group of turbines are set to go up in the other end of the county east of Port Dover as part of a vast collection of wind and solar farms extending into Haldimand County.
You can say the science doesn't support that turbines are sickening people. But the anecdotal evidence continues to pile up that they are.
What's needed is a scientific report stating clearly and unequivocally that wind turbines are not harmful -- end of story.
Until then, we should all remain skeptical. And our elected officials should join the other municipalities in Ontario that are calling for a moratorium on the building of any new turbines.
More studies need to be done before we can say for sure they are safe.
LETTER TO DR. ARLENE KING FROM ORANGEVILLE RESIDENT BARB A
May 24, 2010
Dr. King,
I have corresponded with your office since January of this year. I asked for your help. I asked you to please respond to the many victims in this province who are suffering and being forced to leave their homes since the start up of wind turbines and substations that are situated too close to their homes.
You claim there is no causal link. How can you call a developer shutting down turbines to alleviate the noise not a causal link? How can you call a house that is audibly humming and vibrating not a causal link? How can you justify an MOE representative admitting there is a 160 hertz tonal noise being emitted from an entire wind farm, which I have been told is very disturbing to the human body, not a causal link? How can you call a developer sending families to live in a motel not causal link? How can you call families that were happy and healthy, some in their homes for decades but now broken up, in distress and unable to sleep in their own homes not a causal link? How can you call hundreds of people across this province and around this entire world that are experiencing identical symptoms since the start up of the wind farms around their homes not a causal link?
To my knowledge, you have not talked to any of the victims. You have not started at the most obvious place to start. Dr. Hazel Lynn of the Grey-Bruce Public health office held two open houses to discuss this topic. One was held in Owen Sound and the other in Walkerton. She invited Dr. Ray Copes. At these two open houses, victims who were able to attend and speak out, lined up at the microphones to tell the public health office what was happening to them and they were asking for help. We all thought that we were finally going to have someone who cares about our health listen to us and help us. We had lost faith in every other ministry involved in this policy but we thought you would listen. You listened alright, and then you ignored.
Is it your mandate to protect and prevent harm to our health? If so, you have not done the job you are supposed to do, just as the rest of the ministries, who for some reason have been silent or have deliberately fed people misleading information, have not done their jobs. If not, then you should not have put this report out under your office's name.
You have just thrown well over 100 victims in rural Ontario under the bus in your allegiance to your Premier. You have also put more people clearly in the path of harm in future wind farms by issuing this report. Is this the legacy that you wanted attached to your career? Is this what you want people to remember when they hear your name? This should be an embarrassment for those who participated in drafting this report. No one in this province will ever trust any of you again.
We heard many times at the beginning of your department’s involvement that renewable energy project health consequences were not included in the mandate of the public health office. Your staff literally did not know what to do with complaints.
I quote:
“I empathize with your concern about the neighboring wind turbines and the ineffectiveness of various agencies to legitimize your grievance. Unfortunately your request that our public health unit be able to take some action on this matter does not align with the current reality. I apologize for any false impressions I may have relayed to you about any type of regulatory capacity we may have but to do so would only give you false hope and perhaps undermine any legitimate avenue of appeal you are trying to seek through the appropriate provincial agency or court action.
Our public health unit does not have the recourse, resources or expertise to monitor the health effects of turbines and seek the type of remedy you are looking for. To circumvent or intervene with the processes already in place, however, would be foolhardy and wasteful on our part given our mandate.
I am sorry that you feel you have been undermined by these very processes but we are unequivocal in our principles to fully practice protecting the public’s health in an effective manner with the tools and guidelines we have. To stray from this course, by pursuing such avenues, would be highly problematic for effectively serving the public in accordance with our public health protocols and directives.” April, 2009
I know that this general message has also been expressed to others. If this is not in your departments mandate then you should have stepped down from any involvement in this and passed it to someone who could do a proper investigation.
This report implies that industrial wind turbine installations are not causing residents adverse health effects. This is shameful and misleading.You cleverly conclude that wind turbines do not cause hearing impairment. It appears you are trying to confuse the public, by adding an irrelevant issue to the issues that they are trying to understand. How could you dismiss so many people and render them invisible? Why would your department completely ignore the precautionary principle and the voices that have been pleading for help from this government? Shame on you as a doctor and shame on you as a person.
I have included in this letter the conclusions of your literature review. As follows:
The following are the main conclusions of the review and consultation on the health impacts of wind turbines:
• While some people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects.
• The sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct adverse health effects. However, some people might find it annoying. It has been suggested that annoyance may be a reaction to the characteristic “swishing” or fluctuating nature of wind turbine sound rather than to the intensity of sound.
• Low frequency sound and infrasound from current generation upwind model turbines are well below the pressure sound levels at which known health effects occur. Further, there is no scientific evidence to date that vibration from low frequency wind turbine noise causes adverse health effects.
• Community engagement at the outset of planning for wind turbines is important and may alleviate health concerns about wind farms.
• Concerns about fairness and equity may also influence attitudes towards wind farms and allegations about effects on health. These factors deserve greater attention in future developments.
Can you really dismiss the low frequency issues when your fellow ministries have admitted they don’t even know how to measure it? Again, you are confusing the public. Unfortunately it is the victims of these vibrations that are the most knowledgeable and experienced at this, but sadly, you failed to ask them about it.
You suggest that community engagement may alleviate health concerns? How? How does that stop noise, low frequency vibration and dirty electricity from bombarding ones home and body?
My husband had just finished building his dream shop. We were building it as the turbines were being erected. I was gleefully taking photos of each. We did not anticipate any problems and we had certainly not heard about all of the problems in previous installations because many of those people had been silenced. How dare you imply to the public reading your conclusions that my husband and I would not have had problems had we been more involved in the process. How dare you imply that a small child who is howling with earaches when she lives in her home and that are relieved when she is taken out of her home, is angry because she has been left out of the process. Your insults are not taken lightly by the residents of this province.
In the Toronto Star newspaper, May 21st, 2010 you said:
“There are no direct links between wind turbines and adverse health impacts,” King said in an interview. “This variety of symptoms can be caused by a variety of different factors. It is important if individuals have symptoms or concerns (that they) be assessed by their physicians.”
How can patients be properly assessed by their physicians when you have broadly and publicly told doctors that their symptoms are not being caused by industrial wind turbine facilities? By this statement you have jeopardized every victim in getting help. If you have not talked to any victims or completed any ground studies then this statement to the press is inappropriate.
you should immediately resign from your position. You have done nothing to protect our health and you have done nothing to investigate valid health concerns.
Barbara Ashbee
Debate on effects of wind turbines still raging on
Posted By DANIEL PEARCE, QMI AGENCY
Chatham Daily News Article May 26
The controversy over whether industrial wind turbines can make people who live near them sick just won't go away.
Last week, Ontario's chief medical officer of health declared them safe. Well, not so much safe as not proven dangerous.
"According to the scientific evidence, there isn't any direct casual link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects," Dr. Arlene King announced in a media release.
There's a lot of wiggle room in that statement.
Somebody standing before a judge could be guilty of a crime they are charged with but is set free because it can't be proved.
The fact that the turbines could be harmful hasn't been ruled out. Their harmfulness just can't be proven.
Rather than toning down the debate going on in Norfolk County about the wind farm in the far southwest corner of the municipality, King's report is only going to rev it up.
A group of people living in the former Houghton Township area continues to insist the windmills that have gone up in their area over the past few years are making them sick.
It's easy to dismiss their charges. People become ill, especially as they get older. Headaches? Dizziness? Sleeplessness? These things happen to people all the time.
But if you listen to their stories, something disturbing starts to emerge. Outspoken critic Stephana Johnston insists her problems disappear once she leaves her Lakeshore Road home to sleep in a room she rents in Delhi. Another woman offers a sober, detailed account of the problems she faces: the low level noise from the propeller blades of surrounding turbines, she says, creates vibrations in her house and in her body.
On the surface, it may sound far-fetched, but a Portugese study concluded the phenomenon does happen and is harmful. Vibrations can be set off inside body cavities and soft organs damaged. Their study is referred to in King's report and dismissed.
"This finding has not been recognized by the international medical and scientific
community," her report notes. "This research group also hypothesized that a family living near wind turbines will develop vibro-acoustic disease from exposure to low frequency sound, but has not provided evidence to support this."
Whether or not turbines are a health hazard is an important question for Norfolk County. The province announced recently that another group of turbines are set to go up in the other end of the county east of Port Dover as part of a vast collection of wind and solar farms extending into Haldimand County.
You can say the science doesn't support that turbines are sickening people. But the anecdotal evidence continues to pile up that they are.
What's needed is a scientific report stating clearly and unequivocally that wind turbines are not harmful -- end of story.
Until then, we should all remain skeptical. And our elected officials should join the other municipalities in Ontario that are calling for a moratorium on the building of any new turbines.
More studies need to be done before we can say for sure they are safe.
LETTER TO DR. ARLENE KING FROM ORANGEVILLE RESIDENT BARB A
May 24, 2010
Dr. King,
I have corresponded with your office since January of this year. I asked for your help. I asked you to please respond to the many victims in this province who are suffering and being forced to leave their homes since the start up of wind turbines and substations that are situated too close to their homes.
You claim there is no causal link. How can you call a developer shutting down turbines to alleviate the noise not a causal link? How can you call a house that is audibly humming and vibrating not a causal link? How can you justify an MOE representative admitting there is a 160 hertz tonal noise being emitted from an entire wind farm, which I have been told is very disturbing to the human body, not a causal link? How can you call a developer sending families to live in a motel not causal link? How can you call families that were happy and healthy, some in their homes for decades but now broken up, in distress and unable to sleep in their own homes not a causal link? How can you call hundreds of people across this province and around this entire world that are experiencing identical symptoms since the start up of the wind farms around their homes not a causal link?
To my knowledge, you have not talked to any of the victims. You have not started at the most obvious place to start. Dr. Hazel Lynn of the Grey-Bruce Public health office held two open houses to discuss this topic. One was held in Owen Sound and the other in Walkerton. She invited Dr. Ray Copes. At these two open houses, victims who were able to attend and speak out, lined up at the microphones to tell the public health office what was happening to them and they were asking for help. We all thought that we were finally going to have someone who cares about our health listen to us and help us. We had lost faith in every other ministry involved in this policy but we thought you would listen. You listened alright, and then you ignored.
Is it your mandate to protect and prevent harm to our health? If so, you have not done the job you are supposed to do, just as the rest of the ministries, who for some reason have been silent or have deliberately fed people misleading information, have not done their jobs. If not, then you should not have put this report out under your office's name.
You have just thrown well over 100 victims in rural Ontario under the bus in your allegiance to your Premier. You have also put more people clearly in the path of harm in future wind farms by issuing this report. Is this the legacy that you wanted attached to your career? Is this what you want people to remember when they hear your name? This should be an embarrassment for those who participated in drafting this report. No one in this province will ever trust any of you again.
We heard many times at the beginning of your department’s involvement that renewable energy project health consequences were not included in the mandate of the public health office. Your staff literally did not know what to do with complaints.
I quote:
“I empathize with your concern about the neighboring wind turbines and the ineffectiveness of various agencies to legitimize your grievance. Unfortunately your request that our public health unit be able to take some action on this matter does not align with the current reality. I apologize for any false impressions I may have relayed to you about any type of regulatory capacity we may have but to do so would only give you false hope and perhaps undermine any legitimate avenue of appeal you are trying to seek through the appropriate provincial agency or court action.
Our public health unit does not have the recourse, resources or expertise to monitor the health effects of turbines and seek the type of remedy you are looking for. To circumvent or intervene with the processes already in place, however, would be foolhardy and wasteful on our part given our mandate.
I am sorry that you feel you have been undermined by these very processes but we are unequivocal in our principles to fully practice protecting the public’s health in an effective manner with the tools and guidelines we have. To stray from this course, by pursuing such avenues, would be highly problematic for effectively serving the public in accordance with our public health protocols and directives.” April, 2009
I know that this general message has also been expressed to others. If this is not in your departments mandate then you should have stepped down from any involvement in this and passed it to someone who could do a proper investigation.
This report implies that industrial wind turbine installations are not causing residents adverse health effects. This is shameful and misleading.You cleverly conclude that wind turbines do not cause hearing impairment. It appears you are trying to confuse the public, by adding an irrelevant issue to the issues that they are trying to understand. How could you dismiss so many people and render them invisible? Why would your department completely ignore the precautionary principle and the voices that have been pleading for help from this government? Shame on you as a doctor and shame on you as a person.
I have included in this letter the conclusions of your literature review. As follows:
The following are the main conclusions of the review and consultation on the health impacts of wind turbines:
• While some people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects.
• The sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct adverse health effects. However, some people might find it annoying. It has been suggested that annoyance may be a reaction to the characteristic “swishing” or fluctuating nature of wind turbine sound rather than to the intensity of sound.
• Low frequency sound and infrasound from current generation upwind model turbines are well below the pressure sound levels at which known health effects occur. Further, there is no scientific evidence to date that vibration from low frequency wind turbine noise causes adverse health effects.
• Community engagement at the outset of planning for wind turbines is important and may alleviate health concerns about wind farms.
• Concerns about fairness and equity may also influence attitudes towards wind farms and allegations about effects on health. These factors deserve greater attention in future developments.
Can you really dismiss the low frequency issues when your fellow ministries have admitted they don’t even know how to measure it? Again, you are confusing the public. Unfortunately it is the victims of these vibrations that are the most knowledgeable and experienced at this, but sadly, you failed to ask them about it.
You suggest that community engagement may alleviate health concerns? How? How does that stop noise, low frequency vibration and dirty electricity from bombarding ones home and body?
My husband had just finished building his dream shop. We were building it as the turbines were being erected. I was gleefully taking photos of each. We did not anticipate any problems and we had certainly not heard about all of the problems in previous installations because many of those people had been silenced. How dare you imply to the public reading your conclusions that my husband and I would not have had problems had we been more involved in the process. How dare you imply that a small child who is howling with earaches when she lives in her home and that are relieved when she is taken out of her home, is angry because she has been left out of the process. Your insults are not taken lightly by the residents of this province.
In the Toronto Star newspaper, May 21st, 2010 you said:
“There are no direct links between wind turbines and adverse health impacts,” King said in an interview. “This variety of symptoms can be caused by a variety of different factors. It is important if individuals have symptoms or concerns (that they) be assessed by their physicians.”
How can patients be properly assessed by their physicians when you have broadly and publicly told doctors that their symptoms are not being caused by industrial wind turbine facilities? By this statement you have jeopardized every victim in getting help. If you have not talked to any victims or completed any ground studies then this statement to the press is inappropriate.
you should immediately resign from your position. You have done nothing to protect our health and you have done nothing to investigate valid health concerns.
Barbara Ashbee
Monday, May 17, 2010
ANOTHER Letter to the Editor - when will someone take notice!!!
Dear editor
As a member of CFFO I felt it important to comment on the recent opinion letter by Nathan Stevens "Sharing the Green energy wealth". I believe CFFO has embarked upon a very slippery slope, to suggest that money can mend the strife between neighbours over wind lease agreements. This clearly is trying to put a Band-Aid on a severed leg. What CFFO is not realizing, is that the damage is done. Like a Stealth bomber, the wind industry for the past 5 to 8 years have wooed almost every Ontario farmer into options and questionable land lease agreements, binding them for the next 40 to 50 years. Now landowners who have signed contracts are realizing that proceeding with these projects is contrary to the wishes of the community. The consequences will be borne for years to come in community relationships, health, viability of neighbouring agricultural operations and legal proceedings. In other areas of Ontario, several landowners who had signed lease agreements are already pursuing options to rescind their contracts for these reasons.
Despite efforts to send information to all three main ag. organizations, nothing can be found which pushes for a proper resolution addressing problems over invasive turbine noise , reduced homeowner property values, wind lease agreements which included the ability to apply construction liens, gag orders or impose provisions for first-rights of refusal and postponement of mortgages. The fact that Industrial Wind lacks economic benefit, all organizations remain silent and instead of doing due diligence, CFFO decides that money is the solution to problems such as envy, disappointment and frustration for neighbours who are the "losers". As a farmer who had the opportunity to host a turbine, this could not be further off the mark and I am deeply disturbed to think that a Christian organization could suggest that money is the solution to the growing opposition to Industrial Wind.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many continue to overlook the other side of Industrial wind development which has caused residents to abandon their homes, cannot prove that it can lower harmful emissions, reduce the mining and burning of coal, lower or stabilize electricity rates, wean us from foreign oil, nor provide a timely and reliable product needed in a modern society. Instead we let ourselves to be mislead by the Wind industry into thinking that the noise is no louder than a refrigerator, or that erecting IWT's will provide a new green economy and jobs. These turbines will do nothing other than provide a superficial feel good gesture, political move for the McGuinty gov't to appear environmentally conscious and an opportunity for developers to make a lot of money off the taxpayer's back. Renewables, especially Industrial Wind, are not proven, effective nor efficient. I don't have the new technology answers, but wholly believe that things like wind energy is not only over subsidized, but subsidized to the point of putting our province at risk of a debt load our children will not be able to support for decades to come. ( estimates of $25 Billion to $80 Billion).
Parallel to the corn ethanol bubble, I believe our governments has created a gold rush INSTEAD of a meaningful impetus to an overall solution regarding our future energy needs. The subsidies the wind industry receives, do not reflect the quality of the energy product, it's proximity to load, transmission congestion constraints, it's ripple effects on the load balancing resources in our grids, it's sprawl factor , nor the value received for the energy tax dollar compared with other technologies. The industry's statements, which have induced these subsidies, constitute fraud in my opinion, and until proof of benefit can be quantified and verified (measured), and people can live safely within project areas, CFFO needs to encourage this McGuinty gov't to cease paying hard earned tax dollars to things like Industrial Wind energy.
Colette McLean
R.R. #5, 1245 Gore Rd
Harrow. Ontario
N0R 1G0
519 738-3356
As a member of CFFO I felt it important to comment on the recent opinion letter by Nathan Stevens "Sharing the Green energy wealth". I believe CFFO has embarked upon a very slippery slope, to suggest that money can mend the strife between neighbours over wind lease agreements. This clearly is trying to put a Band-Aid on a severed leg. What CFFO is not realizing, is that the damage is done. Like a Stealth bomber, the wind industry for the past 5 to 8 years have wooed almost every Ontario farmer into options and questionable land lease agreements, binding them for the next 40 to 50 years. Now landowners who have signed contracts are realizing that proceeding with these projects is contrary to the wishes of the community. The consequences will be borne for years to come in community relationships, health, viability of neighbouring agricultural operations and legal proceedings. In other areas of Ontario, several landowners who had signed lease agreements are already pursuing options to rescind their contracts for these reasons.
Despite efforts to send information to all three main ag. organizations, nothing can be found which pushes for a proper resolution addressing problems over invasive turbine noise , reduced homeowner property values, wind lease agreements which included the ability to apply construction liens, gag orders or impose provisions for first-rights of refusal and postponement of mortgages. The fact that Industrial Wind lacks economic benefit, all organizations remain silent and instead of doing due diligence, CFFO decides that money is the solution to problems such as envy, disappointment and frustration for neighbours who are the "losers". As a farmer who had the opportunity to host a turbine, this could not be further off the mark and I am deeply disturbed to think that a Christian organization could suggest that money is the solution to the growing opposition to Industrial Wind.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many continue to overlook the other side of Industrial wind development which has caused residents to abandon their homes, cannot prove that it can lower harmful emissions, reduce the mining and burning of coal, lower or stabilize electricity rates, wean us from foreign oil, nor provide a timely and reliable product needed in a modern society. Instead we let ourselves to be mislead by the Wind industry into thinking that the noise is no louder than a refrigerator, or that erecting IWT's will provide a new green economy and jobs. These turbines will do nothing other than provide a superficial feel good gesture, political move for the McGuinty gov't to appear environmentally conscious and an opportunity for developers to make a lot of money off the taxpayer's back. Renewables, especially Industrial Wind, are not proven, effective nor efficient. I don't have the new technology answers, but wholly believe that things like wind energy is not only over subsidized, but subsidized to the point of putting our province at risk of a debt load our children will not be able to support for decades to come. ( estimates of $25 Billion to $80 Billion).
Parallel to the corn ethanol bubble, I believe our governments has created a gold rush INSTEAD of a meaningful impetus to an overall solution regarding our future energy needs. The subsidies the wind industry receives, do not reflect the quality of the energy product, it's proximity to load, transmission congestion constraints, it's ripple effects on the load balancing resources in our grids, it's sprawl factor , nor the value received for the energy tax dollar compared with other technologies. The industry's statements, which have induced these subsidies, constitute fraud in my opinion, and until proof of benefit can be quantified and verified (measured), and people can live safely within project areas, CFFO needs to encourage this McGuinty gov't to cease paying hard earned tax dollars to things like Industrial Wind energy.
Colette McLean
R.R. #5, 1245 Gore Rd
Harrow. Ontario
N0R 1G0
519 738-3356
Sharing of Information - We are not alone!
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 12:43 PM
Subject: [windconcerns] Letter to Editor
"It may be that the health concerns are overblown. The verdict is still out. But in some respects health issues have become a red herring.
Proponents say it's really about NIMBY: Not in my backyard. The real issue, they say, is "just" esthetics. No landowner wants to stare at a giant turbine as it sits on another landowner's property, smack in the middle of what used to be the view."
Michael Den Tandt, Sun Times Newspaper
Your comments tell me that you don't live near any wind turbines Michael. They also tell me you are uninformed and unconcerned as are many who don't have the prospect of another sleepless night, another unexplained headache that no pill can touch or any other adverse effect that has assaulted families living near turbines. The people in this province who are experiencing debilitating health issues, the same ones who were fine before turbine installations started up nearby, have been publicly revictimized by your flippant remark.
The verdict is absolutely NOT out for these people Michael. They know what is happening to them. They know it's real. They know their body is being assaulted by noise and vibration. So does this government. So does the wind industry proponent.
It's stunning that you call the health issue a "red herring". I see families having to abandon their homes, families being billeted in motels by wind companies, people who've quietly and reluctantly sold a home they've lived in for decades because they can't stand it anymore (and heaven help the poor soul who moved in next), people bringing lawsuit after lawsuit against proponents, people trapped and getting sicker with every day that passes, as an enormous red flag to the people of this province.
Of course proponents say it's NIMBY. Of course you don't expect them to discredit their own product, any more than the tobacco industry would discredit theirs. The wind industry seems to have studied techniques used by the tobacco company. They work very hard to deny problems exist. They use lobbyist language to describe people who are pro health and pro viability; NIMBY, anti wind, detractors and opponents. I see that much of the media simply latches onto these terms,even when they are trying to express concerns with the issue.
Talk to the people who have or are living in a mess of turbines. They'll tell you what's going on. Many of them will tell you they are too damn sick to worry about their view.
As McGuinty plans for several thousand more wind turbines to sit next to several tens of thousands more people, some very close to towns, perhaps the serious health issues will become clearer to those who choose to call it "overblown". I want Ontario families to be healthy and safe. Perhaps a better alternative would be a moratorium on turbines until independent (as opposed to reports and 'studies' paid for and submitted to govt. by the wind industry) studies by health professionals support claims made by this industry that people are not getting hurt. Is that too much to ask for?
Lorrie Gillis
Grey Highlands
Subject: [windconcerns] Letter to Editor
"It may be that the health concerns are overblown. The verdict is still out. But in some respects health issues have become a red herring.
Proponents say it's really about NIMBY: Not in my backyard. The real issue, they say, is "just" esthetics. No landowner wants to stare at a giant turbine as it sits on another landowner's property, smack in the middle of what used to be the view."
Michael Den Tandt, Sun Times Newspaper
Your comments tell me that you don't live near any wind turbines Michael. They also tell me you are uninformed and unconcerned as are many who don't have the prospect of another sleepless night, another unexplained headache that no pill can touch or any other adverse effect that has assaulted families living near turbines. The people in this province who are experiencing debilitating health issues, the same ones who were fine before turbine installations started up nearby, have been publicly revictimized by your flippant remark.
The verdict is absolutely NOT out for these people Michael. They know what is happening to them. They know it's real. They know their body is being assaulted by noise and vibration. So does this government. So does the wind industry proponent.
It's stunning that you call the health issue a "red herring". I see families having to abandon their homes, families being billeted in motels by wind companies, people who've quietly and reluctantly sold a home they've lived in for decades because they can't stand it anymore (and heaven help the poor soul who moved in next), people bringing lawsuit after lawsuit against proponents, people trapped and getting sicker with every day that passes, as an enormous red flag to the people of this province.
Of course proponents say it's NIMBY. Of course you don't expect them to discredit their own product, any more than the tobacco industry would discredit theirs. The wind industry seems to have studied techniques used by the tobacco company. They work very hard to deny problems exist. They use lobbyist language to describe people who are pro health and pro viability; NIMBY, anti wind, detractors and opponents. I see that much of the media simply latches onto these terms,even when they are trying to express concerns with the issue.
Talk to the people who have or are living in a mess of turbines. They'll tell you what's going on. Many of them will tell you they are too damn sick to worry about their view.
As McGuinty plans for several thousand more wind turbines to sit next to several tens of thousands more people, some very close to towns, perhaps the serious health issues will become clearer to those who choose to call it "overblown". I want Ontario families to be healthy and safe. Perhaps a better alternative would be a moratorium on turbines until independent (as opposed to reports and 'studies' paid for and submitted to govt. by the wind industry) studies by health professionals support claims made by this industry that people are not getting hurt. Is that too much to ask for?
Lorrie Gillis
Grey Highlands
Does Anyone know who this resident in Merlin is? I would love to meet him...
Turbines’ ‘woof’ sound annoying
Credit: The Windsor Star, www.windsorstar.com 14 May 2010
Though I live in Windsor, I have a friend who lives in Merlin. He has three wind turbines directly behind his residence in a field.
While raking his backyard last week, he brought to my attention the noise of these turbines. I listened and heard the low “woof” sound. This was from a mere three turbines.
There are currently 50 built and another 50 are proposed in this area. While speaking of the annoyance, I told him I would never buy a house near a turbine after hearing this.
It’s not like living near a train rail where it occurs once in awhile. This noise occurs all the time.
Though technology wants to move forward, the man’s chances of now selling his home and the value of his home will now be reduced. These issues are not considered when approving these turbines.
I would only believe that if this were done near my investment, I would be looking to be compensated for “my loss.”
Is anyone looking out for these people?
I would hope that the news would be more forthcoming to those who will suffer.
Cynthia Flemming,
Windsor
Credit: The Windsor Star, www.windsorstar.com 14 May 2010
Though I live in Windsor, I have a friend who lives in Merlin. He has three wind turbines directly behind his residence in a field.
While raking his backyard last week, he brought to my attention the noise of these turbines. I listened and heard the low “woof” sound. This was from a mere three turbines.
There are currently 50 built and another 50 are proposed in this area. While speaking of the annoyance, I told him I would never buy a house near a turbine after hearing this.
It’s not like living near a train rail where it occurs once in awhile. This noise occurs all the time.
Though technology wants to move forward, the man’s chances of now selling his home and the value of his home will now be reduced. These issues are not considered when approving these turbines.
I would only believe that if this were done near my investment, I would be looking to be compensated for “my loss.”
Is anyone looking out for these people?
I would hope that the news would be more forthcoming to those who will suffer.
Cynthia Flemming,
Windsor
Wind Turbines; Offensive industrialization of human space
The list of environmental costs imposed on wildlife and people are now being recognized
Wind Turbines; Offensive industrialization of human space
By Online Monday, July 28, 2008
By: Dr. Brian L. Horejsi, Dr. Barrie K. Gilbert, George Wuerthner
People are barking up the wrong tree by promoting, or succumbing to, wind turbine construction regardless of where it is proposed and how many there might be. Many North Americans are infected with tunnel vision and erroneously appear to believe that turbine generated energy is somehow linked to reversing the growth in and impact of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
There exists NO evidence anywhere that Turbine energy is substituting for or displacing fossil fuel dependence, nor is there any evidence that it is in any material way slowing the rate of GHG emission growth. Turbine energy is a non factor in the never ending growth agenda of the fossil fuel industry, and it is not a factor in the agenda of governments promoting growth in and dependence on oil and gas consumption. There can be no better example than North America of the failure of turbine energy to slow growth in anything.
People have been hoodwinked into promoting wind turbine energy as some sort of Nirvana all while human population growth and per capita energy consumption continue to spiral upward. Turbine energy generation is fueling growth in human population and energy consumption and growth in a false “economy”. It is NOT doing the opposite.
Matching the folly of the energy replacement misunderstanding is denial by governments and promoters of the ecological impacts and health effects of turbines; the ugly reality is that they are a serious addition to the industrialization of quiet rural landscapes that people have long valued for quality of life, retirement, and recreation.
The list of environmental costs imposed on wildlife and people are now being recognized; they are far from meaningless, but they have been trivialized by turbine promoters and politicians that have systematically tilted the deck sharply in the developers favor. Environmental costs have been systematically ignored by a political and regulatory system that has corrupted individual and societal freedom and environmental integrity by relegating these values to some distant offshoot of economic growth. These costs, and those who stand by them, are treated with contempt; how dare they influence the decision to grant some landowner a chance to make a buck by carving your backyard and your space into fragments with giant chopping machines?
Wind turbines are an assault on human well being and act to degrade the human “gestalt”. Promotion of wind turbine energy is a case of serious misjudgment by those who fraudulently use green wash to promote their commercial aspirations.
Buried deep within the human genome is an innate recognition and suspicion of monsters – large objects – looming on the horizon. Wind turbines are todays versions of a threatening monster, jammed down the throats of neighbors and localities. 30% of the human cortex occupies itself with processing visual information, far more than any other sense, and nothing delivers a more intrusive and intense visual picture than the tower and blades of wind turbines. Turbines erode freedom of the human mind hour after hour, night after day, virtually forever, like a cell phone ringing incessantly and yet no one is able to turn it off. To many people this intrusion into their physical and physiological space is an insidious form of torment. The mental effect is analogous to the physical effects of a heavy smoker sitting next to you essentially for life!
We do not subscribe to the managerial / market approach to democracy or conservation with its deeply entrenched bias against human values such as an unadulterated horizon. This largely corporate view denigrates the value of freedom of the human spirit – the very pedestal upon which human dignity, character and strength are built.
In an honest and fair regulatory and political environment, local citizens and communities would bury turbine projects long before they get to the serious implementation stage. Once again, however, citizens are being forced to try and employ the very tools that degrade our quality of life and humiliate us as mere pawns of some corporate created market economy. That being the case, it occurs to us that wind turbines wearing eternally on the human psyche, constituting a “taking” by corporate promoters and biased government collaborators; a taking that damages the well being of all residents. We asked ourselves if $1000 payment per person would compensate for the damages imposed on the ever day life of hundreds and thousands of affected citizens? Not even close. Perhaps then, $3000, or $8000? Would that kind of money make up for the forced collapse of part of your quality of life, your loss of right to space, loss of privacy, loss of political power, curbs on your freedom, and the mental and physical costs imposed on you by stress associated with constant angst, irritation and distraction? For some, we suspect yes would be the answer. For others, like those who have lost a child to negligent corporate behavior, been strangled slowly by nicotine, or been poisoned by toxic emissions or effluent, no amount of money can compensate for the deprivation and harm they have and will suffer. Regardless of the compensatory damages you might place on that part of your life lost because of turbine industrialization, should you not be compensated for this taking?
The commercial private sector is forcing itself into your life, and that constitutes a taking of your rights, benefits and well being. We propose that each person impacted by a turbine receive, as a starting point for negotiations, $3000 annually, to be paid by the developer for the loss of private and citizen rights, a very large portion of which includes peace and satisfaction, a critical part of your state of mind. We all know that is a significant part of personal, social and democratic well being. The concept is simple; if the developer and some uncaring land owners want to destroy your rights and those of other citizens, inflicting on you suffering and mental distress, the good old “free” enterprise system developers and local governments love to hide behind, comes into play; they pay to destroy part of your life. There has to be pain and resistance in the system for those who knowingly exploit the public and individual vulnerability, a now institutionalized vulnerability which commercial and private sector interests worked hard to establish.
The recent proliferation of wind turbine farms is just one more case of the serious aggression and destruction that reflects the continuing expansion of an extremist private property and commercialism agenda. This socially, legally and politically defective agenda and process is being exploited by corporations, some local residents, and local governments. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not freedom and it is not democracy; it is vandalism and oppression in the name of commercialism. As citizens we have the right, and we say the obligation, and we must marshal the courage, to reject wind turbine invasions as a corruption of our well being that is cached “in our spirit rather than in our wallet”.
Dr. Brian L. Horejsi
Behavioral scientist and citizen advocate for democratic process
Box 84006, PO Market Mall
Calgary, Alberta, T3A 5C4
403-246-9328
And
Dr. Barrie K. Gilbert
Wildlife Ecologist and conservation activist
Box 252
Wolfe Island, Ontario KOH 2HO
613-385-2289
And
George Wuerthner,
Ecologist and writer.
POB 719, Richmond,
Vermont 05477
802-434-3948
28 July 2008
Wind Turbines; Offensive industrialization of human space
By Online Monday, July 28, 2008
By: Dr. Brian L. Horejsi, Dr. Barrie K. Gilbert, George Wuerthner
People are barking up the wrong tree by promoting, or succumbing to, wind turbine construction regardless of where it is proposed and how many there might be. Many North Americans are infected with tunnel vision and erroneously appear to believe that turbine generated energy is somehow linked to reversing the growth in and impact of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
There exists NO evidence anywhere that Turbine energy is substituting for or displacing fossil fuel dependence, nor is there any evidence that it is in any material way slowing the rate of GHG emission growth. Turbine energy is a non factor in the never ending growth agenda of the fossil fuel industry, and it is not a factor in the agenda of governments promoting growth in and dependence on oil and gas consumption. There can be no better example than North America of the failure of turbine energy to slow growth in anything.
People have been hoodwinked into promoting wind turbine energy as some sort of Nirvana all while human population growth and per capita energy consumption continue to spiral upward. Turbine energy generation is fueling growth in human population and energy consumption and growth in a false “economy”. It is NOT doing the opposite.
Matching the folly of the energy replacement misunderstanding is denial by governments and promoters of the ecological impacts and health effects of turbines; the ugly reality is that they are a serious addition to the industrialization of quiet rural landscapes that people have long valued for quality of life, retirement, and recreation.
The list of environmental costs imposed on wildlife and people are now being recognized; they are far from meaningless, but they have been trivialized by turbine promoters and politicians that have systematically tilted the deck sharply in the developers favor. Environmental costs have been systematically ignored by a political and regulatory system that has corrupted individual and societal freedom and environmental integrity by relegating these values to some distant offshoot of economic growth. These costs, and those who stand by them, are treated with contempt; how dare they influence the decision to grant some landowner a chance to make a buck by carving your backyard and your space into fragments with giant chopping machines?
Wind turbines are an assault on human well being and act to degrade the human “gestalt”. Promotion of wind turbine energy is a case of serious misjudgment by those who fraudulently use green wash to promote their commercial aspirations.
Buried deep within the human genome is an innate recognition and suspicion of monsters – large objects – looming on the horizon. Wind turbines are todays versions of a threatening monster, jammed down the throats of neighbors and localities. 30% of the human cortex occupies itself with processing visual information, far more than any other sense, and nothing delivers a more intrusive and intense visual picture than the tower and blades of wind turbines. Turbines erode freedom of the human mind hour after hour, night after day, virtually forever, like a cell phone ringing incessantly and yet no one is able to turn it off. To many people this intrusion into their physical and physiological space is an insidious form of torment. The mental effect is analogous to the physical effects of a heavy smoker sitting next to you essentially for life!
We do not subscribe to the managerial / market approach to democracy or conservation with its deeply entrenched bias against human values such as an unadulterated horizon. This largely corporate view denigrates the value of freedom of the human spirit – the very pedestal upon which human dignity, character and strength are built.
In an honest and fair regulatory and political environment, local citizens and communities would bury turbine projects long before they get to the serious implementation stage. Once again, however, citizens are being forced to try and employ the very tools that degrade our quality of life and humiliate us as mere pawns of some corporate created market economy. That being the case, it occurs to us that wind turbines wearing eternally on the human psyche, constituting a “taking” by corporate promoters and biased government collaborators; a taking that damages the well being of all residents. We asked ourselves if $1000 payment per person would compensate for the damages imposed on the ever day life of hundreds and thousands of affected citizens? Not even close. Perhaps then, $3000, or $8000? Would that kind of money make up for the forced collapse of part of your quality of life, your loss of right to space, loss of privacy, loss of political power, curbs on your freedom, and the mental and physical costs imposed on you by stress associated with constant angst, irritation and distraction? For some, we suspect yes would be the answer. For others, like those who have lost a child to negligent corporate behavior, been strangled slowly by nicotine, or been poisoned by toxic emissions or effluent, no amount of money can compensate for the deprivation and harm they have and will suffer. Regardless of the compensatory damages you might place on that part of your life lost because of turbine industrialization, should you not be compensated for this taking?
The commercial private sector is forcing itself into your life, and that constitutes a taking of your rights, benefits and well being. We propose that each person impacted by a turbine receive, as a starting point for negotiations, $3000 annually, to be paid by the developer for the loss of private and citizen rights, a very large portion of which includes peace and satisfaction, a critical part of your state of mind. We all know that is a significant part of personal, social and democratic well being. The concept is simple; if the developer and some uncaring land owners want to destroy your rights and those of other citizens, inflicting on you suffering and mental distress, the good old “free” enterprise system developers and local governments love to hide behind, comes into play; they pay to destroy part of your life. There has to be pain and resistance in the system for those who knowingly exploit the public and individual vulnerability, a now institutionalized vulnerability which commercial and private sector interests worked hard to establish.
The recent proliferation of wind turbine farms is just one more case of the serious aggression and destruction that reflects the continuing expansion of an extremist private property and commercialism agenda. This socially, legally and politically defective agenda and process is being exploited by corporations, some local residents, and local governments. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not freedom and it is not democracy; it is vandalism and oppression in the name of commercialism. As citizens we have the right, and we say the obligation, and we must marshal the courage, to reject wind turbine invasions as a corruption of our well being that is cached “in our spirit rather than in our wallet”.
Dr. Brian L. Horejsi
Behavioral scientist and citizen advocate for democratic process
Box 84006, PO Market Mall
Calgary, Alberta, T3A 5C4
403-246-9328
And
Dr. Barrie K. Gilbert
Wildlife Ecologist and conservation activist
Box 252
Wolfe Island, Ontario KOH 2HO
613-385-2289
And
George Wuerthner,
Ecologist and writer.
POB 719, Richmond,
Vermont 05477
802-434-3948
28 July 2008
Friday, May 14, 2010
May 14, 2010 - Quick Update
Sorry I haven't blogged, our internet went down in Friday's storm. Here is a quick update.
The weekend was actually pretty good, although windy, the rain seems to help with our symptoms, and the wind was so high that I think the turbines may not have been running for part of the weekend.
On Tuesday the 11th, I met with a gentlemen named Ron who was responding to my call to Kruger office from the previous Friday (april 30th) when it was so bad here. We had a good discussion. He was going to share some of my further concerns and questions with Kruger management and get back to me. ( I should mention that he is actually contracted with the company and not representing the company directly, but I had called his number last Friday and he was good enough to respond. I have met him in the past and I do appreciate his efforts in coming out to hear the updates).
So, we are currently waiting to hear back from Kruger and hopefully we will be able to find some type of middle ground. I did suggest that if they were unwilling to shut down the two turbines closest to us, perhaps we could try shutting them down when wind levels are in the direction and at the RPM's that seem to be affecting us the most. Perhaps we can find a level and direction where this would happen automatically and thus eliminate some of our concerns.
At this time, we are really dealing with only the symptoms and health concerns issues while inside our home. However, as summer comes we will be spending more time in our yard and on our property and we will likely need to deal with the issues of being outside, as well as the "annoyance" factor at a later date.
Through all of this, I remain optimistic that the completed renovation, together with cooperation from Kruger may assist us to relieve our symptoms. Having said that, I am still concerned about the unknown affects to our children and ourselves. There seem to be a lot of well-educated and informed "professionals" out there who believe that long term exposure to the turbines and the low frequency noise they emit can be harmful.
Further to that, I hope that others out there who are having extreme symptoms and are being forced to leave their homes are going to be heard and helped. Our government needs to take notice and do something NOW, not years from now when the suffering and illness has spread accross Ontario and Canada.
I heard our local Mayor, Randy Hope, on the radio the other day and I am very disappointed that he does not seem to have any concerns at all with the numbers of wind turbines being erected in ChathamKent and in fact, is focusing on only the dollars being brought into the municipality from them. He had stated that he wanted to see that money spent on certain things and not just put into the general funds.
I have to wonder if this is not an attempt to "buy" the general population of ChathamKent with the attitude of sacrifice the few for the good of many. I don't think my family is worthless and I certainly believe that if the general population new about the ongoing suffering of the few (which are slowly becoming the many) that the majority would agree that no life is worthless.
I still compare this issue to smoking. It took far too long for the government to admit that smoking is harmful and addictive and that deaths were a result of not only the choice to smoke, but also second hand smoke. Finally people can make an educated choice whether to expose themselves to the affects of smoking and second hand smoke. Where is our choice? Why are we forced to be exposed to wind turbines so close to our home that we can feel the vibration....
That's it for today...
Nik
The weekend was actually pretty good, although windy, the rain seems to help with our symptoms, and the wind was so high that I think the turbines may not have been running for part of the weekend.
On Tuesday the 11th, I met with a gentlemen named Ron who was responding to my call to Kruger office from the previous Friday (april 30th) when it was so bad here. We had a good discussion. He was going to share some of my further concerns and questions with Kruger management and get back to me. ( I should mention that he is actually contracted with the company and not representing the company directly, but I had called his number last Friday and he was good enough to respond. I have met him in the past and I do appreciate his efforts in coming out to hear the updates).
So, we are currently waiting to hear back from Kruger and hopefully we will be able to find some type of middle ground. I did suggest that if they were unwilling to shut down the two turbines closest to us, perhaps we could try shutting them down when wind levels are in the direction and at the RPM's that seem to be affecting us the most. Perhaps we can find a level and direction where this would happen automatically and thus eliminate some of our concerns.
At this time, we are really dealing with only the symptoms and health concerns issues while inside our home. However, as summer comes we will be spending more time in our yard and on our property and we will likely need to deal with the issues of being outside, as well as the "annoyance" factor at a later date.
Through all of this, I remain optimistic that the completed renovation, together with cooperation from Kruger may assist us to relieve our symptoms. Having said that, I am still concerned about the unknown affects to our children and ourselves. There seem to be a lot of well-educated and informed "professionals" out there who believe that long term exposure to the turbines and the low frequency noise they emit can be harmful.
Further to that, I hope that others out there who are having extreme symptoms and are being forced to leave their homes are going to be heard and helped. Our government needs to take notice and do something NOW, not years from now when the suffering and illness has spread accross Ontario and Canada.
I heard our local Mayor, Randy Hope, on the radio the other day and I am very disappointed that he does not seem to have any concerns at all with the numbers of wind turbines being erected in ChathamKent and in fact, is focusing on only the dollars being brought into the municipality from them. He had stated that he wanted to see that money spent on certain things and not just put into the general funds.
I have to wonder if this is not an attempt to "buy" the general population of ChathamKent with the attitude of sacrifice the few for the good of many. I don't think my family is worthless and I certainly believe that if the general population new about the ongoing suffering of the few (which are slowly becoming the many) that the majority would agree that no life is worthless.
I still compare this issue to smoking. It took far too long for the government to admit that smoking is harmful and addictive and that deaths were a result of not only the choice to smoke, but also second hand smoke. Finally people can make an educated choice whether to expose themselves to the affects of smoking and second hand smoke. Where is our choice? Why are we forced to be exposed to wind turbines so close to our home that we can feel the vibration....
That's it for today...
Nik
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
May 5th - 1:59am
Can hear the turbines outside, they are very loud. Kids are getting a good night sleep at Grandma's but my husband and I are here....listening....trying not to listen, but once you hear them it's hard not to hear them....there is no way this is a legal sound level for the middle of the night....if this was the city and someone made that kind of noise, a neighbor, a factory, a machine, the police would be visiting the owner......hmmmmm, that's a thought, maybe I'll call the police and report that "my neighbor" is being too loud and keeping me awake....MOE doesn't seem to do anything, maybe the police can do something.....hmmmm, I am going to give that idea some serious thought........Nik
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
May 4, 2010
As I am writing this post in my office, I can hear the turbines outside (woosh, woosh)...it must be that time of year again because the past week has been unbelievable loud - I had forgotten how loud the turbines can be!!! In fact, this past week, they seem louder than ever...
WE called the spills action centre at 1-800-268-6060 (something everyone affected should be doing) on April 30th during the day. This was the first time I had ever called during the day, I usually only call when we are up at night. I was directed to the Windsor office and when I let them know that I was calling to report the noise and health issues from the turbines they were indifferent. The fellow I spoke to asked what was wrong and I told him that the turbines were extremely loud through the night and had continued to be loud today. My husband and I got little sleep, we both woke up in the morning with extremely puffy, dry eyes. My oldest son complained of his legs hurting very bad in the morning, and my headache had been ongoing for about 24 hrs. The fellow asked if I had called the wind company to which I replied "not today, but many times". He said they should be informed so they could fix the problem - ha! I laughed out loud. I told him that we had been registering the problem for over a year and had noise testing done and were still waiting. He said "okay", and then he seemed like he was finished with the conversation. I asked him if they would be sending someone out to investigate the noise and his answer was "I am not sure". I just said okay, thanks and we ended the phone call. ...
I called the Kruger head office here in Raleigh township and got voice mail, that was Friday - Today is Tuesday - to date, I have had no response to my voice mail.
Then on May 1st, I called the spills action centre again at midnight to report the loudness of the turbines - this was probably as loud as I had ever heard them, and there was a "thunk" in the mix that was very loud as well. They again said, thank you for the call, we MAY send someone to investigate.
On Sunday night, when I didn't think they could get any louder, they did! My youngest son vomitted in his bed around midnight and there seemed to be no cause. He has not shown signs of flu or anthing like that since, and we all ate the same dinner and no one else was ill. I HOPE that this is not the start of the nauseau and vomitting that he suffered from last fall - symptoms which I am positive are in direct relation to the wind turbines!!! When I woke Monday morning, I too felt a bit nauseaus and exhausted! My eyes were so dry and puffy that I had a tough time opening them in the morning - Turbines!
KRUGER EXECUTIVE - if you are reading my posts, as I know you have in the past, would you PLEASE respond to my phone calls, letters, and emails...we need a solution for our family health and well-being!
Renovation Update - For those of you who have been asking, we are putting up the siding now and once it is in place, we will see if we are able to stop the noise. We seem to have lessened the feeling of the actual vibration within the house but the actual results remain to be seen upon completion.
Side note: I was speaking to my neighbors yesterday and as we listened to the turbines I asked if they had noticed them lately and they said "oh ya!" They related to me how the other night (Friday I think)they could see the pond water vibrating in their back yard, not rippling from wind, but vibrating...they thought something large was swimming around in it until they realized it was the vibration from the turbines!!!
Will this ever end!?! I am so proud of all of the people who took the time to travel to Queen's Park last week and stand together for the victims of wind past, present and future. I wish I could have been there and hopefully I will be there next time. Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you for making time to have voices heard!
Nik
WE called the spills action centre at 1-800-268-6060 (something everyone affected should be doing) on April 30th during the day. This was the first time I had ever called during the day, I usually only call when we are up at night. I was directed to the Windsor office and when I let them know that I was calling to report the noise and health issues from the turbines they were indifferent. The fellow I spoke to asked what was wrong and I told him that the turbines were extremely loud through the night and had continued to be loud today. My husband and I got little sleep, we both woke up in the morning with extremely puffy, dry eyes. My oldest son complained of his legs hurting very bad in the morning, and my headache had been ongoing for about 24 hrs. The fellow asked if I had called the wind company to which I replied "not today, but many times". He said they should be informed so they could fix the problem - ha! I laughed out loud. I told him that we had been registering the problem for over a year and had noise testing done and were still waiting. He said "okay", and then he seemed like he was finished with the conversation. I asked him if they would be sending someone out to investigate the noise and his answer was "I am not sure". I just said okay, thanks and we ended the phone call. ...
I called the Kruger head office here in Raleigh township and got voice mail, that was Friday - Today is Tuesday - to date, I have had no response to my voice mail.
Then on May 1st, I called the spills action centre again at midnight to report the loudness of the turbines - this was probably as loud as I had ever heard them, and there was a "thunk" in the mix that was very loud as well. They again said, thank you for the call, we MAY send someone to investigate.
On Sunday night, when I didn't think they could get any louder, they did! My youngest son vomitted in his bed around midnight and there seemed to be no cause. He has not shown signs of flu or anthing like that since, and we all ate the same dinner and no one else was ill. I HOPE that this is not the start of the nauseau and vomitting that he suffered from last fall - symptoms which I am positive are in direct relation to the wind turbines!!! When I woke Monday morning, I too felt a bit nauseaus and exhausted! My eyes were so dry and puffy that I had a tough time opening them in the morning - Turbines!
KRUGER EXECUTIVE - if you are reading my posts, as I know you have in the past, would you PLEASE respond to my phone calls, letters, and emails...we need a solution for our family health and well-being!
Renovation Update - For those of you who have been asking, we are putting up the siding now and once it is in place, we will see if we are able to stop the noise. We seem to have lessened the feeling of the actual vibration within the house but the actual results remain to be seen upon completion.
Side note: I was speaking to my neighbors yesterday and as we listened to the turbines I asked if they had noticed them lately and they said "oh ya!" They related to me how the other night (Friday I think)they could see the pond water vibrating in their back yard, not rippling from wind, but vibrating...they thought something large was swimming around in it until they realized it was the vibration from the turbines!!!
Will this ever end!?! I am so proud of all of the people who took the time to travel to Queen's Park last week and stand together for the victims of wind past, present and future. I wish I could have been there and hopefully I will be there next time. Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you for making time to have voices heard!
Nik
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