Falmouth Bad Green Wind Turbine Deal Took Health

The Town started its wind energy project in 2002, with implementation targeted for 2010.

The project at the last minute involved two 1.65 megawatts (MW) turbines located at Falmouth’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The two turbines were installed with no town zoning permit 240-166 which required notification to surrounding abutters.

The town had been warned by email and in writing August 3, 2010, by the manufacturer the turbines generate 110 decibels of noise each.

Falmouth has received technical assistance from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust (MRET), now part of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), a state agency
focused on expanding the clean energy industry in the Commonwealth.

Five million in funding has come from state renewable energy credits (RECs) and from federal loan funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).The town still owes 3,5 million plus 2 percent interest.

The 5M loan was brokered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection ignoring safety and health warnings prior to construction.

We tend to think of Massachusetts state and local officials as a whole a pretty corrupt place. This Green deal took the health and property rights of up to 200 residential homeowners.

The state and town officials ignored the potential for adverse public health impacts. They had emails, letters, memos, and a study showing the noise dangers.

Wind energy was not relatively new to the public health field. Studies done in the 1980s in Boone, North Carolina by NASA showed sleep problems with neighbors.

There older documents were definitive studies by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy on the potential health impacts of wind power facilities of the
complaints from nearby residents about the wooshing and thumping sound it made to complaints of disrupted television reception.

The Town of Falmouth never took residents’ concerns about sound related impacts very seriously and taxpayers will pay for this fiasco for decades.

In June of 2017, the Massachusetts courts shut down both Falmouth town-owned wind turbines.

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NewsHour Connect: Effects of Wind Turbines on One Massachusetts Town

10,141 views
•Mar 9, 2011

PBS NewsHour

Hari Sreenivasan talks to Heather Goldstone and Sean Corcoran of WCAI in Cape Cod, Mass. about their week-long series of reports on the fallout of a wind turbine Falmouth, Mass. While there's no comprehensive scientific research to subtantiate the negative health impacts of wind turbines, residents living near the 400 foot tall turbine have complained of headaches, sleep deprivation, and tinnitus. Godlstone and Corcoran talk about the ongoing debate in Falmouth and its implications for wind energy in Massachusetts and nationally.