Falmouth SB To Discuss 110 Db VESTAS Wind Turbines Move 1/14/19

TOWN OF FALMOUTH BOARD OF SELECTMEN AGENDA

MONDAY,

JANUARY 14, 2019 – 7:00 P.M.

SELECTMEN’S MEETING ROOM TOWN HALL

7:45 p.m. BUSINESS

1. Vote to adopt FY2020 budget and submit it to the Finance Committee

2. Discussion and vote on moving, repurposing or dismantling wind turbines.

Options to include:

a. Wind 2 to alternative Falmouth wastewater site or a site outside of Falmouth

b. Wind 1 to a site outside of Falmouth

http://www.falmouthmass.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01142019-10922
-----------------Note #

Massachusetts Courts Shut Down Wind Turbines Based On Nuisance Bylaw June 20, 2017.

Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts Chapter 240 Section 110

Nuisances:

These are 110 Decibel Megawatt Wind Turbine Problems : No use shall be permitted which would be offensive because of injurious or obnoxious

A. Noise: a Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbine generating 110 decibels of noise requiring a setback of 2923 feet from residential property. The distance to meet 40 dBA for Wind II, a Vestas V82 with sound power level of 110 dBA, is approximately 891 meters or 2923 feet. Letter to Town of Falmouth October 26, 2018, Robert W. Rand, ASA, INCE Rand Acoustics re Wind Turbine Relocation Study, Weston & Sampson Report October 12, 2018

B. Vibration: Infrasound --Chief Executive Officer of Vestas wind company CEO Engel Ditlev wrote a letter to Karen Ellemann about low-frequency noise. The CEO responded that Vestas does not have the technology to stop the noise. The CEO of Vestas wind company in 2010 admitted their turbines do generate low-frequency noise.

C. Hazardous to the community on account of fire or explosion: Gearbox fires in older gear driven wind turbines.

D. Other Cause:

1. Shadow flicker is the Sunlight flickering effect caused when rotating wind turbine blades periodically cast shadows through constrained openings such as the windows of neighboring properties

2. Blade Throw "This is evidenced by the Vestas Confidential Health and safety Instruction manual for a Falmouth MA wind farm. Page 10 of this manual addresses the situation of a free spinning "runaway turbine". In that manual, instructions are for no one to be allowed within a 1640 feet (500 m) radius. "

3. Ice Throw No permit shall be granted for any use which would prove injurious to the safety or welfare of the neighborhood into which it proposes to go, and destructive of property values, because of any excessive nuisance qualities.

Town of Falmouth has no noise model or acoustic noise prediction of the total amount of decibels produced by two Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines producing 110 decibels each. This would include the new proposed location of Falmouth Wind II combined with the privately owned Notus wind turbine both Vestas V-82 turbines producing 110 decibels of noise each.