Falmouth Taxpayers In Wind Turbine Knife Fight & Now Extortion

Falmouth Continues Stabbing Wind Turbine Victims In Knife Fight

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is holding a 1 million dollar renewable energy credit bribe to buy the turbines, a recent gift of taxpayer funds of 1.8 million and threatening the town they will have to pay a 6 million dollar stimulus loan if they shut down the turbines.

When do you call this extortion ?

Falmouth broke the state noise regulations -they broke the law and they knew before the installations they would !

310 CMR 7.10 Noise----
(1) No person owning, leasing, or controlling a source of sound shall willfully, negligently, or through failure to provide necessary equipment, service, or maintenance or to take necessary precautions cause, suffer, allow, or permit unnecessary emissions from said source of sound that may cause noise.

A.----- GUILTY -----MASS DEP : The agency recommended that the Falmouth turbine that regularly increased noise by more than 10 decibels at the closest home be turned off immediately, for at least 30 days, while the state conducts further studies. The other turbine will be switched off at night but be allowed to remain in operation during the day, pending the additional studies.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/15/massachusetts-officials-recommend-falmouth-shut-down-turbines/mCPNKvUoq1IrdPClRygmWN/story.html


B ------GUILTY -------Falmouth was aware the turbines generate almost twice the noise in the specifications prior to the installations at 110 decibels

Reference : http://www.windaction.org/posts/41357-vestas-raises-concerns-about-turbine-noise-letter#.VRKmG_nF9-c

August 3, 2010
Mr. Gerald Potamis
WasteWater Superintendent
Town of Falmouth Public Works
59 Town Hall Square
Falmouth, MA 02540

RE: Falmouth WWTF Wind Energy Facility II “Wind II”, Falmouth, MA
Contract No. #3297

Dear Mr. Potamis,

Due to the sound concerns regarding the first wind turbine installed at the wastewater treatment facility, the manufacturer of the turbines, Vestas, is keen for the Town of Falmouth to understand the possible noise and other risks associated with the installation of the second wind turbine.

The Town has previously been provided with the Octave Band Data / Sound performance for the V82 turbine. This shows that the turbine normally operates at 103.2dB but the manufacturer has also stated that it may produce up to 110dB under certain circumstances.

C------GUILTY-------- The April 2013 MassCEC Memo Admits Wind Turbine Noise Testing Mistakes prior to installations !


These notes from the Mass Clean Energy Center (CEC) Board of Directors shows they are aware of acoustic noise mistakes

April 2, 2013 Memo from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to Falmouth Select Board & Town Manager

The Massachusetts in a memo to the Town of Falmouth about renewable energy credits also in the last half of the memo admitted the noise testing prior to the installation of Falmouth Wind 1 over-estimated the likely acoustic impact, that study did not include a detailed acoustic analysis based upon sampling of ambient acoustic conditions

The following are quotes from a local news item from April 2013 :

“MTC-commissioned feasibility study for Falmouth over-estimated the likely acoustic impact”

“According to the MassCEC memo, MassDEP has conducted regulatory compliance testing of the Wind 1 turbine at night and concluded that the sound impact from the turbine does exceed state noise policy under certain conditions – while MassDEP monitoring during daytime found no exceedances of state noise policy.