Falmouth Wind II -​ Doctrine of Laches, Town of Falmouth

Doctrine of Laches, Town of Falmouth

The person invoking the Doctrine of Laches, Town of Falmouth, is asserting that an opposing party has "slept on its rights," and that, as a result of this delay, circumstances have changed, witnesses or evidence may have been lost or no longer available, etc., The simple facts are just the opposite is true. The Town of Falmouth hid written noise warnings from the wind turbine manufacturer and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center three years after the installations finally admitted in a memo the acoustic noise mistakes in excess of state noise regulations were well known prior to installations while all those involved in the original installation hid noise decibel warnings.

The Doctrine of Laches is associated with the maxim of equity, "Equity aids the vigilant, not the sleeping ones. Put another way, failure to assert one’s rights in a timely manner can result in a claim being barred by laches. If we are to say the Town of Falmouth was vigilant why did they hide a written noise warning the turbines generate 110 decibels of noise for years after the installation of the turbines ? What about the April 2013 MassCEC memo and 2005 KEMA map?

The Laches Doctrine is a legal common law defense in an equitable action that “bars recovery by the plaintiff because of the plaintiff’s undue delay in seeking relief.” This doctrine is based on the idea that the courts should not aid those who take an inordinate amount of time to raise their claims. But what if the Town of Falmouth hid written warnings, memos and maps from the public.

The Town of Falmouth claims too much time has elapsed for the residents around Falmouth Wind II to file an appeal to the permit process. What will the courts decide when they find out the Town of Falmouth hid a noise warning from public view for years after the construction of the turbines

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“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.”

August 3, 2010Mr. Gerald PotamisWasteWater SuperintendentTown of Falmouth Public Works59 Town Hall SquareFalmouth, MA 02540RE: Falmouth WWTF Wind Energy Facility II “Wind II”, Falmouth, MAContract No. #3297Dear Mr. Potamis

http://www.windaction.org/post...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What will the courts decide when they find out the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center three years after the construction of the wind turbines in an April 2013 memo admitted acoustic noise "mistakes" in preliminary noise tests.

The mistakes they admitted to were using 103 decibel General Electric wind turbines. The Vestas turbines actually built are twice as loud as the GE turbines compounding the acoustic noise "mistakes" by double.

Details on MassCEC’s April 2 Memo on Falmouth turbines“Falmouth Wind 1 was one of the earliest municipally-owned megawatt scale wind turbines installed in Massachusetts. Even though the original MTC-commissioned feasibility study for Falmouth over-estimated the likely acoustic impact, that study did not include a detailed acoustic analysis based upon sampling of ambient acoustic conditions (as is our current, more rigorous practice) which might have identified a potential exceedance of the 10 decibel limit,” the memo reads. “The Falmouth wind turbines are of an older design which does not offer ‘low noise operations’ or other retrofit options.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Town of Falmouth and state officials made a choice to ignore the public health and safety of the residents living around the wind turbines releasing documents that show they knew the public was at risk years after the installations

The Laches Doctrine is not an appropriate legal defense when the town hid information that would have negated the installations of the wind turbines during any permit process.

A KEMA inc map published in 2005 using a single 103 decibel General Electric wind turbine shows that turbine would break state noise regulation guidelines at homes along Blacksmith Shop Road.

KEMA map from 2005 shows a General Electric turbine would exceed 40 decibels on Blacksmith Shop Road. The Vestas turbine installed was louder

The Town of Falmouth never published a new updated KEMA map showing the installed Vestas wind turbine at 110 decibels of noise double the noise of the one General Electric turbine

The Town of Falmouth never published an updated map of both Falmouth Wind I and Wind II operating together

The Town Hid All Warnings the turbines were too loud