Falmouth Wind II Shutdown Exposes MassDEP Dirty Little Secret

For over the past (10) ten years the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has never taken action against the noise from commercial megawatt wind turbines.

The answer is simple they cannot !

MassDEP put itself in a legal quagmire to protect the wind turbine industry and ignore residents living around wind turbines in twenty-one Massachusetts communities.

MassDEP even today in 2019 is stuck in what is called "regulatory capture" over wind turbine noise.

Regulatory capture is a form of government failure which occurs when a regulatory agency such as MassDEP created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups,wind turbines, that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.

First, MassDEP has always had state noise regulations that regulate preventable industrial and commercial sources of sound, and other man-made sounds that cause noise. These regulations after 2009 are not enforced against commercial wind turbines statewide.

Second, MassDEP does not enforce noise regulations against commercial wind turbines because of the Project Regulatory Agreement ("PRA") and the Loan Agreement associated with the 5 million in the funding of Falmouth wind turbine number two.

Third, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds can not be used to create a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety related to the implementation or use of covered ARRA funds. June 2017 the Massachusetts courts shut down the two town-owned nuisance wind turbines.

Under Federal Law and the PRA and Loan Agreement, as brokered by the MassDEP, the Town must maintain Wind II as an "energy efficiency" project, as described in EPA guidelines dated March 2, 2009, in order to benefit from the financial subsidy provided by the Trust under ARRA and the Trust's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program.

The question over is the 5 million in ARRA funds to build Falmouth Wind Turbine # 2 was it a loan or a grant has never been answered because of the MassDEP project regulatory agreement between the Town of Falmouth and the MassDEP.

The federal 5 million in ARRA money stays a grant as according to the Project Regulatory Agreement the second Falmouth wind turbine number two stays producing power.

In the event of a shutdown as witnessed in the June 2017 court shutdown the 5 million becomes a loan payable to the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust through the State Reserve Fund.

The bottom line is the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection made a choice between its own regulations.

Over the past ten years, the MassDEP refused to enforce noise regulations taking your health and property rights to keep Falmouth Wind Turbine # 2 in production according to the Project Regulatory Agreement which is a power production agreement to keep the second Falmouth wind turbine as a federal ARRA grant.

In the following letter, Vestas wind company reiterates in writing that the Town of Falmouth had been "previously warned prior to construction" the turbine generates up to 110 decibels!

110 Decibels equals a hard rock band playing 24/7

"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."

AKA -- Federal-State & Town officials always knew the turbines were too loud but took your health and property rights for a political agenda gone horribly wrong.