Falmouth Wind Turbine Update A National Soap Opera

The Town of Falmouth installed two commercial 1.65-megawatt wind turbines in 2010 and 2012 without Special Permit 240-166 requiring a zoning board hearing and notification to abutters. The town was warned in advance each turbine generates 110 decibels of noise twice as loud as a study done for the town in 2005.

In addition to the two town-owned wind turbines, there is another privately-owned wind turbine the same size nearby.

Massachusetts lacks a definition and/or regulations of two or more land-based wind turbines operating at the same time or town bylaws that define a wind turbine farm spacing.
The federal government in 2020 is requiring ocean wind turbine farms off the Massachusetts coast to separate the turbines by over one mile each for safety.

The Falmouth wind turbine: "Finding #32" in the Judge Moriarty court decision in June 2017 and subsequent Appeals court ruling, November 2017 states a 2,625-foot setback to achieving a 40-decibel noise level for one Falmouth wind turbine from residential property.

In October of 2018, an acoustician wrote a letter to the Town of Falmouth. The distance to meet 40 dBA for Wind II, with sound power level of 110 dBA, is approximately 891 meters or 2923 feet.

The closest that a 110-decibel wind turbine is typically placed to a home is 2,625 feet or more. At that distance, a turbine will have a sound pressure level of 40 decibels.

The Town of Falmouth by June of 2018 has settled 10 nuisance complaints with residents regarding the two wind turbines located at the wastewater treatment facility on Blacksmith Shop Road after the courts determined to shut down the nuisance turbines the previous year.

Also in June of 2018, the Town Manager had a draft letter approved by the Select Board that the process of dismantling and removal of the wind turbine will take 18 to 24 months.

November 2019 the Falmouth Select Board asked Town Meeting for 2.5 million to disassemble the turbines and put them in storage. The money was approved.

The turbines three years after the court shut down stand with parasitic electric power going into the turbines, a maintenance contract, insurance and paying the same engineering firm as the turbines designed in the 1990s continue to age.

Like kids at an ice cream counter, this politically-connected town filled their cone with soft-serve from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection loan program and then illegally dipped it into the vast vat of taxpayer funding made available through the economic stimulus program (the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA).

The town still owes 3.5 million plus 2 percent interest on a 5 million dollar ARRA loan brokered by MassDEP on the second town-owned wind turbine number two.

The Falmouth Select Board Chair in 2017 said: "It's time to put the matter behind us and move forward, " but the turbines have now become a national soap opera.

Falmouth Select Board Chair: Susan Moran 3 Minutes Mark Video: "We would never put the town in the situation again where we would, you know, to the best of our ability be subject to any anticipated litigation."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M--x3aQENbY