Neighbor News
Falmouth Wind Turbines Shut Down Answers Needed On Documents
Town officials need to step up to the plate and level with the voting public. The project was a mistake taking health and property rights.
Wind turbine neighbors for years complained of noise and illness. For years they have been suffering headaches, dizziness and sleep deprivation or unable to work in their yards during the day when the turbines operate.
In 2013 the Falmouth Selectboard voted to remove the turbines stating the health problems and acknowledging a lot of people are sick because of them.
The decision to take down the wind turbines went on to town meeting in April and then a ballot was taken in a town-wide election on May, 2013. The results 2 to 1 to keep the turbines operating.
Find out what's happening in Falmouthfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Political scientists concur that a knowledgeable voter is necessary for effective and gratifying democratic governance. We can all agree ignorance threatens a free town government
The town’s failure to put the wind turbines in proper perspective certainly added to the positive vote to keep the turbines but was the failure intentional probably.
Find out what's happening in Falmouthfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Prior to the town-wide ballot in May of 2013 some or all of the Falmouth town officials had emails, memos, maps, a warning letter from the manufacturer and studies that showed the decibel levels of the turbines were much too high for residential neighborhoods knowing the turbines would make people sick.
These same officials who had all the warning documents withheld those documents from Town Meeting and the voting public intentionally keeping voters ill-informed. These officials prior to the town-wide vote in May of 2013 went on a public crusade to scare voters about the massive financial costs of removing the wind turbines but never disclosed the health warnings they had in hand.
One August 3, 2010 letter called the "smoking gun" warned the town the turbines were twice as loud as turbines used in preliminary studies.
Quote from the letter:
"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."
The town had been informed prior to the installation of any wind turbines through studies given to the Falmouth Energy Committee that Special Permits were required. The town never applied for Special Permits to install the turbines as it would have required additional studies and notifications to the neighbors. The Special Permit process is done through the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals
Today after years of litigation the courts have shut down the turbines The town still faces around nine more lawsuits and is voting up to $300,000.00 every six months at bi-annual town meeting for multiple law firms from Boston.
The Falmouth Select Board meets Monday, June 26, 2017, to decide whether to appeal the latest legal decision.
In May of 2013 Falmouth voters in a townwide ballot voted to keep the turbines operational.
Today the town is between a rock and a hard place. Through Freedom of Information Request Act request, all the wind turbine documents have been made public and on the other hand, the Select Board has the mandate from the town-wide vote in 2013 to keep the turbines operational.
Town officials need to step up to the plate and level with the voting public. The project was a mistake.
FALMOUTH WIND TURBINE NOISE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN3OU_CbK9A
