Fatal Health Flaw MassDEP : 2012 Wind Turbine Health Study

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health convened a panel of independent experts to identify any documented or potential health impacts of risks that may be associated with exposure to wind turbines.

The panel ignored the 110 decibel wind turbines in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Falmouth was one of the first towns to make thousands of written certified noise complaints yet the turbine specifications for the Vestas V-82 type turbines were ignored by local and state officials.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in 2013 admitted the acoustic noise mistakes.

The Vestas V 82 turbine was formerly a Neg Micon NM 82 turbine bought out by Vestas around 2004. A turbine that generates up to 110 decibels of noise twice that used in the wind turbine health study.

The MassDEP and MDPH failed to identify the risks associated wind commercial wind turbines in Massachusetts that had been known well before 2010.

The Town of Falmouth and everyone involved with the installation of two town owned wind turbines knew the Falmouth wind turbines were dangerously too loud. In 2010 two years before the 2012 "Massachusetts Health Impact Study" the town had been warned in writing that the Vestas V 82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines generate 110 decibels of noise. These turbines were formerly known as Neg Micon NM 82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center formerly the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative was the former owner of the first Falmouth wind turbine known as Falmouth Wind 1 and had the specifications when they bought the turbine in 2005

Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of Independent Expert Panel January 2012 Prepared for: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Massachusetts Department of Public Health

WIND TURBINE HEALTH IMPACT STUDY Chapter 4 Findings

Page 53 -- This page showed the panel ignored the 110 decibel wind turbines in Falmouth

2. The sound power level of a typical modern utility scale wind turbine is on the order of 103 dB(A), but can be somewhat higher or lower depending on the details of the design and the rated power of the turbine. The perceived sound decreases rapidly with the distance from the wind turbines.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/d...

The panel : Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen, MD-- Sheryl Grace, PhD-- Wendy J Heiger-Bernays, James F. Manwell, PhD-- Dora Anne Mills, MD-- Kimberly A. Sullivan, PhD and Marc G. Weisskopf, ScD

The Panel merely reviewed literature and public media sources and met only three times during 2012. The panel failed to take into consideration the Falmouth, Massachusetts wind turbines that generate up to 110 decibels of noise.

The panel stated that sleep disruption is the most commonly reported complaint by people and discusses this primarily as a result of “unwanted sound” and audible, amplitude modulated noise (“whooshing”).

In the study the panel used a 103 decibel wind turbine as a typical modern utility wind turbine. The decibel is a commonly used to designate sound pressure.

The panel ignored the specifications of the Falmouth 110 decibel wind turbines. Massachusetts had an agenda of 2000 megawatts of commercial wind power by the year 2020.

The war on fossil fuel required the collateral damage of up to 200 residential home owners health and property rights

The formula for decibels is a little complicated but the addition of 7 decibels to a 103 decibel wind turbine almost doubles the sound generated. In other words a 103 decibel wind turbine gives off the sound level of a lawn mower. A 110 decibel wind turbine gives off the sound of a hard rock band double that of a lawn mower.

The Falmouth wind turbines are twice as loud as those used in the 2012 "Massachusetts Health Impact Study"

Here is the letter the Town of Falmouth hid for 5 years until released through a FOIA, Freedom of Information Act Request :

The noise warning letter " the smoking gun "

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.

To read the entire letter : http://www.windaction.org/posts/41357-vestas-raises-concerns-about-turbine-noise-letter#.Ve9oyhFVikp