Four decades ago, President Nixon’s white house tape recordings were the subject of national controversy. The infamous “smoking gun” tape was part of the Watergate scandal which led to Nixon’s resignation.
Now controversy in Falmouth has its own missing tape mystery. After five years of strife over noise impacts from the town’s wind turbines, why don’t we have any recordings of the noise from inside a Falmouth home?
Today, almost everyone has a smartphone and can easily record video to post on social media. A Google search easily finds videos of shadow flicker from Falmouth’s turbines. Noise has been the primary complaint, but a similar search doesn’t reveal any video or audio recordings of the noise.
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Turbine noise was described as “jet engine loud” in a Fox News report. But WGBH radio was unable to record the sounds for a story they published on 3/8/11, which stated:“Residents primarily report three different types of turbine noise (all of which we were unable to record on our visits to the turbine).”
Why is the noise problem, which has caused so much controversy, un-recordable? One answer may be that the sounds are exaggerated. In March 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) measured outdoor noise from Wind1 at four residential locations during five nights. The MassDEP report shows the loudest sound was 50.5 dBa, comparable to the sound of a refrigerator.
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State law limits noise to 10 dB(a) above ambient (background) noise level. MassDEP found exceedances at just one of the four locations, ranging from 10.5 to 11.9 dB(a) above ambient. But the greatest exceedances, more than 18 dB(a) above ambient, occurred when the turbine was OFF, despite excluding noise from the nearby four-lane highway. This oddity caused a distinguished expert to question the validity of MassDEP’s new statistical method, used for the first time in Falmouth.
Another theory is that low frequency sound, called infrasound, causes distress but can’t be heard. But scientific research in several countries has disproved this idea. For example, the Australian Medical Association’s position statement “Wind Farms and Health 2014” says:
“The available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that the infrasound or low frequency sound generated by wind farms, as they are currently regulated in Australia, causes adverse health effects on populations residing in their vicinity. The infrasound and low frequency sound generated by modern wind farms in Australia is well below the level where known health effects occur, and there is no accepted physiological mechanism where sub-audible infrasound could cause health effects.”
When five Falmouth physicians sent a letter to Falmouth’s Board of Health, they stated: “We have listened to the turbines and find there is little to hear. The measured decibel levels are modest. We are skeptical that any actual health hazard is created by their operation.”
The Nixon white house finally released the “smoking gun” tape about two years after the Watergate burglary. Four days later, President Nixon resigned. Falmouth’s wind turbine controversy is five years old, and we’re still waiting for a tape to demonstrate the noise problem inside a home.
