Wind Power Massachusetts Criminal Disaster Or Omissions

Omissions are not criminally punishable but failure to act can result in criminal liability when there is a duty to act. A duty to act can also result in wrongfully creating a risk of harm, for example, the omission of wind turbine noise and safety documents.

Last year in February the United States Congress House Natural Resources Committee dragged Massachusetts Governor Baker over the coals on the Falmouth wind turbine disaster.

The Town of Falmouth foolishly spent 10 million dollars on two loud foreign-made wind turbines installed in late 2010 and 2012.

General Electric a domestic wind company refused to place a single turbine due to residential setbacks and ice throw due to a 2005 study done by KEMA Inc for the Town of Falmouth that showed 99 residential homes could be affected by the noise of a single General Electric turbine.

The local town energy committee wasted eight years completing studies to install two foreign made 1.65 megawatt wind turbines in 2010 and 2012 ignoring the 2005 KEMA INC noise study done for the town

Governor Baker acknowledged at the Congressional Hearing the Falmouth wind turbine project did not go as planned but was unaware the town omitted documents to the public prior to the installations. The town had the documents prior to the installations which included an August 2010 noise warning letter the turbines generate 110 decibels of noise twice as loud as the General Electric turbine.

The 2005 KEMA INC noise study stated a Special Permit 240-166 was required to install the wind turbines. Town officials were aware by letter and email by August of 2010 that the foreign-made wind turbines were each twice as loud as the General Electric wind turbine and GE would not install a wind turbine.

The town went forward omitting multiple noise documents and without filing Special Permit 240-166 which required notification of up to 200 residential homeowners.

The town borrowed $4,865,000 from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust to construct Wind 2 in 2012. The loan agreement brokered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection states the town would not owe principal or interest as long as Wind 2 remains operational.

The $4,865,000.00 came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which required a federal EPA waiver to buy the foreign-made Falmouth wind turbine. State and local officials omitted the 2005 KEMA INC study over noise concerns, emails, and a warning letter to get the federal waiver.

In omitting documents in the federal EPA waiver the town created a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety related to the implementation or use of covered ARRA funds. The town still owes 3.5 million on the loan.

The town’s two wind turbines were installed at the wastewater treatment plant in 2010 and 2012. Wind 1 was shut down in September 2015 after the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals issued a cease-and-desist order. Wind 2 was shut down in June 2017, after Barnstable County Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II upheld the zoning board of appeals’ decision deeming the turbines a nuisance.

In November 2019 Falmouth Town Meeting approved 2.5 million and more down the road to move the old gear-driven wind turbines designed in the late 1990s out of town.

Broken wind turbine still under investigation