Noisy Wind Turbines Disrupt Sleep, Devalue Property

Reprinted from the Watertown Times, 3/18/07

I have seen on the Internet that wind farms are being proposed for Cape Vincent and several other communities in Jefferson County, New York. I thought you might like to hear my experiences living half a mile from a wind farm in Deeping St. Nicholas, UK [England].

We had no concerns when the wind farm was planned and built. We read some of the criticisms and could not believe that there would be any problems for us.

Where we live, unless there is nighttime cultivation [farming] occurring, it is very quiet at night and readings [sound measurements] support this. It was therefore a shock in the first week the turbines were operating [August 2006] to find ourselves being woken at around 4:30 every morning with noise and a persistent hum. This is so intense as to prevent us sleeping.

We soon realized that the problem also occurred in the evenings, with a specific wind direction. The noise and whoosh is so intrusive that sitting outside is no longer possible when the wind is in the wrong direction (which amounts to 60 degrees of the compass).

The “hum” of the low frequency is very disconcerting, particularly when trying to sleep. It is present 24/7, even when the turbines are not rotating. It is not a pure tone and is a sound that draws attention to itself particularly when the house is quiet. The noise and hum have now impeded on our life to a point that our lifestyle and our ability to enjoy our home and garden have been destroyed.

Our house has now been significantly devalued by the wind farm, and we can no longer sleep in it every night because of the noise. We have had to rent another property five miles away to sleep in, when the wind is in the wrong direction.

The crux of our problem seems to be that not enough research has been done on the impact of placing wind turbines near residential property and the effects of aerodynamic modulation and low frequency noise on residents—especially when there is a group of turbines interacting with each other’s air streams, combining with coastal inshore winds. We found that the computer modeling and all the pre-assessment work did not forewarn us of what was to come, really because not enough is known or understood about these machines and how they behave in different locations.

Jane Davis
Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK [England]

• Westville just passed a pro-windfarm ordinance
• Burke and Brandon, under heavy pressure from a wind energy company,
are each considering a pro-windfarm ordinance
• Bellmont and Chateaugay both passed pro-windfarm ordinances and
appear to be on the point of issuing turbine permits
• Clinton, Ellenburg, and Altona all passed pro-windfarm ordinances and
are about to be sued in the NYS Court of Appeals for permitting wind
turbines in residential areas
• Malone and Bangor have banned all industrial wind turbines

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