Images Surface In Turbine Collapse- Large Wreckage Seen From Air
UPDATED: 5:43 pm EDT March 9, 2009
http://www.wptz.com/cnn-news/18870331/detail.html
ALTONA, N.Y. -- Photos taken from a plane by Mike and Victor Fellion were able to capture an aerial view of Friday's wind turbine collapse. The pictures show the massive tower laying across an access road and on top of trees.
The now-crumpled turbine was a part of the wind park that is owned and operated by Noble Environmental Power. Many residents are left wondering what went wrong.
"Makes me a little bit nervous," said Altona resident Raymond Barnaby.
Barnaby said he has always been pro-wind energy, but even he admits to being more concerned about them now. He said many people use the land around the turbines to walk or hunt, and he's grateful no one got hurt.
Noble Environmental Power says it may take months before the company knows the cause of Friday's turbine collapse.
The company confirmed that a turbine collapsed at its Altona, N.Y., wind park Friday morning and announced later that day that it will be working with General Electric -- which provided the turbine that collapsed to Noble -- to determine the cause of the incident. "This is a very thorough process which could take several months to reach a final conclusion," the statement says.
Local Couple Reacts To Altona Turbine Collapse
No one was injured in the collapse and ensuing fire. "I am pleased with the quick response of the Noble team," Noble CEO Walt Howard is quoted as saying in the statement. "They secured the site and accounted for all Noble employees in a manner that is consistent with our stringent safety policy. I am also grateful to the fire department for its swift response."
Howard visited the site Friday.
In a separate statement released by the company Friday, company spokeswoman Maggy Wisniewski confirmed one turbine had collapsed and that a small fire resulted, but she refused to speak on the record with a NewsChannel 5 reporter.
PAST COVERAGE:
Wind Farm Addresses Local Rumors
Local fire departments responded to the fire, which was completely extinguished by 6 p.m., according to Noble officials. The site has been completely secured and all Noble employees have been accounted for, Noble officials said. The entire Noble wind park has been shut down pending further investigation and there is no danger to the public due to the collapse.
"Noble values the safety of its employees and neighbors above all else. Noble has committed its full resources to understanding the cause of this incident. We will keep you informed as we learn more information," Noble CEO Walt Howard is quoted as saying in a statement released Friday.
Residents reported large explosions from the scene at about 9:30 a.m. Friday. NewsChannel 5 went to the scene off Purdy Road, which leads to the wind farm, and found Noble trucks blocking the roadway. Noble officials at the scene would not provide access to the area and offered no information about the situation at that time.
Residents in the area told Newschannel 5 they heard what sounded like a large explosion and said the loud noises lasted for several minutes. Others equated the sound to an earthquake and speculated one of the company's large windmills may have thrown a blade. Another local resident told NewsChannel 5 she could see flames coming from Noble.
High winds have been reported throughout the North Country Friday.
NewsChannel 5 will provide more detail on this story as it comes available. Check back here at WPTZ.com for the latest on this story.
Previous Stories:
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March 6, 2009: Noble Environmental Power Confirms Altona Turbine Collapse
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March 2, 2009: Green Mountain Town Holds Off On Wind Project
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February 26, 2009: Burlington Utility Inks Deal On Sheffield Wind
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January 10, 2009: Power Companies Explore Possible Wind Farm
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January 7, 2009: Wind Farm Company Shuts Doors In Rutland
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November 24, 2008: Turbulent Time For Wind Development In N.Y.
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November 11, 2008: Wind Farm Addresses Local Rumors
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Disconnecting lines restores radio service
By KIM KIERANS | Community News
Sun. Mar 8 - 7:48 AM
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/1110294.html
RESIDENTS of Howlan Road in western P.E.I. are finally getting more than static on the radio.
For almost two years they couldn't tune into any station. The problem came from high-voltage transmission lines that went up in 2007 to carry 138 megawatts of power from the West Cape Wind Farm to a substation.
Sixty-three homeowners fought to have Maritime Electric disconnect the line and reroute the power away from their community. They were concerned about the health risks of the electromagnetic field from the transmission lines.
Two weeks ago, without fanfare, Maritime Electric disconnected the lines and all of a sudden residents could get reception from up to 30 radio stations.
Residents say they're grateful that Maritime Electric listened to their concerns.
"It was like a miracle. Don't ever think you can't achieve something. Even though it was hooked up we knew we couldn't stop fighting," Beulah Costain told Debbie Horne of the West Prince Graphic in Alberton.
"It took an awful lot out of us," Mrs. Costain said, but she feels it was worth the effort.
She's now supporting residents further along Howlan Road and Locke Road to continue fighting to have the lines removed from their area. "They must never stop."
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A 292-foot mistake
By Staff reports
Fri Feb 27, 2009, 07:39 AM EST
http://www.wickedlocal.com/newburyport/news/opinions/x1959828871/A-292-foot-mistake
Newburyport - There's no doubt that Mark Richey had nothing but good and green intentions when he erected an industrial wind turbine to generate electricity for his wood-working factory in the city's industrial park. And there's no question that city leaders who ushered in that project - first with a wind turbine ordinance and then with a Zoning Board of Appeals special permit - believed they were putting Newburyport in the lead of local communities that support alternative and renewable forms of energy.
But now that it's up and running, it seems clear that both Richey and the city failed to fully investigate the potential impact of the 292-foot-high turbine on the Back Bay neighborhood. And it's the residents of that neighborhood who are going to pay for that mistake.
This week, more than a dozen homeowners turned out for the City Council meeting to explain what it's like to live next door to the huge, high-tech windmill that is so dramatically out of scale with everything surrounding it. Some described an incessant hum from the generator; others talked about a continual whooshing sound created as the blades cut through the air. In the afternoons, residents say their homes are hit with a shadow and light flicker; in the evenings, some catch a red strobe-light effect in their windows. Some say they have trouble sleeping and one resident reported that the turbine interrupts his television reception.
Residents raised those exact concerns months ago before the turbine was built, but their worries were dismissed by a stack of reports and experts who said those problems, if they existed at all, would be so insignificant, that no one would notice.
And what's troubling about all the experts and turbine proponents being so far off the mark on these issues is the fact that most were equally dismissive about concerns the neighbors have raised about safety. Over the past several years, as more and more industrial wind turbines have been erected, there have been an increasing number of failures that include blade throws, oil leaks, fires and, in some cases, a complete collapse of the towers.
In light of all of that, the City Council unanimously agreed this week to send the city's wind turbine ordinance back to its Planning and Development Subcommittee for review. It is the very least the city can do. The next step may be to answer the concerns of homeowners who have an eye-level view of the head of the turbine from their windows and back porches. Most would probably agree that those homes have lost some of their market value, and the city should re-assess those properties and adjust their taxes accordingly.
And one other thing about those homeowners - throughout the wind turbine debate, residents of the Back Bay neighborhood have been accused of being a NIMBY crowd that supports green initiatives except when it comes to their backyard. Although the residents who spoke at the council meeting were upset with what's happened to their neighborhood and angry with the city for failing to listen to them and protect their homes, they were not there this week for their backyards. Just about everyone who spoke this week was resigned to the fact that the wind turbine is a reality that isn't going to go away. Back Bay residents are speaking out now to make sure that no other neighborhood in the city is forced to live with the problems and worries of a wind turbine in their back yard.
They understand and agree that wind power is part of the solution to the country's challenge to find alternative sources of energy. What they want in Newburyport is an ordinance that protects the entire community with adequate setback and site requirements that take into consideration the health and safety of residents, no matter what part of the city they live in.
And there's nothing NIMBY about that
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Be Concerned About Health Effects from Wind Turbine Effects
Mar 1st, 2009 by NoWindFarms.
Author: Meyer, Gerry
http://nowindfarms.com/blog/03-be-concerned-about-health-effects-from-wind-turbine-effects/
I live in the Forward wind farm erected by the Invenergy Company of Chicago, IL. I understand you may have wind turbines coming to a farm near you.
I have been a rural mail carrier in this area for 30 years, therefore I know on a personal level most of the residents in this wind farm which is located near Brownsville, Wisconsin.
There are 86 industrial wind turbines here and I delivered mail where 64 of them are located. I, like most members of our community didn't pay much attention to the news that the turbines were coming in because we trusted our local town government and the state government to site them responsibly and safely. We were very naïve.
The turbines are forty stories tall and the set backs are 1,000 feet from a residence, 440 feet from the property line of a non hosting neighbor and roads with a 50 decibel sound limit. These set backs were pretty much written by the energy company, who led us to believe that these set backs were safe.
We were told the turbines make about as much noise as your refrigerator or sound like the trees blowing in the wind. On March 3rd of this year I walked out of the house and heard a jet flying over. I looked in the sky for that jet. There was no jet flying over. It was the first day of operation of the industrial wind turbine 1560' behind my home.
That day I decided it would be a good idea to begin keeping a noise diary. You can read it at betterplan.squarespace.com. You can also read there many health concerns and how many Wisconsin towns and counties are now enacting ordinances to protect the health and safety of their residents.
We did not know the loss of sleep, headaches, our son telling us "My head feels like it is spinning 100 miles and hour", ringing and buzzing in the ears, nausea, stress, tenseness and lack of concentration which have affected us since the turbines went on line were caused by the wind turbines until a friend told us about Nina Pierpont's study of wind turbine victims at
These symptoms are also experienced by people around the world that live near industrial wind turbines. yet the energy company will tell you that they have no complaints of health issues.
At our house we can hear 5 turbines on a regular basis. They range in distance from 1,560′ to 3/4 of a mile. At times we hear all five of them inside our well constructed and insulated home. When we go to our "cabin in the woods" not only is it peaceful there, but some of our symptoms go away or improve depending on how long we are away. We sleep all night there without interruption. The first time we went to our cabin after the turbines were up my wife told me, "Last night was the first night in weeks that I slept all night".
Our neighbors and friends in the wind farm tell us of similar effects and farmers have told me of their regrets agreeing to host these large wind turbines. Recently an emergency medical helicopter company, The Flight For Life, moved to our area. They wrote a letter saying that they will not land in the wind farm to an accident scene or emergency situation because not all towers are lit at night and the turbulence around the turbines is like that of a Boeing 747.
Do you know that the wind turbines are designed to be from 27-30 efficient? Keep that in mind when you read that these turbines will power × number of homes when they are erected. You could divide that number by 4 to get a more accurate number. In the third quarter of this year the turbines in this wind farm produced electricity at 17.5% of capacity.
I have lots of trees around my property to help suppress the sound and still have loud sounds on a constant basis. I have friends that have very serious issues with shadow flicker that fills their home with flickering shadows or the red blinking lights at night flashing in to their homes. We have a beautiful landscape. Now it is polluted by these large industrial wind turbines.
In summary do not believe what the energy companies tell you until you research it for yourself. Read every word of the lease agreement or do it with and experienced attorney because you are leasing your property to the energy company to do with as they wish.
As a farmer do you want to affect your health as well as the health effects of your neighbors? Get concerned citizens organized immediately to adopt an ordinance that gives you a one mile setback from homes, safe set backs from non-hosting neighbors and a safe sound level. The low frequency sound emitted from an industrial wind turbine is much different than that of living near a road, train tracks or the flight path to an airport. I have written this letter so that hopefully you do not have to go through what we are experiencing in our area. If you do not have safe set backs you will regret it.
If you have questions or concerns you can contact me at nowindforme@fastbytes.com
Gerry Meyer
W6249 County Road Y
Brownsville WI 53006-1103
Cell 920 948 7469
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Planet Thrive - Long Beach,NY,USA
by Andrew Eriksen | eiwellspring.com
People with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) are commonly excluded from public activities such as work, school, ...
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By Administrator
A scientific study published in the journal Neurotoxicology finds that people who live around mobile phone base stations (cell towers) are at risk for developing neuropsychiatric problems and changes in neurobehavioral function. ... The authors say revision of standard guidelines for public exposure to RER from mobile phone base station antennas around the stations is recommended. G. Abdel-Rassoul *, O. Abou El-Fateh, M. Abou Salem, A. Michael, F. Farahat, M. El-Batanouny ... EMFacts Consultancy - http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/
