Events
September 22, 2011
Catch Windfall
Berkshire residents and those in the hilltowns have several opportunities in the next week to view the award-winning film about a rural NY town facing down a wind turbine menace. On Saturday 9/24/11 at 7:30 pm the film will be screened at the Berkshire Museum on South St. in Pittsfield, with a reception to follow. On Tuesday 9/27/11, also in Pittsfield, Berkshire Community College hosts a showing at 12:10 in room K-110. Then on Saturday 10/1/11, Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls is the venue for a 7:30 pm showing. Don’t miss this well-crafted documentary.
A Not-so-welcome Sign
Miss Hearing
The second hearing on the wind siting bill has been called off and no new date has been scheduled.
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Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts 
In a letter dated Sept. 8, Alicia McDevitt, state Department of Environmental Protection deputy commissioner, wrote to town Selectmen that MA DEP would fund and staff would collect data on noise created by Falmouth’s municipal Industrial Wind Turbine. Good news for residents around Blacksmith Shop Road? Don’t hold your breath. Selectmen shouldn’t be so quick to put their eggs all in one basket.
I viewed “Windfall” at the Woods Hole Film Festival (Falmouth MA). I contacted Town Hall officials well before the event, urging their attendance. Few responded, and those that planned attending – never showed.
It all boils down to trust, both in the movie and in your community. An incriminating memorandum on wind turbine noise, prepared by the Ontario provincial government, shows that government officials were well aware that noise from IWT’s operating, even in compliance with Ontario’s wind turbine regulations, were causing adverse effects on communities. http://www.windaction.org/module=uploads&func=download&fileId=2167
Is it so hard to believe that what happened in Ontario isn’t being played out in Massachusetts, in Falmouth? Fall Town Meeting will soon be in the throes of debate on Town Meeting Article 9 (to suspend town wind turbine operations). Falmouth’s wind issue is a mirror image of Ontario’s – hence Article 9 is on the town warrant – people are being hurt!
The real question not yet addressed by State “experts”, not to mention by town Selectmen or Board of Health, is why the many characteristics of wind turbine noise, not identified in the MADEP regulations, are not factored into the equation assessing tolerable turbine noise levels. Without address of this question, all best intentions, all state funds and studies, all compliance conclusions offer no answers, no relief to neighbors.
It’s a question of trust. Citizens beware when green ideology clouds science, and regulatory compliance distracts public health judgment. It will be telling indeed, if Town officials, at Town Meeting, punctuate the associated cost of temporarily shutting off the machines. Will “they” inconceivably suggest the preference of wind profit over the personal health of citizens?
Town Meeting is our tradition of trying to make Falmouth a better community. A better community isn’t measured by pounds of CO2 eliminated or dollars in the town till. Trying to make Falmouth a better community starts by trusting accurate questions will be asked, all the while resisting harmful ideologic and political influence, demanding honest medical proof, and working together to make wise decisions and policies.
Urge officials and neighbors alike, stop avoiding the “real” question, otherwise “Windfall” will play for real in your town too.