Cable Access Television Captures Falmouth Residents’ Reports

Video from the Board of Health hearing in Falmouth on May 24, 2012 is available online thanks to the efforts of Falmouth Community Television.

In towns across Massachusetts, volunteers and support from community access organizations and committees have made public meetings like these available on local channels or online. They deserve our support–and even better, our time offered as volunteers.

Brent Runyon’s piece in the Enterprise, also captures testimony in “Residents Tell How Turbines Have Impaired Their Health.”

 An overflow crowd of more than 80 people packed the selectmen’s meeting room at Falmouth Town Hall last night to give and hear testimony about the impact to the health of residents who live near the largest wind turbines in Falmouth.

A total of 30 residents gave testimony about a range of problems, including sleep disturbance, depression, abnormal heart rhythms, ringing in the ears, weight gain, and the increased stress, anxiety, irritability and anger they attribute to their proximity to the town-owned Wind 1 and Wind 2 turbines, the privately owned Notus Clean Energy turbine and the Woods Hole Research Center turbine.

The BOH chair’s prepared remarks in advance of the hearing repeatedly characterized the experience in Falmouth as “unique.” This is a claim promoted by wind developers who resist any efforts to reveal resident health impacts or allow independent noise measurement. This “anomaly” refrain is evident in the Boston Globe piece, “Both sides praise wind turbine halt in Falmouth,” by Robert Knox.

“We’re actually glad the state is doing something about that one machine,” said Brian Kuhn of Associated Wind Developers of Plymouth. “It’s almost a case of one bad apple spoiling the whole bushel.”

Clearly any complaints in other communities will be met with assurances that this is a local issue, not an industry or technology problem.