Frustration in Falmouth

In Firetower Wind’s recent post, Clouding the Wind Issue in Falmouth, mjoecool comments, “The catalyst for Falmouth’s wind turbine review process are serious concerns for resident’s basic health and living conditions.” Furthermore,

The Falmouth WT problem is not a noise problem. It’s a pronounced and significant Health problem that needs immediate attention from the local government body responsible for the HEALTH of the community.

Like others in Falmouth, Cool is impatient with a side-lining of the health issue in a concern over costs to the town. These red herrings lead to interest in sound testing (needing more evidence) and relocation (reducing harm to current wind neighbors). As he suggests, more evidence was needed at the start, at a time when “The noise models and wind experts in the Falmouth projects did their marketing well.  They painted a rosy picture that we all bought.” Now the facts are there–ill health and lowered quality of life.

 The [turbine options] report will soon be in front of Selectmen. Falmouth has done itself a disservice by making a health problem a political issue. The Falmouth Board of Health needs to wrestle the problem away from Selectmen and back into the arena it belongs — Health.