Scituate Instructed on Turbine Impacts
Reporting for 95.9 WATD radio, Charles Mathewson described Saturday’s informational session “Scituate: Wind turbine neighbors try to educate the community” (3/24/13). The program featured acoustician Rick James, sleep disorder specialist Dr. Jeffrey E. Silver, and a demonstration of the strobing light experienced in the McKeever home.
The community group had previously asked the town for a health survey, a shadow flicker study and a study of non-audible sound effects. The Scituate Board of Health has asked for bids from acoustical study companies to conduct an audible sound study only.
Rick James addressed audible sound and infrasound. Mathewson’s audio report quotes Mark McKeever’s emotional description of the upheaval in their home since turbine operations began. McKeever’s concern focuses on his children’s health.
. It was hosted by the Neighbors of the Scituate Turbine. (They have several additional videos on their “fordiscussion” page). The video was produced by BlueStar Media.Topics Included:
- The South Shore / Scituate Experience
- Acoustics 101: (Rick James, Principal Consultant at E-Coustic Solutions) Min 13.11
- Light Strobe: A Real Life Experience (Mark McKeever) Min: 48:42
- Health and safety: (Dr. Jeffrey Silver, MD. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Certified by American Board of Internal Medicine in the subspecialty of Sleep Medicine.) Min: 1.07:29
- Green Community Legislation: Leaving Communities Black and blue
- Reasons for and request for support of Town Meeting Warrant # 28 -rescind special permit granted to Scituate Wind. Min: 1.42:20
Background: Organizers hoped to draw residents from other areas of the Town who are not directly impacted by the noise and strobing light emanating from the industrial wind turbine. The event’s goal was to shed light on the real health and safety impacts being experienced by folks living too close to this inappropriately sited industrial wind turbine, and with accurate information in hand, encourage our friends and neighbors to understand, support and advocate on behalf of the negatively impacted residents.
Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts 
Pitch controlled wind turbines can be operated in reduced noise modes. The MassDEP claim that they can verify normal operation during testing is questionable. Given that the wind is always changing, and all the data must be supplied by the developer, verifying normal operation is far from obvious.
The MassDEP needs to publish the methodology the intend to use to verify normal wind operation during the test. Saying that they will examine the SCADA data from the wind turbine’s computers is not enough.