Falmouth’s Turbine Woes Recounted at 9/24/19 Hearing
Three Falmouth residents told the legislature’s Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy panel about their quest for relief from wind turbine impacts, including financial costs. The September 24, 2019 hearing included House Bill 2928, the Wind Energy Relief Act.
“I was a recognized refugee in my town,” Linda Ohkagawa told the committee. She said she was known at the library and the Walmart parking lot where she went to escape the noise, feeling of pressure against her chest, and strobing light. “I lost so much.” View a clip from the hearing.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Andersen and her husband, Neil Andersen, both recounted their experience.
Watch as Betsy tells the committee:
We couldn’t work, couldn’t stay around the house. We became sick, sleep deprived zombies.
Click this link for her full testimony.
We went to our town hall and begged for help. Forget it. This was the Mass. CEC and Falmouth’s big green energy project and we were just complainers.
And that was the type of treatment we received from both our town and state government for six long years.
We were labeled the anti-green people – had our house egged and vandalized. Taunting us became sport, and defeating us the prize.
Neil said during the hearing:
In the spring of 2010, a 400’ tall wind turbine became operational. Due to an unusual combination of the proximity of the turbine (1320 feet), the direction of the prevailing winds, the topography, and the orientation of our house, we very soon realized that we were at ground zero for the negative effects from the turbine- namely a harmful and extremely intrusive, never ending, heart pounding low frequency pulse. The extremely distressing noise was like torture. Pound-Pound-Pound. Day and night.
Our only relief was to get away, which we were forced to do very often.
Read Neil Andersen’s testimony or watch this video clip
Representative David Vieira introduced H.2928 to help wind turbine neighbors and their communities recover from failed wind projects. It provides two compensation funds: 1.) a $15 million per year Energy Relief Fund for people, businesses, and cities and towns impacted adversely by wind turbines, and 2.) a $7.5 million per year Turbine Decommissioning Fund. The funds will come from the millions of dollars that are already collected from electric ratepayers and then credited to the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust Fund.
Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts 
Another BIG Negative to so-called “free” energy.
Windmills work well in some situations; small ones on remote farms to pump water into holding tanks, or in Holland to pump water.
Otherwise these Large ones are costly and pollute more in 3 areas; Manufacturing, disposal and while in use with noise and vibration pollution!
Please see the following talk on infrasound and low frequency noise. This is a ~50 min talk plus a long Q&A. Note approx. 2min of “dead air” at the beginning.
“Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise: Physics, Cells, Health and History”. Mariana Alves-Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal) at University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on Sept 12, 2019.
https://livestream.com/itmsstudio/events/8781285
If you think they hear it bad come on over to my house and you’re really really get a feel for it That sound go,s threw our house and our heads.183blacksmithsoproad.
I feel for Neil and Betsy. My family is not as close as they are to the turbines in Fairhaven, but my husband and I can hear the turbines when we go to bed at night. I have developed a schwanoma in the cochlear of my right ear. I have lost about 80% of my hearing in that ear. The tinnitus is also present and constant. I am wondering if this has occurred with anyone else living close to turbines. Good luck to you both….sad.
Neil and Betsy Andersen’s testimonies are correct and true. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts should feel shame and should compensate them for their pain and suffering.