USA Today Article - Neighbors at odds over noise from wind turbines

[JNA]

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition...ines04.art.htm

HIGHLIGHTS:

As more turbines are built, the noise they create is stirring debate. Industry groups such as the American Wind Energy Association say there's no proof they make people sick, but complaints of nausea, insomnia and other problems have surfaced near wind farms across the USA.

Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician in Malone, N.Y., calls the ailments Wind Turbine Syndrome and is writing a book on them. In the preface, which she shared with USA TODAY, she says the syndrome "is an industrial plague. It is man-made and easily fixed. Proper setbacks are the best cure."

Setbacks are settled between developers and communities, and there's no industry standard...

Proper setbacks are the best cure - so it becomes a zoning issue ?

Does your fair community have any setback requirements ? No
Do you think that this is an emerging issue ?

[Otis]

This is an emerging issue, even for urban areas. This summer when I was in Colorado I saw a wind turbine in somebody's suburban backyard in Broomfield. Here in Otisville the local schools received a grant to install wind turbines at each school. Noise is one issue, but most industry advocates dismiss it. Aesthetics is another. A third, and to me the most interesting and potentially the most troublesome, is the flickering shadows the turbines create. Potential link to epileptic seizures. There also is the issue of wildlife impacts, particularly on bats.

There is a type of wind turbine that instead of looking like a propeller looks like an egg beater. The turbine blade rorate a vertical shaft rather than a horizontal one. This kind seems to have more potential in urban areas.

[Seabishop]

Here's a fact sheet from the American Wind Energy Association on common myths. Does anyone know of any more objective, third-party studies on nuicances?

http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/...Fact_Sheet.pdf