Direct Impact: Talking with victims of IWT. Neil Anderson, Barb Ashbee, Richard Braithwaite and Gerry Meyer – Sun. April 8th, 7pm ET

THIS SUNDAY'S PROGRAM

WWR will be talking with the victims of industrial wind from different areas.

Barbara Ashbee was forced out of her Amaranth, Ontario home by the siting of industrial turbines too close.  Barbara could easily count 15 turbines from her yard. Her experiences with the local and provincial government is scary and disturbing.

“The Ontario government did not help, in fact they mislead us on the number of complaints they had received and were claiming all was running in compliance when it wasn’t.

The Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) released a literature review in May 2010 concluding there are no direct health issues linked to turbines. The developers and government actually use this review to approve new wind projects and they hand out copies at wind meetings but theThe CMOH Dr. Arlene King, was well aware of the serious problems in many wind projects in Ontario before she signed off on the literature review. She was made well aware that families were being made sick with some being forced from their homes and chose not to speak with even one of them. She was warned. …
There is a wall of silence but as the evidence mounts they will have to answer to it at some point. These people are in a position of public trust and their lack of action or even acknowledgment of what they are doing to people is very serious

Neil Anderson hails from Falmouth, Massachusetts and has been a leader in the effort to tell the story of the many families in Falmouth who have been severely impacted by the turbine know as Wind One. Wind One is located at the town’s wastewater treatment plant a little more than 1300 feet from Neil’s home. As many as 50 families have been impacted and they have managed, for now, to get the turbine turned off.  Neil was an advocate of the turbine before it turned on and started to impact his health.

Richard Braithwaite lives in Keyser, West Virginia and was one of seventy-five neighbors who signed a petition seeking a solution to the noise coming from the Pinnacle Wind project.  He purchased an inexpensive sound meter and routinely registers 60 – 70db outside his home. As he says, “Let them bring their thousand dollar machine and take their own readings.”  The wind developer has paid lip service to the complaints and is installing, of all things, a muffler!

Gerry Meyer lives in the 86 turbine Forward Energy project in Brownsville, Wisconsin that was erected by Invenergy of Chicago.  There are 5 – 400’ turbines within ¾ of a mile and 11 within a mile of  his house.

Gerry attended the first few public meetings about the Forward Energy project. (that was long after many local farmers were signed up to host turbines).  The Invenergy representatives and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin told the public the turbines were quiet and would be a great benefit to his community. Gerry left those meeting feeling good about wind energy.

Gerry knew know about the Horicon Marsh Advocates, a group fighting for a 5-mile set back from the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, however he did nothing to help them in their cause.  As a rural mail carrier he drove within the project often stopping to take photos and on his way home from work stopped to talk to workers and take more photos. As a former construction worker the turbine construction was intriguing.

On March 3^rd, 2008 he walked out of his house and heard a jet flying over. He looked to the sky for that jet. There was no jet. It was the large industrial wind turbine 1560 feet straight north of his house. This was the first day of operation of this turbine. He immediately knew he was lied to by Invenergy about the quiet sound of the turbine. This did not sound like the wind blowing through the trees. It sounded like sitting on the runway at O’Hare Airport. He began writing a daily noise diary which can be read at http://lifeinawisconsinwindproject.tumblr.com/.

“In the house there are thumping sounds everywhere, especially upstairs in the sewing room. Very tense and sickening.” 

Just a few of the heath affects caused to Gerry’s quality of life are sleep deprivation, high cortisol levels, chest pain, pulsating the neck, nausea, exhaustion, no longer has dreams, cognitive thinking issues and the concern of what other heath affects are down the road due to constant sleep deprivation.