Woodstock, Maine Will Not Go Down With Out A Fight
Since November, I have spent my time digging and peeling this project apart. The Town only addresses wind turbines in their Building Permit. It allows them to be built as follows, the highth of the tower plus 10%. That allows wind turbines to be built as close as 510 feet from a residence. The other part basically addresses how they will be taxed.
The D.E.P. is now looking at the Spruce Mountain Project and there has been no request to do a "RUSH" on this permit. It will take 6 months for the decision on the permit. In the mean time people need to get in touch with the D.E.P. and share their concerns.
Will the wells be filled with arsenic?
Will our wells colapse from the blasting?
What if the foundation of my home is cracked by the blasting?
Do I have any legal recourse?
What if the noise is so bad that I can't live in my home any more?
Where did all the animals go?
The Township of Woodstock is allowing a noise level of 55 "A"decibels. That means that the "C"decibals will be at a dangerously high level and people will be affected by it. I am not ready to leave my home and as the colonist did in the new America I am and will stand and face this enemy. This company doesn't seem to play fair, but I plan on telling them the truth so that the companies true colors will be showing. It will be the company that will create their own down fall, because the people don't like to be lied too. I am working for a 180 day moratorium to go on the Town Meeting Roster on March 29, 2010. Come join me in Woodstock, Maine, and SAVE SPRUCE MOUNTAIN. BY; LEOLA R. BALLWEBER
Views: 270
Comment
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Comment by Denise Hall on April 20, 2010 at 11:53am
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HI,
I live Woodstock and am very concerned with the way the town is trying to push this through. My parents and I own property off RT 26 and also a camp over on Concord Pond. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. We pay taxes to keep the town running and believe we deserve a say in what happens in our own backyards. Keep up the good work!
Denise Hall - Woodstock Maine
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Comment by Harrison Roper on February 4, 2010 at 9:20pm
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To Leola Ballweber in Woodstock - I assume you are familiar with Dr. Nina Perpont's "Wind Turbine Syndrome" book and website. Also you will want to get Dr.Malcolm Swinbank's article about his work at NASA-Langley Wind (Turbine Noise Research) which is available at National Windwatch.org. Dr. Swinbank is a NASA scientist who worked on a study of big wind turbines and low frequency noises for NASA.
He reports that some people are more sensitive to such "sounds" than others, and his studies show:
(page 1) "Finally, they measured in practice the low-frequency threshold of hearing under labratory conditions, for persons subjected to impuslive wine-turbine noise, and showed this could be almost 20 DB lower (i.e. more sensitive) than the conventionally accepted noise threshold for less obtrusive sounds" (1982)
The Langley/NASA studies were done long ago -yet they are ignored by the manufacurers of the turbines, the "experts who do the sound testing, our politicians and Legislators, and the permitting authorities. Are they just ignorant, or are they wearing blinders and hoping for the best?
But people still get sick, despite the "expertise" that is supposedly protecting them.
We have property across Hot Brook Lake from the industrial wind "farm" called Stetson II in Washington County, Maine. Full-spectrum sound testing for a full year is required in First Wind's March 4 2009 Stetson II permit, and I have requested a copy of the testing protocol, which is required to be submitted to, and approved by LURC before the sixteen Stetson II 1.5MW GE turbines can be operated.
I think the testing proposal (and the results a year later) are public documents and should be made available to you on request - Marcia Spencer-Famous of the LURC staff is the contact person for this.
Good luck in your efforts. Ask me in a few months what the turbines sound like, and in couple of years how the testing turned out. Of course by then it will be too late, for us and for our neighbors.
Decommisioning should be prepaid in full, in real dollars and not in "a letter of credit from a bank". INSIST on that before before construction begins, and you will learn how financialy sound these wheeler- dealers really are. If you don't have the book "Wind Turbine Syndrome" by Dr.Nina Pierpont, get it, or it is available at her website free.
Harrison Roper Houlton, ME 207-532-3797
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Comment by Art Brigades on February 4, 2010 at 7:21pm
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Stetson and Mars Hill operated well below capacity for 2009. These projects get front loaded subsidies, and they set up back-end tax obligations. In essence, they TIF and "Community Benefit Agreement" their way into a very low cost operation for the first few years. They minimize their risk and their investor's risk, while riding a poor performing mechanical device which is a great performing investment vehicle. They further enhance their bottom line early on because they get accelerated depreciation schedules, saving them even more money. They can easily find themselves in a situation seven years after going online, where they have recovered all their ROI, and now they produce a product that operates far below break even (about 29% capacity). The result is they create a product that cannot compete in the market. Factor in the liklihood that plentiful and CHEAP renewable power from Quebec is going to find its way to our market, and that natural gas is going to both dominate and stabilize our market, and Patriot will be in a bind: Keep operating a losing enterprise, or walk away while still in the black from all the fools who gave them a free ride and guaranteed an early ROI. Walk away. Leave you with a bunch of funny looking bird feeders that produce no electricity, no property tax, and no jobs. Ever see a picture of the Ball park in Old Orchard Beach? Neat idea til everyone realized it was a loser. You probably have some good people in Woodstock, and some smart ones too. You are up against sophisticated speculators who can eat you for lunch, make you feel good about the green stuff, and ruin your little town all for a fistful of dollars that will never be worth the price you pay for taking them. Get help. Get guarantees. Get taxes, not TIF, and not Community Benefit Agreements. Get decomissioning and abandonment paid in full up front. Protect yourself prudently and watch them take their met towers back to Massachusetts.
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Comment by freemont tibbetts on February 4, 2010 at 4:28pm
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good work Leola. I have found reaching out to the folks, even one at a time, brings results. Talk, write, speak out all you can. People are willing to listen. Listen to their concerns and the path to stopping these wind machines will appear before you
Freemont
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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