Prattsburgh residents get warning on wind turbines
Steuben Courier
PRATTSBURGH — Wind turbines will disturb your peace and quiet, neighboring town residents warned the Prattsburgh town board last week.
"It's like a jet engine landing right behind you," Hal Graham, of Cohocton, said. "It's constant noise."
Graham leased land to First Wind for its 50-turbine wind farm in the town of Cohocton. Tuesday, he spoke during the Prattsburgh board's public hearing on a wind energy facilities permit there. The permit will stipulate certain terms and charge a building permit fee for any wind facilities in the town.
The only wind project currently being considered in Prattsburgh is EcoGen, an East Aurora-based developer. In December, First Wind announced a year's hiatus in its plan
to put up a 36-turbine wind farm in Prattsburgh and recently closed its office.
However,FirstWind did complete its larger project in Cohocton, beginning operations there earlier this year.
Graham said he was a strong supporter of wind energy and studied any potential noise problems extensively by observing other wind farms in the state and asking questions.
Both he and a neighbor each have a turbine on their properties, he said.
"When I signed the contract, I was assured there was no noise," he said. "Well, people can't sleep at night, in the winter, with the windows closed. As the wind speed increases, the noise level rises. It rattles our windows ... It's like a jet engine going full blast." More complaints...
27 comments:
Hmmmm. It sounds like a nightmare these people will never wake up from. I sure wish I had a turbine by me. It is much to quiet at my house. It is beautiful to. I hate it!! Peace, quiet and beautiful, who needs it, give me wind turbines any day.
wine energy seems like it makes sense.so why don't they develop a quieter wind turbine
I now appreciate the fact that the Commissioners of Potter County had the guts to put a noise limit in the county ordinance.
I never did sympathize with the whiners who didn't like how the turbines looked but this noise issue is serious.
Our Hebron Township Supervisors really dropped the ball. Everyone in Hebron Township should read this article and then decide.
Take a look at who is related to who on our supervisors. One of them has a conflict for sure.
How much work did you guys really put into this?
Mr. Mulchay had you wrapped right around his little finger and you caved in and sold us down the creek.
Bring it back up for a vote and this time do your homework.
I do NOT believe this. This is anti-wind turbine propaganda. If the turbines actually did make that much noise, they wouldn't be put up anywhere. I have seen/heard them in NY state, they are fine. Give it a rest already! Must be the people who are against wind turbines don't care that we are destroying our atmosphere at an alarming rate with all the fossil fuel we're buring! They must not care that we are at the mercy of the Arabs for oil! They must all be loaded, while the rest of us want cheaper, cleaner, US-made fuel!
Wind energy is like ethonal. It sounds like a good idea, but it just doesn't work. When the wind don't blow, the power don't flow!! Throught history wind power was used for everthing, from sailing ships to grinding flower. As soon as somthing better came alone it was abandoned. It just wasn't dependable then and it is not dependable now. That can't be fixed. You can't make the wind blow.
"As soon as somthing better came alone it was abandoned. It just wasn't dependable then and it is not dependable now."...
Easier, not better, fossil fuel is ending our world as we know it!
Wind turbines are meant to help alleviate some of the fossil fuel dependency not replace it!
One bloger says:
"Wind turbines are meant to help alleviate some of the fossil fuel dependency not replace it!"
Reallity shows:
They produce less then 1% of the nations energy and that can not be depended on. It is rediculous to believe they will ever produce enough to even begin to help the energy problems.
If you can't stop or close a conventional power plant with wind turbines, just what is the purpose, what is the point.
It is like putting a sail on the front of your car. Yes it will pull a little when the wind blows but you still have to have the engine running to keep the car going. It is obvious in this example that wind would not work, but it is the same situation with wind turbines. They have to be backed up 100% of the time.
Once again, what is the point?
To the Hebron Township writer I say the same disease has infected the other townships in Potter County.
Most people don't go to the supervisors meetings and they just assume as long as the roads are clear then everything is fine.
Now it has changed because the supervisors are in way over their heads and are being talked into passing laws that let the companies come in and build their giant windmills. Most people in the townships if they knew what was going on would start going to their supervisors meetings and telling them to STOP. But this is being sneaked in all around Potter County and nobody goes to the meetings to see what their supervisors are doing. In lots of cases the supervisors could end up making money themselves or their friends or relatives could make money so they are trying to keep real quiet and let these monster windmills come in. Wake up now township people or you will be stuck with these problems for a long, long time. It is reality and not a big propoganda thing like the one writer said on here. Don't you hear what the people who get burned by the windmill con game are saying? Some of them are moving away from their homes. Their real estate prices have dropped. They can't sleep at night. They have health problems, Come on people!
The wind energy companies are tempting the townships with talk about payoffs/bribes, not illegal bribes to the supervisors themselves but bribes to the townships governments to get the supervisors to back down and not pass regulations. They will promise how much this will help keep your taxes low but when you see what happens to your township you won't want to live there anyhow so who cares then what the taxes are. Wake up people or you will be sorry.
That anit wind propaganda keeps this blog going.
Thank you!
DAMN WIND TURBINES!!!
"If you can't stop or close a conventional power plant with wind turbines, just what is the purpose, what is the point"...
Maybe you should look outside of your box!
Heres one in response to "If the wind don't blow the power don't flow."
How about if the wind don't blow than it don't make noise!!
You people need to use the gray matter the good Lord gave you instead of just being ignorant.
the 5:27 comment is pretty ignorant. when the wind blows it does make noise.
this story isn't propaganda. it's one of many where people residing near industrial wind turbines are complaining about the noise.
just because your township supervisors have already passed a "come on in" ordinance without due diligence, it doesn't mean you cannot go back to those boards and ask them to reconsider. Folks who live in Eulalia, Hebron, and Homer Townships may really want to do that if they want to protect themselves and the value of their property.
How many of you anit's posting are getting windturbines?
If your not -- whats your point.
This is about land owners exercising their right to utilize their property. Property they pay the taxes on.
The title of this story could be reading:
Potter County residents get warning on wind turbines
By People all over the world
Why is it that people close their eyes to the obvious? why will we have to stand by and let this happen to our area and to our friends and neighbors.
The writing is on the wall, but one or two posting on this blog keep trying to paint over the truth.
Sad but true!!
In the article it states:
"Residents said they've been told the reason the turbines are louder than expected is they are larger than originally planned."
The proposed turbines in Ulysses township upsized from 1.5 megawatts to 2.5 megawatts.
Ulysses township residents are headed for the same nightmare as the Cohocton residents are now facing. Ulysses township supervisors are doing nothing to protect the residents. They passed a extremly poor wind ordinance with min. setbacks and poor noise restrictions. It makes one wonder what is in it for them. To date there is nothing for the township. Absolutly NOTHING!!
I love wind turbines.
I love the wind turbines as well. I want to build a house in the base of the biggest one they make. It would be so nice and peaceful with a great view of Potter County to boot!
I want a wind turbine, too! You anti's are so ignorant. And we wonder why this area is falling apart, we have nothing.....
I actually make a bed out of a wind turbine and the lovely sound puts me to sleep every night.
Ed
And the lovely blinking red lights will make a pretty contrast to the ugly white lights the moon and stars create. The noise will be a welcome relief to the dead quite we now have to put up with and everybody gets tired of the same old fall colors or that ugly green that the hills are now. Bright white tall column of steel with spinning white arms will be a wecome relief.
I'm going to paint my wind turbine pink with purple and red striped blades......
"To date there is nothing for the township. Absolutly NOTHING!!"...(That is Absolutely)
Too bad you did not offer to buy up the land these wind turbines are going up on, now there is an idea, put YOUR money where your mouth is...buy your neighbors property then your say will matter!
Yes. Property rights are very important.
But the gov't is making the industrial wind turbines a reality in this area. Take away the subsidies, tax rebates, and gov't renewable energy mandates, we would not be having this debate!
Therefore, I would argue take away the above gov't intrusions and I would totally concede to the property rights argument. Maybe I would like the turbines, but it would be the market picking winners and losers, not the government which I don't have much faith in.
I brought my farm to make a living off of. As times have change and I’m now looking at another source of income. So I’ll tell you what, you like living near my farm and enjoy the view you can pay me what I’ll get for leasing to the wind company and you won’t have to look at the windmill. I’ll be happy and you will too!
Yeah. Let's talk about it. But if you're a true farmer in the tradition of this great state, do you care if they impetus for these industrial wind turbines is gov't incentives, mandates, and subsidies?
Our forefathers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were very skeptical of the government. Are you?
"if you're a true farmer in the tradition of this great state"
Are you kidding me, a true farmer?
Farmers have been forced to change their way of farming for years...you tell us what a true farmer that can survive in today's economy is, will ya?!
They are no different than every other 'business' that is still alive and open for bussiness!
Change, change, change with the times or close down!
I am happier knowing some of my tax money will be going to help install clean green energy and helping my local farmer friends, more so than 5 million in the lumberman's museum, just my feelings on the matter.
Thank you for the honest response. $5 million to the Lumber Museum is wrong. Also subsidies, tax rebates, and gov't mandates for renewable energy are wrong. That's not what this country is about. You're right that American farmers are not acting differently than any other "business open for business", but that doesn't make it right.
I'd rather keep my tax money and spend it where it makes sense for me. If we were all able to do that I think everything would make a lot more sense. Yes, maybe I would have industrial wind turbines that I don't like, but I wouldn't fight against them.
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