A large group of people came out last Saturday night to New Portland to hear about wind power development in Maine from various experts and witnesses. (David Hart photo) NEW PORTLAND –- Nearly 85 area residents packed into the New Portland community building to hear information about wind power development in the state. Some even stood outside the doors to get a glimpse or to hear about what might impact them with a proposal underway for 44 turbines atop the Highland Mountains.

Organized by Friends of the Highland Mountains, a community-wide supper was conducted with guest speakers ranging from environmental and acoustical sound engineers to local witnesses who’ve experienced wind power development in their daily lives.

Nearly 10 people spoke that evening about their research, using PowerPoint presentations, sound evidence and recording devices, video presentations or just speaking about their experiences as witnesses.

It’s noted that no one spoke in favor of wind power development that evening and the event was, according to organizers, for informational purposes.

Bill Haley of Vinalhaven said what bothers him most was the ability of a large corporation to sneak into a small town and put up turbines right behind someone’s house.

“What’s also greatly troublesome to me is the noise and the drastic loss in property value,” he said.

From the same town where three turbines were installed, Ethan Hall said the sound effects from the wind turbines are remarkably disturbing, unpalatable and maddening. “They’ve turned my life upside down and I believe very strongly that if they keep running the way that they are, I will not be able to healthfully live on my property.” Hall lives approximately one half of a mile from an active, spinning turbine. Hall was asked if he can hear them through the walls of his solar passive home. “I can not only hear them, I can feel them through the walls of my house.”

Steve Bennet of Freedom said that the three turbines in his town have impacted him in a very personnel way. “A lot of people and communities have been targeted for wind power development, but we’re such a small minority that most people don’t know and don’t care.”

“I am serious when I say that half the population south of Augusta say, that Freedom is just a word and Mars Hill is a candy bar. I’m damn serious about that.”

Bennet said they do not get it and he admitted that he didn’t get it three years ago. He said he thought the wind was free so why not. “I had no idea how it would impact my life, the life of my neighbors, my family and children. Nobody described the banging or grinding noises and the sound of a jet roar. The grinding and banging noises are very intermittent, and you hear them sporadically, but when you do hear them you know it.”

Bennet, a retired school teacher, spoke of the problems with the legislative action which led to an expedited permit process, the lack of adequate legislative review in passing the bill and mass corruption and conflicts of interest at the state level. Bennet said that not one legislator was against the bill and questioned if any of them even read it.

Wendy Todd of Mars Hill said when they turned the first turbine on, they knew immediately that there was going to be a problem. “We were told in all of our meetings that there was not going to be any noise associated with the project.” She said a document was produced, but never seen by residents that noise might exceed DEP limits.

“Granted, from when our project went online, a lot has been learned about noise. I think and hope that the future holds far more regulation for wind turbines. It’s just not there yet,” Todd noted.

Ron Rand, an acoustical consultant, said he wanted the people who attended to hear the actual sounds of the turbines.

After a lengthy presentation, he explained that wind power noise is more disturbing at low levels than other noises at the same decibel such as trains, plains and automobiles. “Wind turbines contain a time varying character, in other words, the sound changes a lot which is very noticeable to the human ear. I hypothesized that part of the disturbance has to do with changes the wind turbines make and the pulsations are in the same range of speech modulations to which we are very sensitive as a species. We are wired to detect speech whether we are awake or asleep,” Rand explained. “Wind turbines produce fresher pulsations because the blades are moving from higher to lower wind speeds and from fairly stable to unstable air as they sweep through that very large area and altitude,” he added.

Rand said he’d been studying wind turbine noise for over a year-and-a-half after he noticed that the state did not appear to take any regulatory action to mitigate sleep disturbance and other issues at Mars Hill. “Sleep disturbance is the primary health concern issue with community noise,” Rand said.

The consultant said the wind generated noise is far more complex than any other power generating plants in the state.

“I think tonight’s meeting was very responsibly prepared and professionally done,” said state senator Peter Mills. “I’ve heard of these types of meetings where some people get up to speak and not always the best science is presented. I think tonight it was responsibly prepared. I think the professionals who spoke tonight were very clear, unbiased and lucid.”

Mills, who is running for governor, said he has many questions to respond to concerning the controversy of wind power. “What is it that this does for Maine when we are giving up our ridge tops? What are we gaining as Maine people? Are we gaining tax benefits?” Mills asked. “Most of these projects are happening in the unorganized territories where large property owners are in turn leasing land to wind power developers. Another question is, are we gaining anything in terms of electric power? We are part of the New England Grid and the changes are miniscule and almost undetectable. The third question is, we already produce more power than we need to consume, all we’re doing is giving up our ridge tops to southern New England, so what sort of job benefits, manufacturing opportunities and other benefits are we creating?” he asked.

Jonathan Carter, director of the Forest Ecology Network of Lexington, said that restoring forests is by far a better way to reduce carbon dioxide levels than to put industrial wind turbine power plant complexes on 360 miles of Maine’s mountains and ridge tops.

“I can’t say enough about the effort tonight from Alan Michka and Karen Pease, and the Friends of Highland Mountains who organized this. The turnout was fantastic. The fact that people got to hear firsthand from people from Freedom, Mars Hill and Vinalhaven, and to hear firsthand the devastation it’s caused to people’s lives and the decline in property values where these things have gone in was beneficial for those who hadn’t heard it,” Carter said.

Carter said the sound expert in particular was very effective in giving people an understanding on how damaging the sound is, and how if you site these things in mountainous regions within two to five miles, it could have serious health affects as a result of sleep disruption.

Like Mills, Carter questioned the merit of the project with serious limitations on transmission line distribution. “There’s no place for the power to go that would be produced by this,” Carter said. “My point being, is how can they permit a project like this when there’s no place for the power to go? It makes no sense. In LURC laws, you need to have demonstrated need. There is no demonstrated need for this power, in fact Maine is an exporter of power now and in the most recent study on New England Grid power including Maine, if we built no more power plants, whether they’re wind or whatever, we will have a surplus of power for the next 20 years.

“And they want to go destroy our mountain tops which is our quality of place and incredibly important to our tourism and economy of this region,” Carter said from the parking lot in New Portland. “That’s the scary thing. North Carolina understood when they put a ban on building on mountaintops. But then Maine goes and opens the floodgates, but I guess it’s about special interest money…”

Some attendees stayed until nearly 10 p.m. that evening.