Falmouth Enterprise – editorial – 3/11/11

Falmouth Enterprise – editorial – 3/11/11

The Turbines Are There: Now What?

Falmouth Enterprise Editorial

3/11/11

A friend commented the other day that she noticed that our opinions of the neighbors

around the town’s turbine had shifted from being sympathetic to being critical of them.

We explained that it was not the case. We are sympathetic in general to the residents

who are unhappy with the placement of the turbines, but we don’t feel sorry at all for

the handful whose arguments are strident and who employ such hyperbole as threats

of self-destruction. Their unreasonable claims undermine meaningful discussion and hinder progress toward a resolution.

It is very difficult to know what the impact of the turbine really is. We’ve heard

the sound of it described as like a jet taking off. We’ve been in the neighborhood and

have heard nothing of that sort. Maybe we were not there at the right time. A few of the

neighbors exhort us to spend more time at Blacksmith Shop or Fire Tower Road. We

are urged to spend the night with one of the neighbors. Well, we’re not going to do that.

But more to the point, sound is subjective. One could spend a good deal of time in the

area and sense nothing objectionable.

Kathy and Brian Elder of Blacksmith Shop Road, whom, by the way, we do not consider

among the handful of overly emotional residents, gave the best description of the tur-

bine’s effect that we have seen. “The term noise does not properly convey the quality of sound and pressure we experience,” they wrote in their letter on Tuesday, “but for lack of a better term we use it.

When we are downstream of the turbine it is like being underwater and experiencing

the passing of very large vessel overhead but this propeller is moored next to our

home. Some of us are more sensitive to the adverse effects of the turbine just as some

people are more prone to seasickness than others.”

That is a reasonable description. But Wind 1 is up and running and another will soon be online. What are we as a community going to do?

There is no easy or clear solution. Dismantling the turbines is not an option. Curtail-

ing their operation probably is, but when and by how much?

The selectmen don’t know enough to make that decision on their own. The answer will

have to come with all stakeholders at the table and with everyone able and willing to

find a solution.