Residents who live in and near the proposed project called Horse Creek Wind Farm in the Townships of Clayton (lead agent) and Orleans are fed up with the intentional neglect by members of the Clayton Town Council to amend the Local Law No 1 2007 for Wind Facilities on noise levels and turbine set backs that will protect the residents. Over the past eight months, residents have brought to both Township Councils and Planning Board members four acoustic sound and engineering experts showing that residents in the Horse Creek Wind Farm face noise levels that exceed State & Federal guidelines. To date Clayton Town council continues silence and no action for our request. Aren’t elected officials supposed to protect our interest and our lives when industrial developments are proposed around resident’s homes?
Residents are asking for a local law that limits noise from industrial wind turbines to no more than a 5dBA above a normal background sound levels at resident’s property lines.
Currently, Clayton & Orleans local law accommodate the noise levels expected by the developer PPM Energy. These levels are measured at the outside wall of a resident’s home, disregarding one’s property line, and are unhealthy.
Federal guidelines state that an appropriate level of noise in a bedroom during sleep is 24 dBA (A-weighted decibels). However, current local laws in Clayton and Orleans allow noise levels to reach 50 dBA. State guidelines in New York state that an increase of 6 dBA above normal background will cause complaints and should be avoided. According to the guidelines, an increase of 20 dBA is intolerable.
PPM Energy, Clayton and Orleans all recognize that these guidelines will be exceeded. PPM Energy’s noise assessment states that during hours of sleep ninety-five percent of the residents will suffer sound levels between 35-to 44 dBA. It is inappropriate to have 62 wind turbines each 406 feet high within a half mile of over 2500 residents. Wind farms in the Midwest are not sited in areas so densely populated.
In response to residents concerns, the Town of Clayton commissioned an objective study of noise impacts of the Horse Creek Wind Farm but has refused to provide it to the public. Cape Vincent hired the same company to study impacts of a wind farm there and provided the results to the public. The study shows that the sound analysis performed by Cape Vincent’s wind farm developer is seriously flawed.
Residents in the project have voiced they are not against a wind farm. We want a safe and responsible wind farm to protect residents for years to come. No Town should allow developers to control their interest, Town leaders should control the wind developers and protect their residents from harmful side effects of setbacks to close to residents.
The Town of Orleans has started the process of adopting adequate protection for their residents in two phases. Orleans is within the Horse Creek Wind Farm project area. Phase one will amend the Orleans local law regulating wind farms by increasing turbine set backs from 1250 feet from a resident’s home to 1500 feet from the resident’s property line. The second phase will amend the local law’s regulation of noise limits. The Orleans town board also wants a copy of Clayton’s new noise study but has so far been unable to obtain it. Orleans is willing to protect their residents from the harmful effects of a wind farm.
Clearly, the Township of Clayton (lead agent) is putting residents in “harms way” and they must take the steps to rectify flaws in their local wind farm law. Why are Clayton Supervisor Taylor and members of the Clayton town and planning boards shirking their duty?
For copy of the Cape Vincent TCA Report: & Copy of Maple Ridge Noise Post Construction visit our website: www.eccojeffersoncounty.org
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