June 17, 2011 by Richard Alleyne
in The Telegraph
Residents living near the 23 turbines won an order making the operators turn off the generators after claiming their lives were being made a misery.
The unprecedented banning order only lasted a few days and was designed to force the power company to make provisions to reduce the problem.
If they do not come to an arrangement with the locals then the ban could be re-imposed.
It is believed that the closure, which cost Scottish and southern Electricity thousands of pounds, could lead to similar action being taken by residents living near other wind farms. More [here]
Acciona ~Complaint resolution plan ~
Excerpts from Acciona's Complaint plan
link to complete complaint resolution document [here]
Written complaints shall be directed to SLW and responded to by SLW or their duly authorized representative within 5 calendar days after receipt of any such complaint.
1. If the complaint includes the character or quality of Wind Turbine sound, then any subsequent investigation shall use best practices to evaluate the overall level, tonal, and/ or temporal nature of the wind complaint.
2. Any complaints which cannot be resolved during the initial response shall be subsequently directed to the Town designee, or if there is no Town designee to the Town of Cape Vincent Planning Board for investigation and any such investigation shall be with full cooperation of SLW.
3. If testing is necessary....
4.test results....
5. After the investigation, if the Town of Cape Vincent Planning Board reasonably concludes that operational violations of any applicable permit conditions are shown to be caused by the WMD, SLW shall use reasonable efforts to mitigate such problems.
6. Continued complaints from the same landowner will trigger additional investigation only if the Town determines that nearby Wind Turbine operational characteristics have changed since the first complaint.
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This means that if Acciona had a special use permit in RE: to noise for its Wind Mill Development (WMD) project in Cape Vincent,
and you had a complaint about wind turbine noise, your complaint would be directed to the Town Planning Board and after an investigation if it is found that there is a noise problem and Acciona is in violation the special use permit then they will use”Reasonable efforts to mitigate such problems" What does that mean?
Do they say if it is found that if we are in violation of our permit we will shut the offending turbine down?
NO!
This document states that they will use what they deem as reasonable efforts to mitigate such problems however they do not define reasonable efforts.
What happens if these reasonable efforts do not solve the problem?
Back to part 6 ~ apparently you are done,
6. Continued complaints from the same landowner will trigger additional investigation only if the Town determines that nearby Wind Turbine operational characteristics have changed since the first complaint
~~~~
but there is the complaint appeal procedure
This how it works
The complainant may appear before a complaint resolution board
This board will consist of three members: an SLW designate, a Town Officer or employee appointed to the position annually, and an independent third party expert.
Note: The decision of the complaint resolution board shall set forth the manner in which the complaint shall be resolved and the reasons why such resolution is appropriate. In making such a decision, the Complaint resolution board shall take into account the terms and conditions of the special use permit and approved site plans, and shall not require any resolution that is inconsistent with such terms. The decision of the complaint Resolution Board shall be final and binding.
Things could be worse ~~~~
5 comments:
The Acciona complaint resolution plan is as big a joke as I have heard from the developers yet! It's absolutely useless.
Who the hell gave them the right to decide how our town is going to regulate noise and handle complaints?
It's supposed to be OUR town. WE tell them how they will be treated when they break our wind laws. (If we had any)
For a scumbag company like Acciona, who likes to stack the deck against the majority of non-participants in Cape Vincent, we have a single sentence addition to your complaint plan: No wind turbine shall be closer than 5 miles from Cape Vincent lake and river fronts.
If this complaint resolution process is not good, why do we think a property value guarantee would be any better.
In either procerss you will be screwed by the developers.
"If this complaint resolution process is not good, why do we think a property value guarantee would be any better."
Because it delays their approval, or kills the project, or provides some protection if all else fails.
acciona and bp are not the only scumbags causing this .i think we can all name who the others are .
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