August 16, 2010
Mr. Richard Edsall – Chairman
Cape Vincent Planning Board
Town of Cape Vincent
1964 NYS Rte. 12E
Cape Vincent, NY 13618
Dear Mr. Edsall:
I have attached for your review and to be part of the record the complaint resolution section of the 2010 draft wind law that you and other members of the Planning Board helped formulate earlier this year. I thought you should compare what you and the board drafted with Acciona's Complaint Resolution Plan (FEIS, Appendix C-11). They are not even comparable.
I suggest that you recommend Acciona adopt the Complaint Resolution Plan that our community drafted and not the “wind industry friendly” variety Acciona hopes you will accept.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Clifford Schneider
PO Box ???
Cape Vincent, NY 13618
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. Complaint Resolution Process
Excerpt from Cape Vincent Wind Committees 2010 Draft Wind Law) Complaints from the Public will be addressed in the following manner: All complaints shall be directed to the Applicant/Operator and responded to by the Applicant/Operator or his duly authorized representative within five (5) calendar days after receipt of such complaint. The Applicant/Operator shall keep a log of any such complaints received, which log shall be reviewable by the Town Code Enforcement Officer upon request.
If the complaint includes the character or quality of the wind turbine sound, then any subsequent investigation shall use best practices to evaluate the overall level, tonal, and/or temporal nature of the wind turbine sound prompting the complaint. Any complaints which cannot be resolved during the initial response shall be subsequently directed to the Town Engineer for investigation, and any such investigation shall be undertaken with the full cooperation of the Applicant/Operator. In addition, the Applicant/Operator will shut down and Wind Turbines as may be needed to properly assess noise impacts. The operating data including wind speed and direction, turbine output, and rotation speed for adjacent turbines shall be available upon request.
Testing shall commence within ten (10) working days of the report of the initial investigation. If testing cannot be initiated within ten (10) days (exceptions granted for lack of stable atmospheric conditions), the wind turbine(s) causing the complaint shall be shut down until the testing can be started. Testing shall compare actual sound measurements at property line of complainant with and without turbine operation to confirm operation complies with sound limits established in Article 3, E3. “Sound Regulations”.
A copy of the test results shall be sent to the complainant and the Town within thirty (30) days of test completion.
After the investigation, if the Town reasonably concludes that operational violation of any applicable permit conditions or modeled sound levels are shown to be caused by the Wind Energy Facility, the licensee/operator/owner shall use reasonable efforts to mitigate such problems. These reasonable efforts include such measures as temporary cessation of operation.
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 landowner's last complaint.
If the operator of the Wind Energy Facility does not mitigate such problems they will be subject to enforcement penalties in the Town Zoning Law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from 2010 Draft Wind Law
4. Compliance Survey – Protocol for dealing with noise complaints. Within three (3) months after a wind energy facility becomes operational, a compliance survey shall be conducted by the Town and funded by the applicant and/or operator. The following list of steps outlines the procedure:
a. Sound sensitive sites shall be selected based upon the model used for site plan approval.
b. Sound levels shall be measured at a non-participant property line that is closest to the nearest wind turbine, but at least 25 ft away from buildings and 50 ft. away from roads, driveways, power lines, or any other potential sources of man-made noise.
The A-weighted and C-weighted Leq sound levels shall be use to assess compliance. In
addition, L90, and L10 levels shall also be collected.
c. Data collection shall occur on any weekday dates (barring holidays). Measurements shall be made in accordance with the parameters established by the Planning Board and its consultants. Additional compliance surveying and monitoring may be required at the discretion of the acoustical sub-consultant if conditions vary. The actual hub wind speed and power output shall be provided. Compliance surveys are valid only when the four nearest wind turbines are all operating within the test parameters.
d. Data recording sound level meters shall be used that comply with ANSI or IEC standards for Type I meters, and the meters should be placed on the ground in accordance with IEC 61400-11. Microphone wind screens shall be used for all measurements in accordance with best recommendations of the sound level meter's manufacturer.e. Recording anemometers shall be placed adjacent to each sound level meter 4-5 ft. above ground and approximately 25 ft. from the meters.
f. Data collection should include a series of continuous 10-minute samples for at least 1 hour with the highest, valid 10-minute LeqA and LeqC levels from the same 10 minute interval used to define the wind energy facility’s operating sound. Observations must confirm that the highest LeqA and LeqC sound levels measured are not influenced by non wind turbine noise sources. These levels will then be compared to the sound levels predicted by the computer model at that location.
g. Other technical procedures should generally comply with International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) 1996 standards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All members of the wind committee agreed to this version of the complaint plan - Notice that in the end they say if a wind developer does not fix the problem, they are subject to penalties and fines. This was not part of Acciona's feel-good complaint plan.
Acciona has put forward a plan to deal with our potential complaints because they have said we will have more complaints than usual because of the noise issue.
Tocci said the wind farm would be too loud and Acciona said, Hell we'll just resolve the complaints with our Complaint Plan and Complaint (developer loaded) Board.
What I would like to know is, those of you that may have submitted comments on Acciona or BP's EISs, how satisfied are you with the responses in the FEIS?
Acciona’s responsiveness to your concerns is a good indication as to how well they would respond to any complaints after they put up their damn pinwheels.
What kind of response do you think you would get to your noise complaints?
Link Here To Read The ST. Lawrence Wind Complaint plan
10 comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=MOfHxINzGeo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEccgR0q-o
http://openline.blogspot.com/2011/03/213500-crime-against-taxpayers-blows-up.html
Wind Power: Green and Deadly
Submitted by Doug L. Hoffman on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 15:41 "An average US citizen or corporate entity who kills an endangered animal can be in big trouble with the law. Birds, eagles in particular, are zealously protected by nature lovers in America and around the world. Yet a July 2008 study of the wind farm at Altamont Pass, California, estimated that an average of 80 golden eagles were killed there by wind turbines each year. The study, funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency, estimated that about 10,000 other protected birds were being killed along with the eagles every year at Altamont. Where is the outrage over this slaughter? It would seem ecologists have a blind spot when it comes to the wind energy industry. As a result, the carnage caused by wind turbines, the “Cuisinarts of the Air,” is getting greenwashed. And birds are not the only creatures wind turbines kill—they kill bats and people as well."
I suppose we'll be hearing soon how "homeland security" will be protecting wind turbines and corporate offices of wind energy companies from other countries. Maybe the reason that most are foreign is they don't have to follow American law and our own DOJ protects them more than anything else. Those politicians didn't read the part where this is just a couple of layers of "bumbling idiots" and this will all collapse very soon.
This one is for Harvey. Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bi314DjY3Y&feature=related
Another fine example of the crooks in official positions who threw us under the bus so they could get their pot of gold. It's sickening.
Destruction of the Earth = DOW JONES GAINS
They disgust me.
If we live in a world where one group is not held to the same laws we are, then there are no laws. It's funny that a presidential candidate once said that "we don't live by the rule of the jungle, but by the rule of law". "A kinder and gentler nation". He was a one term president but set the stage for things to come by deregulating the energy industry. Not one president since has done anything to reverse this unregulated world run for the benefit of Wall Street. Rothchild, Buffet. Pickens, Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan, Rockefeller, and so many others. This is not for saving energy costs or the environment,,, it is a sham for profit. As with ALL government subsidized industry.
Post a Comment