I am writing today to express my opposition to the proposed wind turbine project in Freeborn county.

Electromagnetic, audio, visual, view, light (flicker), noise, vibration, infrasound, air turbulence, wake, electrical, loss of over the air TV and radio signal, wildlife, bird and bat issues are all attributable to wind turbines.

Property value and marketability due to the presence of wind turbines too near a home are a problem.

There is also concern for health effects as reported (and additional potential health concerns) in the Public Health Impacts of Wind Turbines report prepared by the Minnesota Department of Health Environmental Health Division dated May 22, 2009, and comments filed in the Public Utilities Commission docket 09-845.

Unregulated infrasound can make sleep difficult for those who experience it, putting health and recovery in jeopardy.

Each of the proposed turbines in the townships of Hayward, Oakland, London and Shellrock will be nearly 500 feet tall and close to 400 feet across tip to tip. Turbines are sited using developers’ desire for high wind speeds and unobstructed flow of wind, without regard for the residents nearby. Every turbine is an expensive and large industrial plant, impacting not only the often absentee landowner but homeowners who are not part of the project — using land and homes that are not part of the wind farm without permission. 

I and my neighbors did not buy homes in an industrial park and then complain. We own and maintain homes in rural America — our little piece of paradise. We love our silence at night, dark starry skies and unobstructed sunrises and sunsets, the quiet, being able to hear the animals and birds, our life in the country. Our quality of life is being threatened.

Was the industrial park built around your home or did you buy a home in the industrial park? Of course not, there are rules for things like that, right? This is a case where the nuisance is coming to us, and where we are being told to live in the middle of a project that the developers know could harm us. We deserve to live our lives in peace.

Dorenne Hansen

Glenville