Dear Mark,

In order to get first hand reports of what it is like to live within 10km of a wind development, perhaps you might like to talk with the residents who live within 10km of the Waterloo wind development in South Australia, who know first hand just what it is like to live beside Vestas V90 3MW wind turbines. An Adelaide University survey last year showed that 50% of the respondents to the survey of all homes within 5km of the wind turbines (with a 64% response rate) were moderately to severely affected by the noise. The University have suppressed that information, despite the student concerned being awarded his Masters, so a community member with local knowledge of the extent of the suffering decided to repeat the survey, out to 10km.

Mary Morris found that people were adversely affected by the noise out to 10km. Further information can be obtained directly from Mary, and the following weblink: http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/18/open-letter-to-the-premier-of-south-australia-re-new-survey-at-waterloo-wind-farm/ . To view a program featuring some of the sick residents, please view http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/?page=Story&StoryID=1394 Incidentally this today tonight program busts the myth that wind turbine hosts and their families do not get sick. David and Alida Mortimer make it very clear that they can, just like anyone else.

Local knowledge of what is going on at Waterloo is what led the members of the Goyder Council Development Assessment Panel to reject TRU energy’s application to go and wreak the same sort of havoc at Waterloo on the next range of hills to the west. The panel’s concern was heightened when TRU energy’s lawyer was unable and unwilling to give a guarantee that there would not be adverse health impacts resulting from the operation of the wind turbines.

Given that 5 households at Waterloo have had to abandon their homes, one of which is 4.5km away from the nearest wind turbine, and the degree of distress, sleep deprivation and ill health in that community since the wind turbines started turning, one could ask what the response of the company and the government noise regulator (the EPA) has been.. The answer from both the company and the EPA has been that the wind development is “compliant”…. Yet the guidelines do not mandate full sound spectrum measurement, and indeed state that infrasound is not present at a “well maintained wind farm”. If you want to see what is present in the way of acoustic pollution in the infrasound and low frequencies, please have a look at the following report: http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/reviews-of-noise-impact-assessments-stony-gap/.

Then read the literature review from Professor Leventhall in 2003 to the British government department DEFRA, which confirms that some acousticians well knew in 2003 that low frequency noise (from any source) can cause both acute symptoms identical to “wind turbine syndrome” (see p 49 of the document at http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/review-of-published-research-on-low-frequency-noise-and-its-effects/ ) and a PHYSIOLOGICAL stress response, even in sleeping children (section 10). And if you are chronically exposed to wind turbine noise, you may develop a chronic PHYSIOLOGICAL stress response, known for years to be associated with devastating long term health problems akin to a “Rapid Aging” effect.

So, it is clear that it was known in 2003 that low frequency noise could cause some serious health problems, and that wind turbines are a source of LFN. The infrasound and low frequency noise from wind turbines is now being measured in the homes of sick people, in the USA and in Australia. The company lawyers will not sign a guarantee stating “there are no adverse health impacts”. It is looking more and more like a rerun of thalidomide, asbestos, and tobacco. How many more rural communities are going to be sacrificed??

Mark, you seemed to not have noticed that South Australia has gone from zero renewable energy in early 2003 to about 28% in late 2011 (26 of the 28% being wind energy), retiring old coal-fired power stations at the same time. Just a slip no doubt; I’m sure you would not have intended to. A CSIRO survey reported in November 2011 showed ‘strong support for wind power’ in the general public; this seems to contradict your slant. Where do you get your evidence that wind power is much more expensive than coal and gas? I think the evidence is against you on that.

Dr Sarah Laurie, who is not a practicing or registered doctor, unfortunately is very much at odds with the medical profession generally (she is on record as saying “There is a mass ignorance from the medical profession”) and organisations like Doctors for the Environment in particular (who strongly support wind power). (See ramblingsdc.net/Australia/DrLaurie.html#Dr_Laurie’s_errors.) There have been at least 17 reviews of the professional peer-reviewed literature; not one of them concluded that wind turbines cause any illnesses.