Yes! Wind Power for Cohocton

Friday, August 14, 2009

Opinions & Letters August 9, 2009 Search Archives: Steuben Courier


What noise? I don't hear a noise.


To the Editor,

It is too bad some of the turbines installed in the Cohocton area were faulty and created a lot of noise. The responsible company repaired the generators, thus eliminating the noise.

I traveled the road between Cohocton and Naples stopping several times, where the turbines seemed the closest, to see if I could hear any noise. There was none. This is also true of another wind farm I am very familiar with. Every year for many years I have been traveling to Madison County for our family reunion. A small wind farm of seven turbines was built and is operating there. The road I use passes very close to the wind farm, so I stop every year to look and listen. I enjoy watching the blades turning majestically against the skyline, and I have never heard sound one coming from them.

Some of my relatives live in the area. They tell me there is never any sound or anything coming from the wind farm to cause anyone to be against them. My nephew (who lives there) assures me there is never any noise from the farm. Two years ago I drove up to the home of the owners of the land. They were not home that Sunday. I was amazed, standing there in front of their house, at how close I was to the nearest tower. There was nothing between it and me but about 250 to 300 yards of grassland. I stayed a short while listening for a sound. There was none. I noticed that the house windows were not rattling, so I concluded that there was not any of that earth shattering, window rattling "noise that you can not hear" either.

There is a couple that live at the place where I always stop, so I paid them a visit to get their opinion of the wind turbines. They said there was never a sound, and they enjoyed sitting outside on a cool evening, watching the blades turn.

May I make a few suggestions to the Bath and Prattsburgh people who want to place restrictions on the building of wind farms: [1] Do not waste money on an expert who wants a job to investigate noises you can not hear. There may be sound waves of various frequencies; the air is saturated with sound waves at all times. They are produced by all radio and TV stations as well as cell phones, to name the most common ones. [2] Visit several wind farms. [3] Talk with several people who live the closest to each of the farms. [4] Now you can write recommendations based on knowledge rather than hearsay.

Clesson L. Cook