1400' setback from residence

Take a really good look at this picture of the house and the wind turbine. (click on the picture to enlarge it)  Eight members of Whitley County Concerned Citizens visited the folks who live in this house, next to this turbine.  I was one of those visitors.

We walked around that yard, and stood in front of that porch, and looked out the windows of that house from the inside. It’s a beautiful house, inside and out. And the natural setting is amazing. But, you just can’t begin to imagine being surrounded by 146 turbines – spinning motion every direction that you look when you’re outside, and reflected in every shiny surface inside.

Spinning motion outside the kitchen window where you stand to do dishes, outside the windows of your front door, through the windows of your sun porch, as a backdrop watching your kids play on the swing set, outside the dining room windows, reflected in the TV screen, reflected in the glass of the pictures on the walls, reflected in the glass doors of the kitchen cabinets.

And they are so HUGELY out of proportion to everything else. The 2 closest ones to their home are 1400′ away – and they look like you could just reach out and touch them – they’re enormous. Dave pointed out a line of turbines that were 6 miles away, and some that were 8 miles away. They looked like they were just at the end of the field. (Note:  the wind ordinance that the Plan Commission proposed for Whitley County last October called for a 1200′ setback).

Dave & Stephanie Hulthen are a very nice young couple in their mid 30′s, living in their dream home. They have 4 young children, and they live directly across the mile from the farm where Dave grew up, and Dave’s parents still live. Dave makes beautiful custom cabinets and furniture in his shop at home.

Their focus is “people need to know the truth about what it’s really like to live with turbines, and the wind companies don’t tell the truth”. Dave has a degree in physics, so he really understands a lot about how the whole system works. They are all about proper setbacks. Ironically, when Dave wanted to build his cabinet shop (very nice metal building), their county code said the shop had to be ‘set back’ from the road at least as far as front of his house “in order to be aesthetically pleasing”. No joke!!

Dave drove us around through the wind farm, telling us the stories of various families who live there. Then, he drove to the edge of the wind farm, so that there were no turbines in view in front of us. He called our attention to the fact that we were looking at “normal” surroundings – farms and houses. Then he said “now I’m going to turn the vehicle around” and suddenly you’re assaulted with this view of huge, spinning sticks towering over farmland and houses. The feeling is gut-wrenching. Before I went, I honestly thought that looking at them wouldn’t be all that bad. I was more concerned about other issues. But, I have to admit that looking at them, and being surrounded by them affected me more than I thought it would. I can’t imagine our beautiful countryside looking like an industrial waste land; and not just for a short time…….but for the next 30 – 40 years.

There was also a constant drone of noise – and the generators weren’t even operating – they weren’t producing electricity that day. Also, there was the “whoosh, whoosh” of the blades. The shadow flicker varies from house to house depending on the distance and directional relationship between the house, the turbines, and the sun. For Dave & Stephanie, the shadow flicker is like a disco strobe light at sunrise, lasting 45 minutes, from May through September.   (There is a video of the shadow flicker posted on their website.)

They said some days are so bad, so noisy, and some nights so sleepless, they look at each other and say “put the FOR SALE sign in the yard”. And then they remember, ‘oh, yeah – nobody will buy our house, we’re in the middle of 146 turbines’.

Their dream has been shattered by turbines.

If you’ve not made the trip to a wind farm, and talked to those who live among the turbines – please do. The key is talking to people, seeing from their perspective, hearing directly from them how daily life has been affected by the turbines. You won’t get the complete picture just by driving down the road and looking at them.

And, please write to your County Commissioners, and David Sewell, Executive Director, Planning & Building. Let them now of your concerns. You can find their addresses here.  County Officials have told us they need to hear from people in all areas of the county, not just in Washington, Jefferson and Cleveland. Please share this information with anyone you know in Whitley County. This is a county wide ordinance that is being considered – and the next phase of the wind farm may just target your part of the county. The time to let your voice be heard is now.

Joan Null
Whitley County Concerned Citizens