To the editor:
I write to you with regard to the article titled “Swan’s Island Electric Co-Op Considers Wind Power” (WWF Aug. 06).
I own a year-round cottage on a small lake in Genessee County, New York State. This cottage is in the township of Stafford, NY. Stafford is a very small town — not even a “four corner town” — only three corners!
What I am about to explain to you may save the Swan’s Island area. I may be too late.
The wind turbine salesmen (and they are indeed salesmen) do their homework/research and they do it extremely well. They look for low-income areas that have a lot of land with each parcel, 30 acres and up. Pasture land is preferable, since the land is already cleared. (You may have seen TV commercials or TV movies that show the wind turbines.) These companies will cut down everything — trees, bushes, shrubs, including blueberry, bayberry, Christmas trees, everything gets removed. You see, the wind flow must not be hindered in any way from the wind turbines.
They (salesmen) first approach the people on the town council, town board, sheriff, mayor, realtors and business people who have the required amount of land. They start out with low offers, $5,000 for each wind turbine they put on your property. They offered $10,000 in Stafford.
This sounds like a lot of money — however, they will only pay you $1,000 a year total. So how much is that a month?
Then they approach the little man — the hard working farmer, or maybe a fisherman with a lot of land but dollar poor. These offers sound very good — but are they? The town board, town council, mayor, etc. believe they are doing everyone a huge favor by talking everyone else into voting for the wind turbines.
Since you’ve got an article in your paper, these “favor” people have probably already been reached by the salesmen. An article in the paper is how most people find out about wind turbines coming to their area.
What you really need to know about wind turbines that the salesmen will never tell you:
The life span of most wind turbines is 10 years.
The company who puts them up never takes them down — and you can’t because you don’t own them! Did you know that kids bungee jump from the wind turbines that aren’t being used anymore? The legal term used for this situation would be “attractive nuisance.” Hawaii has turbines that aren’t used anymore. They are a blight on the land, what a travesty.
The propellers vary in size depending on the size of the tower. North Java, NY, in Wyoming County has a dozen wind turbines — only 125 feet tall. A propeller broke off — it was found half a mile away. Can you imagine a propeller crashing through the roof of your house, and you do not even have one wind turbine on your land!
Wind turbines can be as high as 495 feet tall. You could see this tower from quite a distance — even though none are on your property. Wind turbines affect everyone in the community, whether you own property with turbines or not.
Noise — these wind turbines do make noise. Tug Hill, New York, a dairy farm community, noticed the noise was affecting the milk production from their herds.
Wind turbines create a wave of tension power, these radiate out from the towers. Two homes fell down due to these “waves of power” at Tug Hill. How old are the homes in your area? Historically old?
Wind turbines lower property values.
There is more to tell but it would be too much to print in your paper.
A very important fact: if you decide not to get wind turbines, you can’t just say no; you must protect yourselves with new zoning laws, because the government could decide to make wind turbines a public facility. Then where would you be?
Vicki Wysocki
Hamburg, NY