The Issues
The Wind Farm issue for Town Meeting
Dear Harpswell
Resident,
At the March 8th
Town Meeting Harpswell voters will be asked to contribute $10,000 toward the
cost of a wind study to see if it would be feasible to put 3-4 turbines on Long
Reach Mountain. Long Reach Mountain is owned by the town and is the site of the
popular Cliff Trail. Town meeting begins at Noon.
The project
proponent has described the conservation benefits of renewable energy that the
turbines would produce and potential income to the town based on leasing the
site to a wind energy developer and taxing the value of the turbines. However,
most residents are unaware of the significant negative impacts that would occur
if the turbines were built.
The attached
documents describe impacts of wind turbine development, including:
-
Significant noise and light pollution up to 3,000 ft. or more from the 400
foot-tall turbines.
-
Negative
impacts on property values.
-
Major
environmental impacts, including building a road as wide as Rte. 123 along
the narrow ridge of the Mountain and disruption of important wildlife
habitat.
Attached
documents
Conceptual Plan of Proposed Wind Turbine Development
on Harpswell’s Long Reach Mountain
Harpswell Wind Turbine Alert
The need for the
study has also been questioned by those who are inclined towards wind turbine
development. It may be feasible for the town to put wind study instruments on
the planned communications tower rather than erecting a separate wind study
tower. Also, in most cases the developer, not the landowner, pays the full cost
of a wind study.
We hope you will
carefully consider the information in the attached documents.
If you are concerned about the impacts
of this development, please come to the town meeting and vote.
For more
information you may want to view the following videos:
The Little Bay
Wind Farm...How Close is too Close?
Reviews noise and
setback issues for a proposed community wind project in Massachusetts.
http://windwisefairhaven.com/
Small
town forced to live with wind turbine issues
("Voices of Tug
Hill").
(Note: scroll down to this video and be patient, there is no voice audio for the
first couple of minutes).
http://windwisefairhaven.com/view_content.php?id_content=2
Please forward
this message and attachments to anyone that might be interested in this
information.
If
this message was forwarded to you and you would like to receive updates, please
email us so we can put you on the Harpswell wind power contact list.
Please contact
us if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Tulle Frazer and
Rob Bryan
271 Harpswell Neck Road
725-8942
email
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