Letter: Staff says Dayton 'too busy' to address wind farms

To the Editor:

Gov. Mark Dayton is "too busy" to address state policy destroying Minnesotans’ health. “We don’t have a noise standard that’s designed to work for turbines,” said Commissioner Paul Aasen, Dayton appointee to Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency.

Yet the distance between an industrial wind turbine and your house is determined using the state’s noise standard.

Minnesota Department of Health recognized the link between wind turbine noise and human health problems in its award-winning 2009 study “Public Health Impacts of Wind Turbines.” The agency recommended the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission address turbine noise when siting turbines. Commerce’s energy facilities permitting staff, who provide technical advice to the MPUC, acknowledge that the setback distance from homes is based on a noise standard that does not measure turbine noise. The MPUC continues to surround rural homes with 400-foot industrial turbines.

Minnesotans living close to industrial wind turbines commonly experience sleeplessness, ringing in the ears and chest pressure. Like other health hazards, not everyone is negatively affected. Numerous formal complaints on the MPUC’s public record represent a small percentage of negatively impacted citizens.

Wind companies “respond” to noise complaints by stating they “meet the state’s noise standard.” Others offered suffering residents a “white noise machine” in a failed attempt to mask turbine noise.

I’ve brought this issue to Dayton repeatedly for seven months. I’m told he is “very busy.”

If the goal is to destroy lives and reduce rural human habitation, Minnesota’s industrial wind mandate is succeeding.

Kristi Rosenquist

Mazeppa

Tags: opinion, letters