Industrial wind turbines may destroy our communities 

After doing research in the Darke County Recorders Office, I discovered there are over an estimated 17,000 acres in signed land contracts with various wind energy companies according to the Darke County recorder’s office. There is also over 1600 acres of land signed up in Franklin/Van Buren Townships in Southern Darke County by another wind energy company. They are going for 2200 acres as a minimum to build at least 20 industrial size wind turbines in the 2 townships. If the wind energy companies get these giant industrial machines built, Darke County could be engulfed with hundreds wind turbines.

This is NOT a situation where there is just one wind turbine here or there and they are NOT the size of a silo…these are monstrous Turbines that are 475 feet tall! They could go taller (if the technology changes!) There are already wind farm projects currently under construction, consisting of over 150 turbines up in Van Wert and Paulding Counties, the counties North of Mercer County. The total wind project up there will be well over 300 wind turbines. If you care about the future of your county and community you should take the time to take and hour drive up to Van Wert and check it out. You will be in total SHOCK! These huge turbines can be placed as close as 1500 feet from any home or structure and it could be yours!

From my research, I have also found that property values will go down if wind turbines are close by. Home values can be affected up to 5 miles. The homes that are the closest can go down in value anywhere from 25 – 40%. These companies claim they don’t, but I have read too many testimonies where people could not sell their homes, so they either abandoned them or sold them drastically reduced just to get away from the noise, the flicker and the unsightly and dominating visual pollution.

But the real kicker is the federal government is subsidizing the wind projects. That’s right, more subsidies for private industry. Even though it’s a known fact wind turbines are not a consistent nor efficient form of alternative energy. You cannot control when the wind blows therefore wind power cannot be stored. You need backup sources of energy so the coal and natural gas plants have to be online when the turbines are not producing electricity. Therefore it’s a myth that wind turbines are a totally green form of energy. It’s also a myth when they tell you wind energy can reduce our dependency on foreign oil because electricity is not produced with oil.

The wind turbines can also cause noise and shadow flicker. The affects from this can travel up to 2 miles. If you do your research, which I have been doing for about 6 months now, you will find how many problems these things can create. There are also health issues to consider. The alternative energy companies claim that there are no statistics to show the relationship from sickness and turbines, but there is also no statistics proving that they don’t cause problems. Some of the health problems that may occur are headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears, anxiety and nausea. I encourage you to go to a blog started by a family in Dekalb, IL who is living with multiple wind turbines all around their rural home @ lifewithdekalbturbines.blogspot.com This will be a real eye opener for you.

I’ve tried to find something good about these wind turbines, but when they are having problems in Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, California, Hawaii, and even Canada and Europe, why would anyone want to destroy our beautiful landscape with these monsters.

Please, landowners do not rush into signing with these companies. Your friends, families and neighbors have been purposely left out in the dark so the community has no voice on whether they want these in our area or not. Every other community listed in the states above found out about them after it was too late and the division and hate that has been generated over these monsters is devastating. Do not let that happen to our community. Learn everything you can about this and fight for your rights to save our communities. Learn about this now, fight for your rights and your communities rights NOW…or you will have to live with these for the rest of your lives (the contracts are for 50 years with 20 year extensions). There is no excuse to not get involved and have your voice heard!

Also, if you think your local officials and local zoning laws can do anything about this they cannot. The Ohio Power Siting Board in Columbus, Ohio has control over any wind project over 5 megawatts and the proposed projects in Darke County will be well over 5 megawatts. Each individual wind turbine is supposed to produce at least 1.5 megawatts. You still need to let you county commissioners know how you feel. Better yet, get their opinion on wind turbines.

If you live in any of these areas of Darke County, you need to be educated on the affects these giants can have on communities. The affects can range from property values to health affects to safety issues to significant electricity bill increases (30-50% increase) to aesthetics of the landscape. The minimal tax dollars our counties could receive and few permanent jobs created are definitely not worth what these things will do to our communities and our landscape. For more information visit our website @www.dcwindworriers.com.