This project has got to go down...
What I cannot fathom is WHY town officials are still taking advise from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Commission! They are the agency that made all the assurances that this would be a wonderful project with no health effects or downsides.. And they absolutely did know of the concerns locally as well as internationally about poor sighting and health effects. They just choose to ignore dispersing that information to get their embarrassingly orphaned turbines up and the money spent before their grants ran out.

If Mary Pat Flynn and her board of Selectmen and so on had a real backbone they would throw the debt and the fact that they were lied to right back at the Clean Energy Commission and NOT pay anything back without a court fight including full disclosure of all these shady goings ons...
But then the Town attorney would actually have to actually EARN his salary rather than waiting out til his retirement...
Still... sometimes the full truth needs to be ADDRESSED... rather than mitigated!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides the EPA Office of Inspector General $20 million for oversight activities available through September 30, 2012.

The Town of Falmouth bought the Wind 1 turbine from the MTC, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The turbine was housed in a warehouse in Texas since 2005 . This turbine and another was purchased in 2004 and then again in 2010 with ARRA funds.

The Office of Inspector General is as we speak today is conducting audits, investigations, and other reviews to ensure economy and efficiency and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse

Individuals have reported suspicion of fraud, waste, or abuse of the EPA stimulus funds via the OIG Hotline. These are both the Vestas V 82 ( 1.65 MW ) turbines that are making Falmouth residents sick.

The EPA expects to complete the investigation by the Jan 15.2012.

Those "consensus building" firms that MassCEC is recommending are essentially just PR firms - they're in the business of selling projects (like wind turbines) to the public that the public doesn't want.

Developers hire them to push through projects against local resistance by painting an unrealistically rosy picture of the outcome, and convincing the community to accept projects that are against their best interest. If the town hires any of them, they will try to manufacture a consensus for keeping the turbines running (which, of course, is what MassCEC wants).

This sort of behavior was the cause of the problem in the first place - I can't imagine how anyone could possibly believe that it could be part of the solution.

Is this misuse of federal stimulus funds ? Buying 2004 commercial wind turbines with 2010 stimulus funds ?

How to purchase something twice in Massachusetts using a semi quasi state agency !

How in the world did the Town of Falmouth buy two turbines in 2010 valued at 5.2 million each through the MTC ? The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative bought these two turbines in 2004 and kept them in a warehouse at $3300.00 per month until the politically embarrassing turbines were sold to the Town of Falmouth .

How did stimulus funds get used for two turbines that were so old they had NO warranty left on them ? These turbines were sold like a used car !

The first mistake was the semi-quasi state agency that owned the two turbines since 2004 was politically embarrassed over the purchase of 5.2 million worth of turbines and had to unload them because it was costing $3300.00 per month for storage in a warehouse in Texas.

It looks like the semi quasi state agency then somehow got the Town of Falmouth to use stimulus funds in 2009 to buy the turbines for a second time. The turbines were paid for by the semi quasi state agency and then bought again from the semi quasi state agency using federal funds .

The turbine siting and feasability studies were paid for by the owners of the turbines since 2004 the politically embarrssed semi quasi state agency and now you have these two turbines getting national attention over the poor siting in peoples back yards.

The Falmouth Board of Health’s mandate and obligation is to responsibly assess all health, and all noise implications of industrial wind turbines near neighbors. The board seemingly appears exercising due diligence by examining peer-reviewed science (i.e. studies that have been scrutinized by other scientists and published in scientific journals). Yet, while in the the board’s assessment, why are creditable, defined and immediate data pools of irrefutable health “facts”(residents experiences), existing right here in Falmouth neighborhoods, so easily dismissed? The board’s assessment process implies that adverse health symptoms experienced by residents are true only if other scientists and their published studies say it’s so. This is the board’s qualifying scientific principle? Frame it this way. If people using town water were getting sick drinking it. And all previously known agents that would otherwise cause a water ban, were not found through testing. Would the board recommend the residents and visitors continue drinking the water and wait for other scientists and their published studies to support that the water is making people sick? Seems to me an asinine method to diagnosis an illness or health crisis. This practice could be grounds for the argument of a dereliction of the board’s duty to protect the health of all the community.
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Consensus implies dialogue with victims...I don't see anything saying it and an email address. In the past year I have spent hours on messages. All of them ignored. To build a consensus is to have a back and forth dialogue with the afflicted residents. That will probably never be allowed.
There is no honest concern for health issues...only money and political goals. Everything is broken and there is not an ounce of moral intelligence in the whole pack.
The Bruce McPherson report is now released and is a good start toward the scientific correlation between the health degradation and the turbines. This report is an unbiased and entirely science based study done with out of concern for the health complaints for the residents... It was privately funded by a genuinely concerned good individual that wanted the truth.
The state and the wind grant getters certainly do not want this information out.has already been reviewed and found scientifically accurate. Something thousand of neighbors of these large tubines have been experiencing for years is finally going to have to be looked at.
It took private funding to get to this.. because the Governments put political goals over health of the people... It's a very sad world indeed.
God bless you Bruce McPherson, rest in Peace...

sorry for the bad edits... but you get it?

Go Mark...But as don't you know the whole coast will be under water from melted ice caps in 10 years if we don't keep the turbines running? Havent you been listening?

I have remained part of the silent majority on this issue but as a taxpayer and property owner who is one of the closest in proximity to the turbines I can no longer stay silent. I live on the top of Westmoreland Drive and have never been contacted by anyone on either side of this issue. I have heard the turbines on a couple of occasions when the wind and direction of the blades perfectly align. Some of these claims related to the noise seem overstated but I really cannot judge how others experience the turbines. For all Falmouth taxpayers to even have to consider bearing the cost associated with the possible "solutions" and additional studies seems wasteful. People who have made a career out of getting rid of the turbines strike me as hypocritical, not in my backyard, types. The cost/value of putting them up in the first place did not make any sense to me but they are here so we should look at how to help the handful (relatively) of taxpayers who have been affected negatively. Since so many agree that alternate sources of energy will benefit future generations it would be nice to hear some solutions instead of years of fighting, lawsuits and wasted energy being spent when the “solutions” get a little too close to home. Do any of the complainers use solar? How do they feel about fracking? Natural gas? Just wondering.

If i had a choice of having to continue to live under this freaking turbine or forever going off the grid I would go off the grid. How do you like that for an answer.... This turbine in my backyard is hell on earth...The big picture of global warming is far closer to being proven a sham than a reality and this turbine stuff is the biggest profiteering scam ever perpetuated on the public...
No .. there is no perfect source of energy... but these monsters certainly are not it either. Very good advertising campaign though. Even better than the Marlborough Man...!
The green it this sham is the color of CASH... thats it honey...
Sorry to be so bold but my house and life vibrates, literally, with hate for the Webb turbine.. which is making thousands of dollars a day while I suffer...NO this is NOT ok!!!!

Look at the Local Comprehensive Plan. Why exclude a neighborhood or two? Therein dwells the most critical environmental concern. The Citizen!
Compare Falmouth’s Wind Siting Plan to that of Denmark’s. Their national wind developer DONG has decided no more onshore wind turbines, citing too many conflicts. The only significant wind developments being planned are "over the horizon off-shore." They have an economy based around exporting wind turbines, they actually own most of them and still the Danes want them out of sight and away from where they live. So what does Falmouth’s approach look like? No local operational input over siting or planning issues or even the number of turbines. Setbacks that curiously match the developer's and the Town’s needs but use no apparent science to protect health and safety. Turbine placement in very high density populated areas. No method of compensation for loss of property value for those caught inside “the danger zone.” Twenty year contracts for expensive non demand dispatchable electricity whether the wind blows or not. There is a side of me that wants to believe that what happened was well intentioned but not well considered. Perhaps there was just a lack of critical judgement by people in positions of power, and some forceful and misleading industry and State advice.

http://lowellmountainsnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/confessions-of-a-recovering-environmentalist/ Try reading this article .Everyone involved with the siting of wind power must read this .

the point.. Menhaunt is that my home has been made unliveable by Dan Webb and his turbine... Yet I still have to pay thousands of dollars a year in taxed and all my bills while also leaving a few days a week just so I can get some rest.
That Notus turbine probably brings in over a half million a year while I suffer the consequences...
I seek a quiet simple life...not to be collateral damage to some millionnaires profiteering scheme .. I did not volunteer to be the guinea pig here and am sick of the fight. This debate is over ... because talking with those that refuse to understand is useless... Bye bye Patch and by to Falmouth ASAP!!!! It's not worth the trouble.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides the EPA Office of Inspector General $20 million for oversight activities.The Town of Falmouth bought the Wind 1 turbine from the MTC, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The turbine was housed in a warehouse in Texas since 2005 . This turbine and another was purchased in 2004 and then again in 2010 with ARRA funds.

The Office of Inspector General is as we speak today is conducting audits, investigations, and other reviews to ensure economy and efficiency and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse

Individuals have reported suspicion of fraud, waste, or abuse of the EPA stimulus funds via the OIG Hotline. These are both the Vestas V 82 ( 1.65 MW ) turbines that are making Falmouth residents sick.

The EPA expects to complete the investigation by the Jan 15.2012.