State regulators declined to reopen a debate over the location of four new wind turbines in east-central North Dakota, saying they had already considered a neighboring landowner's arguments that they should be moved.

The state Public Service Commission on Monday agreed to ask the project's developer, NextEra Energy Resources, if it would be practical to follow suggestions by Jim and Mary Ann Miller of Luverne in moving the turbines to alternative locations nearby.

However, foundation work on the turbine towers has already begun, the Millers and a NextEra spokesman said Monday. The spokesman, Steven Stengel, said determining the placements was a "highly technical exercise" that could not easily be changed.

"We think that the array that we've laid out is very sound for a number of reasons," Stengel said. "Once we do that, we don't think there is any need to move those turbines."

The wind towers at issue are to be placed on property in Griggs County that is owned by a neighbor of the Millers, who is being paid for the land use.

Mary Ann Miller said Monday that the couple's suggested new locations for the turbines would keep them on their neighbor's property, while moving them three-quarters of a mile to 1 mile away from their home. Under the current plan, the turbines are to be built up to a half-mile from the Millers' home.

The Millers build and sell dog sleds and keep 21 Alaskan huskies to test them. They believe noise from the nearby wind turbines will disturb them and their dogs.

"I think it's ridiculous that they would force this noise onto us, and we're supposed to be happy about it," Mary Ann Miller said.

The quiet of the rural area "is one of the big assets that we have here," she said. "We don't live next to Kmart or Wal-Mart."

The wind project includes a total of 80 turbines, capable of generating about 120 megawatts of power. The Public Service Commission granted NextEra permission to begin construction July 8, after a lengthy review that included a public hearing in Cooperstown in June.

Opponents of the turbine placements asked the three commissioners to reconsider. During a meeting Monday, Commissioners Tony Clark and Brian Kalk and the panel's chairman, Kevin Cramer, said the requests did not offer significant new information about the project.

"This is all ground we've already covered," Cramer said. "We've covered it quite thoroughly."

Merry Helm, a Fargo resident who owns a home in the wind project area and asked the state commission to reopen the case, said she had wanted to discuss the towers' problems with stray electrical voltage, and the difficulties that air ambulances would have reaching people who live near wind towers.

"These are full-fledged industrial parks with machines the size of the Statue of Liberty and the wing span of a jumbo jet," Helm said in an e-mail. "It seems pretty commonsense that if an industrial park is going to be planted several hundred feet from your home, you should ... have a few human rights to protect you from this sort of aggressive encroachment."