Not long after the wind turbines began to spin in March near Gerry Meyer's home, his son Robert, 13, and wife, Cheryl, complained of headaches. They have trouble sleeping, and Cheryl Meyer, 55, sometimes feels a fluttering in her chest. Gerry is sometimes nauseated and hears crackling. The culprit, they say, is the whooshing sound from the five industrial wind turbines near the 6-acre spread where they have lived for 37 years.

Although the 400-foot turbines can sometimes delay air medical rescues, emergency personnel are trained to cope artfully with such situations, said Claire Rayford, spokesperson for Flight for Life ...The pilot decides what is safe and makes a decision based on many different factors at the time of the incident, Rayford said.

It's a plan, not everyone is thrilled about. On a stretch of land, just southwest of Fond du Lac, Curt Kindschuh lives near a windmill farm. It's an area where Flight for Life and Theda Star say landing could be extremely tough, and that's why pilots are being told to avoid it, even if there's an emergency.

The modern windmills may create clean energy but they are a clear and present danger to air ambulances. Milwaukee-based Flight for Life has notified first responders in Fond du Lac County that air ambulances will not land near the windmill clusters here. "They are up in the air," said Flight for Life's Claire Rayford. "We have to be aware of them. Depending on how high they are, they may not be lit."

The state Legislature will try again to establish statewide wind farm standards, but the one-size-fits-all approach faces the same opposition. ..."It's a scary prospect to put (turbines) in here among all the homes," said Mike Luethe, chairman of the town of Ridgeville, which last week joined the town of Wilton in passing an ordinance establishing half-mile setbacks for wind farms. "Local governments should still have a say in the matter."

Fitchburg 's McKee Farms Park could have an added attraction this summer -- a small and what some say will be quiet -- wind turbine. Known as an "urban turbine, " it looks similar to a 30-foot flagpole topped with a 12-foot rotating helix. "This is not one of those big propeller things, " said Fitchburg administrator Tony Roach. Madison Gas & Electric proposed the turbine for the Fitchburg park because it wants a visible spot to demonstrate and monitor the technology that some day customers could use to power their homes or businesses, said John Drury, business development manager for MGE.

Jim Congdon said two friends living in the town of Byron are experiencing significant sound problems and constant blade flicker since the $250 million Forward Wind Energy Center began operating. "It's extremely irritating," he said. "What is the company going to do with somebody like that?" Laura Miner, asset manager associate for Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC, said it's currently fielding all complaints . "What we did when we built the project was to have a 1,000-foot setback and try to prevent some of those things from happening," she said. "Now we're doing drive-by tests and going up to the houses to try to gauge what's going on."

Two brothers-in-law, a country road in northwest Missouri, a fistfight ...Surely it's happened before, but probably never over wind energy. ...At the heart of the dispute: Just how healthy is the noise from wind turbines? ...In Rock County, Union Township residents studied medical and scientific research for months before drafting their wind ordinance, which says a setback of at least a half-mile from inhabited structures is needed to avoid health problems. Tom Alisankus, chairman of the committee that drafted the ordinance, said committee members found in their research that the state of Wisconsin had no medical or scientific data to back a model ordinance with a 1,000-foot setback. Proposed legislation that would have allowed the state's Public Service Commission to set statewide siting standards failed to reach a vote before the session ended last month. Doctors in other countries, including Canada, England, France, Australia and New Zealand, have written papers about similar illnesses in people who live near wind farms. ..."Does noise bother people differently? Absolutely," said Smith, the area audiologist. "It can have a very debilitating effect." But, he said, before anyone can conclude that the wind turbines are harmful, a major study must be done.

Given Wisconsin's reputation as a "green" state, it would seem that a proposal to construct wind farms in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior off the state's shores would easily be approved. But opposition to land-based wind farms and the slow development of wind power in the state have some wind power advocates gearing up for a fight with those expressing concern about humming noise, flickering shadows and ruined views. ... But opposition to wind farms runs deep. Last month, the state Senate let die a bill by Plale that would have curbed municipal and county governments' ability to ban wind turbines. ...A 133-turbine wind farm by the Chicago company Invenergy Wind LLC near Horicon Marsh in central Wisconsin is partially constructed and operating despite vociferous opposition. "You've got to hear these things, they drive you nuts," said Joe Breaden, a retired high school ecology teacher who says he was mocked 20 years ago for warning about global warming. "It's a droning sound mixed in with a woo-woo-woo. It reminds me of the 'Twilight Zone.' "

What constitutes protection of public health and safety for siting and operating 400-foot industrial wind turbines with capacities of 1.65 to 2 megawatts? That question stirred lots of activity and animosity in Calumet County in 2007. ...Among the common themes were unacceptable noise levels that disrupted sleeping and other activities, shadowing and flickering inside residences, health problems and attitude changes in their families, loss of property value, interference with television reception and Internet services, and refusal by wind energy system owner/operators to deal with complaints. Concerns specific to Calumet County included protection of groundwater in a very sensitive geological area, flight corridors for medical helicopters between Chilton and Fox Cities hospitals and sheriff and state patrol microwave relay pathways.

SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP - When Kevin and Lynda Kawula first heard about a wind farm proposal for Magnolia Township, they thought it sounded like a good idea. But as they attended meetings and researched the issue, their opinions changed. "It seemed like enough people were concerned that we got concerned," he said. ...The Kawulas visited the Montfort wind farm in Iowa County. It has 20 turbines with 30 megawatts of capacity. "It's like moving back into a metropolitan area," he said. "It's an airport where the planes never land." Being around the turbines and high voltage power lines make Kevin feel physically ill with pressure headaches, he said.

Wind energy has become a divisive issue for Trempealeau County's residents over the past 14 months. The county board will vote Monday on a third draft of a wind ordinance they've been wrestling with since investment group AgWind Energy Partners approached the board in September 2006 with a request to look at three potential sites to build four to six turbines. The proposed ordinance is stricter than the previous two. It would require turbines to be at least a mile from all habitable structures and a half-mile from property lines. Among more than 30 other restrictions is a requirement that the noise from the turbines can't exceed 40 decibels when measured at any residence.

There has been very few wind projects built in the state since 2000, though more are planned in the next 12 to 24 months, said Ed Blume, spokesperson for the nonprofit environmental group RENEW Wisconsin. ...According to Blume, the biggest challenges to increasing wind power in the state are more at the local level. The largest complaints in regard to wind turbines are noise level, moving shadows created by the blades and harm to birds. The state typically requires turbines to be 1,000 feet from homes, with noise levels varying on the speed of the wind and how close a home is to the turbine. Bjurlin said the turbines at the Springfield site are loudest in 18 mile per hour winds, with winds over that amount being louder than the sound of the blades.

"It just seems like this is a perfect place for a wind farm, in big, open spaces," Town of Chilton resident Sandy Popp said. "In this project, there aren't many nonparticipating land owners, and I think that makes a huge difference. In our county, there will be hundreds of people who will not be participating who will be relatively close."

Three wind turbine towers to be built along a two-mile setback east of Horicon Marsh comply with orders approving the 200-megawatt wind farm project, a Wisconsin Public Service Commission administrator concluded this week. The turbine tower sites were challenged by Joe Breaden, of Mayville, a project opponent, as being built so close to the required setback that the turbine blades would extend into the setback.

CHILTON - Life near wind turbines is hell, a panel told about 500 at a forum Wednesday organized by residents worried that proposed wind farms would affect public health and property values. "The noise produced by turbines is intolerable," Kewaunee County homeowner Mike Washechek said. Washechek has lived about ¼ mile from a wind farm for the last seven years. "My wife thought the dryer was on and there was a tennis shoe in it."

CHILTON - A public information meeting on life near wind turbines will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 1 at the Engler Auditorium at Chilton High School in Chilton. The event, which is hosted by Calumet County Citizens for Responsible Energy, is free and open to the public. Dr. Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician, will speak on the "wind turbine syndrome" and the health effects of wind turbines on humans. Dr. Richard Bolton, a physicist and president of the Environmental Compliance Alliance, will talk about the environmental impact of wind turbine noise on humans and wildlife.

Attorney Glen Stoddard, representing Focus on Monroe County’s Future submitted written testimony accusing the Monroe County Planning and Zoning Committee of a majority bias in favor of Invenergy at the Wilton public hearing last Thursday. The Planning and Zoning Committee has set a 9 a.m. meeting for June 5 at the Monroe County Courthouse to make a decision in granting Summit Ridge Energy a conditional use permit to build wind turbines in the town of Wilton.

A steel cylinder weighing more than a herd of elephants tumbled off a truck here Thursday and snarled traffic all day, prompting state officials to halt all such future shipments. Bound for a wind farm in Iowa, the 55-foot section of windmill fell onto the road shortly before 10 a.m. as startled onlookers watched in the center of the village's downtown business district. The colossal cargo came to a rest at Main St. and Appleton Ave., both state highways, where it blocked traffic throughout the day until about 9:25 p.m. and left downtown merchants cut off from their customers.

About 100 people packed the courthouse annex meeting room Monday night for the Ridgeville public forum on the application for a conditional use permit (CUP) by Summit Ridge Energy LLC. Attendees came from as far away as Michigan to have their three minutes of testimonial. "It was the end of peace and quiet," said Kelly Alexander, a Michigan resident who had a turbine placed near his home. "Silence is a luxury. We're talking about the adverse effect on health and safety. These turbines need to be placed farther away."