Town officials have refused to let residents see a report evaluating the noise study done for Horse Creek Wind Farm. The officials claim the report, by Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, an acoustic engineering firm in Sudbury, Mass., is too complicated and preliminary to be released. Residents argue that the original noise study, done by consultant CH2MHill for Iberdrola, also was complicated, but that there are residents with acoustic expertise.

Concern about noise impact on neighbors again delayed a vote to allow residential windmills in the Town of Ithaca. At a Monday night meeting, the Town Board voted 4-3 to send the law back to committee. Town Supervisor Herb Engman and board members Pat Leary and Bill Goodman voted against, hoping to get the law passed Monday. ...Board member Rich DePaolo called the change in the law a "loophole" that would potentially allow "the noisiest windmills in the quietest areas." "I think it applies the law unequally, based on where you live," DePaolo said.

Blades have begun to turn on 121 wind turbines here and in neighboring Ellenburg, a 35-minute drive northwest of Plattsburgh. Saturday, they turned with a soft whush, whush, whush. "Whush, whush, whush, all day long, all night long - I moved here because it was so peaceful and quiet," groused Allen Barcombe as he pointed to the nearest tower, jutting up 400 feet into the sky behind his house. ...The New York turbines, in two projects developed by Noble Environmental Power, are the first of nearly 400 expected to go up in five towns on a windy plateau just south of the Canadian border. When completed, the development about 90 minutes from Burlington will represent the largest concentration of wind turbines in the eastern United States.

[A]fter they had brought a house in Depauville, they found out about the proposed Horse Creek Wind Project. They and their doctor believe that the turbines will produce similar low-frequency noises and those noises will interfere with his defibrillator. ...The low frequency noise range of these wind turbines could interfere with the proper functioning of Mr. Wilkie’s AIC defibrillator leading to shutting down of the device,” Carroll L. Moody, Mr. Wilkie’s cardiologist, wrote in a visit report. The plans for the development show one turbine within a half mile and nine within 1 ½ miles. In six months Mr. Wilkie had lived up here, he had not had an incident, his wife said. But 12 hours after he returned to Florida in March to finish moving and visit his doctor he collapsed. A second collapse led to a five-day hospital stay.

Supervisor Frank Duserick said the town of Naples is investigating what legal standing it may have to protest the placement of wind turbines planned for neighboring Prattsburgh. "We're not against wind towers," Duserick said. "But we are for appropriate placement of towers. Our concern is they should have put them a minimum of 1,500 feet from the town line." Ecogen of West Seneca, near Buffalo, has proposed building up to 53 turbines - though the number could fall to 31 if it switches from a 1.5 to 2.5-megawatt model - in Prattsburgh in 2009.

The County Legislature yesterday unanimously approved a lease agreement with Environmental Technologies, LLC, a Manhattan-based company that will build a 111-foot-tall wind turbine at the college. ...Environmental Technologies has never built a windmill this large, according to county officials ...If the windmill does not work, Environmental Technologies is contractually obligated to tear it down within 60 days. The unproven nature of this wind turbine is one of many things that worries Kenneth Walter, the resident who has been railing against the project because it lies only 500 feet away from his elderly mother's house. Walter is mainly concerned about noise from the windmill and how it will affect his mother's quality of life.

An enviro-friendly windmill that could save Sullivan County Community College up to 50 percent on its electricity bill. Who would argue against that? Kenneth Walter would. He's been railing against the project for months now, to anyone who will listen. Walter, whose family helped establish the college by selling a plot of land to the state in 1965, has said noise from the 111-foot-tall windmill will ruin his 89-year-old mother's quality of life, since she lives about 500 feet away, and that the college has been stingy with public information about the project. ...Walter said he plans to fight the windmill project even if lawmakers approve it today. He has threatened to sue on the basis that a windmill would violate the college's property deed, which says the land will be developed "for the uses of the Sullivan County Community College." Walter believes the windmill is not a "college use."

Bolton explained the many ways wind developers methodology is flawed. Field measurements are not done correctly (i.e. - improper microphone placement, no justification for sampling sites, etc.); accurate samplings need to be done for a full year to account for seasonal variations, but aren't; and computer prediction models wind developers rely on are inadequate because they don't account for modulation, coherence, refraction, and icing. Facts contained in Perry's DEIS from the sound study done by Horizon for Perry were brought up that highlighted Bolton's point that sound studies being done are totally inadequate: ...In response to questions asking what he thought of being "surrounded" by up to 23 turbines within 1.5 miles of their homes, he answered, "I would be VERY concerned if I were you."

As plans for a wind farm in the neighboring town of Arkwright move closer to reality, landowners in the town of Charlotte are taking the first steps toward development of a wind turbine operation in that municipality. Town resident, Merle Goot, who has spearheaded interest in a WECS (wind energy conversion system), said UPC Wind Management is currently contacting and ‘‘signing up'' town property owners. ‘‘Arkwright has been moving forward with wind energy plans since 2004,'' Goot said. ‘‘Charlotte has a long way to go, but at least we're now on the way.'' After several months of research and tours of wind turbine sites, Goot said, a group of town landowners ‘‘decided to go with UPC.'' ‘‘It was a visit to UPC's Cohocton energy conversion site in December that sold us,'' he said. ‘‘That trip really cinched a decision to select UPC as the developer of our town project.

The Preservation League of New York State has jumped into a wind-project controversy in Jordanville, naming the Holy Trinity Monastery to the group's annual list of New York's most-threatened historic resources: ``Seven to Save.'' The nonprofit group says tranquility at the monastery, which sits on 750 acres in southern Herkimer County, would be ruined if a proposal to site about 50 wind turbines in the area ever moves forward. ``The Holy Trinity Monastery is of extraordinary historic, religious and cultural significance, but it is currently threatened by an industrial-scale wind energy project,'' Jay DiLorenzo, the nonprofit organization's president, said Friday. Panoramic views and contemplative quiet will disappear from the surrounding countryside if wind tubines are erected as proposed by Iberdrola, DiLorenzo said.

The Fallsburg Planning Board will consider granting a special permit to Sullivan County Community College to build a 250-foot tall wind turbine, despite vocal opposition at a public hearing last week. ...Two models are being considered for the propeller turbine, which would be built about 150 feet behind the main campus building, above the geothermal field. One proposed model has three blades, the other has two. Because the two-bladed turbine would be slightly louder, engineers cited its noise levels. The center of the blades would record a decibel level of 99, on par with a chainsaw or subway.

The majority of the Gaines Wind Advisory Committee said at Wednesday's meeting that they don't believe wind energy is in the best interest of the Town of Gaines. ...Concerned Gaines residents filled the town hall to capacity Wednesday evening as they listened to prepared statements from each of the committee members listing worries about noise, costs, property values, vibration effects and the impact on wildlife. Of the eight-member board, two said they would be in favor of the 400-foot wind turbines. The remaining, including alternate Ted Swierznski sitting in for Royce Klatt, voiced opposition to the towers, while acknowledging their research is incomplete. "Federal and state subsidies are the only reason wind energy is taking a foothold in this country," said advisory member Marilynn Miller.

ARKPORT - The Hornellsville town board discussed the benefits and drawbacks of a wind farm at its meeting night. With the Steuben County towns of Howard and Hartsville set to vote this week on wind laws developed for these communities, Hornellsville is still in the talking phase. Hornellsville still has a moratorium on wind farm development in place. One opponent of Howard's wind farm - Howard resident Eric Hosmer- was on hand at the meeting. He spoke about the impact of the turbines- usually between 400-450 feet tall - particularly the sound the windmills make.

FAIRFIELD — If wind turbines are built in this northeastern Herkimer County town, one family may be forced to move. Lisa Sementilli's 11-year-old daughter Alisha has central auditory processing disorder, which means Alisha hears fine but can't concentrate when she is around background noise. Doctors have suggested that Alisha live at least one-and-a-half miles from any wind turbine, but Hard Scrabble Wind Farm towers planned in Fairfield would be less than half a mile away, Lisa Sementilli said. "If they come, I have to move," she said. "I'm not going to put my daughter in any harm."

An 11-year-old girl with Central Auditory Processing Disorder lives in a house approximately 1600 feet from the proposed site of an industrial wind turbine in the Town of Fairfield, Herkimer County, yet her Doctors say that the turbines cannot be built within a mile and a half of her home because of the noise they generate. More than 20 turbines are proposed to be built within one mile of her home. The girl is scared and does not want her family to have to move if the wind turbines are built.

If you have ever driven off campus, you have likely noticed giant windmills looming on the horizon. Part of a system of some twenty turbines, these iron giants comprise the Fenner Windpower Project, just one component of a nationwide initiative to utilize clean and renewable energy. Operational since the fall of 2000, the mills have the capacity to power about 10,000 homes solely by harnessing the energy of the wind as it sweeps over the Adirondacks and down the Chenango Valley. Despite their efficiency, the mammoth cost to assemble just one of these turbines (about $2.5 million dollars) has stirred local and national debate over cost versus benefit at the Fenner site, not to mention the intrusions they cause for residents.

PLATTSBURGH — An Article 78 action filed against several defendants challenges the State Environmental Quality Review Act process followed for the proposed wind-farm construction in Clinton County. The town councils of Altona, Clinton and Ellenburg, says paperwork filed in Clinton County, "acted arbitrarily and capriciously and in violation of both the spirit and letter of SEQRA when they accepted the FEIS (final environmental impact statement) "¦" Also named in the suit, which cites a Supreme Court date of this Friday "or as soon thereafter as counsel can be heard," are Clinton County Industrial Development Agency, Noble Environmental Power and its Altona, Clinton and Ellenburg wind parks.

HERKIMER - A town of Fairfield resident claims her daughter is in danger of adverse health impacts if a proposed wind energy project is pushed through in the towns of Fairfield and Norway. Resident Lisa Sementilli told county legislators during Wednesday night's session that her 10-year-old daughter suffers from a severe hearing problem that would only be aggravated by the noise produced by the wind turbines. Atlantic Renewable has proposed to construct a series of 65-70 wind turbines in the towns.

While the industry portrays electricity-generating windmills as a benign and natural source of power, community opposition to new windmill farms is cropping up across the country - particularly in Eastern states, where there are more people fleeing urban blight to live in idyllic rural towns.

The idea of windmills brings to mind bucolic Renaissance paintings of Dutch landscapes and tulip beds. But that is hardly the experience of some who have to live next to the 400-foot electricity-generating windmills being built across America's breezy plains.