Wendy and Perrin Todd knew what would happen to their view of Mars Hill Mountain when crews starting erecting wind towers near their backyard. They braced themselves when their home, newly built on the north side of the mountain, shook because of the blasting. But what shocked them — and what they said this week they should not be expected to live with — is the noise. “They turned on tower Number 9, and almost immediately it made enough noise that it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that can’t be right,’” Wendy Todd said. “It all depends on the wind speed and direction, but the best way to describe it is you step outside and look up thinking there’s an airplane. It’s like a high-range jet, high-low roar, but with the windmills, there’s a sort of on and off ‘phfoop … phfoop … phfoop’ noise.”

PUGWASH - Opponents of a proposed wind farm on the Gulf Shore got more fuel for the fire Friday night. Mark Harris, a pastor from Bridgewater, Maine, spoke Friday night at the Ground Search and Rescue in Pugwash about how a wind farm in Mars Hill, Maine has terrorized locals. He bought property in Mars Hill roughly 1200 feet away from the turbines, but hasn't done anything with it because of how unbearable the sound and strobing from them is. "Many of the mills we have, on certain days when the wind comes from a certain direction and the humidity is such and such, it will be all but silent at 1200 feet away where my home site would be. But come back the next day and it'll pound until you can't tolerate being there and there's no predicting when that will happen," he said. He said the wind farm has wreaked havoc on the town, with many people now dealing with health complications allegedly caused by the turbines' sounds and shadows.

MARS HILL, Maine — This year, when Steven and Tammie Fletcher took their traditional New Year’s Eve walk to the top of Mars Hill, the crisp winter stillness mixed with something unfamiliar: the whoosh of the new windmills towering over the northern Maine mountaintop. This is not how it was supposed to be, say the Fletchers and their neighbors on the north side of Mars Hill, where a 28-turbine wind farm, the largest yet built in New England, began operating in December. Residents say that town officials and company representatives repeatedly assured them that the wind farm would be silent. Instead, they say, the windmills have disrupted their mountainside idyll. On days with low cloud cover, when the pulsing, rushing noise is loudest, wind farm neighbors say it can disrupt their sleep and drown out the rushing brook that was once the only sound here. “It changes your whole feeling about being in the woods,” said Tammie Fletcher, whose mountainside house boasts floor-to-ceiling views of the ridge where the windmills now stand.

Many of the landowners whose property abuts the Beaver Ridge windmill project met at the Beaver Ridge Road home of Sally Hadyniak Saturday afternoon to voice some concerns about the windmill project and explain why they want the town to reinstate its commercial development review ordinance. ...[Resident Jeff] Keating explained at Saturday's press conference that he wants to see in writing that the builders of the project, formerly referred to as Competitive Energy Services (CES) but now known as Beaver Ridge Wind LLC, will abide by the standards set forth in the ordinance. Originally, CES had worked with the town while it created the ordinance but, according to the abutters, were ultimately unwilling to make the windmill project meet the ordinance's guidelines, and encouraged the town to get rid of the ordinance after it had been enacted.

In Vermont the parties are still waiting for a decision on the Sheffield project, which was argued before the high court in May. A clerk at the Supreme Court said Tuesday she has no idea when a decision might be announced. Meanwhile, the opponents of big wind in western New York believe they are finally getting the recognition they deserve with this month's announcement by the AG's office in Albany.

Selectmen decided at Tuesday night's board meeting to wait 60 days from June 23 before rendering their decision on a petition that seeks to rescind previously approved town laws allowing wind power facilities to be built on town ridges. Responding to lawyer Maura Horodyski's question about the petition and the board's response, Chairman Bob Sutton said they agreed to have lawyer Jennifer Kreckel of Rumford review the petition before they decide whether to follow its intent.

By margins of less than 10 votes, residents at Thursday night's special town meeting OK'd two amendments to town law, allowing wind power facilities to be built on town ridges. The tally was 89-81 to amend the comprehensive plan to allow wind generation facilities in Roxbury, and 87-80 to create a mountain district zone to designate areas suitable for erecting wind energy facilities.

More than 30 people expressed their concerns about a massive power line upgrade project proposed by Central Maine Power at Lewiston City Hall Monday night during a public hearing before Maine's Public Utilities Commission. About 70 people were present. ...Nearly all of those who spoke before Commissioners Jack Cashman, Sharon Reishus and Vendean Vafiades were apprehensive about the project, anticipating noise pollution, loss of property value and health risks.

A group of Mars Hill residents who live near the second largest wind power project in the state have filed a lawsuit against the developer, First Wind, citing noise and health concerns and seeking compensation for a loss of property value. ...Wendy Todd says she and her husband were supportive of the project. ...Soon Todd says the intermittent sounds and shadow flicker from the turbines began to wear on her nerves.

Dr. Albert Aniel will share his concerns about health risks associated with wind turbines with selectmen when they meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the municipal building auditorium. Interim Town Manager Len Greaney said Wednesday that Aniel asked to be placed on the agenda to share issues he broached at a Feb. 18 Maine Department of Environmental Protection hearing on a proposed Roxbury wind power project.

Families who live on a portion of East Ridge Road and Mountain Road on the backside of Mars Hill say, at times over the past two and a half years, they've lived with unbearable noise. They feel their complaints have been ignored. Read and watch their story as reported by WLBZ Channel 2 in Maine.

The town of Mars Hill...is the test bed for all that is good and not so good about wind power in Maine. ... With the failure of two other wind power proposals - a thirty-turbine project in Redington Township outside Rangeley and a three-unit installation in the town of Freedom in central Maine - the Mars Hill experience raises the question of wind power's future in the state. An energy technology praised as the green alternative to fossil fuels and one of the solutions to global climate change has produced controversies that have split the environmental community in Maine and made enemies of natural allies.

Forum organizers wanted to help residents of Fort Kent, a likely site for a large wind development, to explore the pros and cons of wind farms before any applications are filed, said David Soucy, a lawyer who helped organize the event. Texas-based Horizon Wind has been negotiating lease agreements with landowners in the Fort Kent area and in other parts of Aroostook County with an eye toward building a wind farm. "The issue is not whether wind farms are a good idea or not," Soucy said. "The issue is where can they be ideally situated."

FREEDOM - The town's Board of Appeals has rejected plans to erect three electricity generating wind turbines on Beaver Ridge. After four weeks of hearings, the board late Thursday found Portland-based Competitive Energy Service's turbines would not meet town standards for noise, said Addison Chase, chairman of the appeals board. The board also ruled that CES must post bonding for future demolition of the turbines. The planning Board approved CES's application in December. Planning board members agreed with a study that determined the turbines would not exceed the 45 decibel limit set in the ordinance. The vote was 3 to 0. Francis Walker abstained from the vote. Appeals board members determined that the study had been based on faulty ambient, or background, noise levels, Chase said. The planning board had required CES to post a bond for the construction phase, but Chase said the ordinance clearly requires the company to bond for future demolition as well. CES can appeal Thursday's decision to Waldo County Superior Court or start the process over again with the Planning Board.

The video begins silently. A shingled farmhouse stands in full sunlight for a moment before a giant shadow sweeps over the façade as though a low-flying airplane had passed overhead. Then it happens again, and again, and again. "Today we have flicker."

FREEDOM -- Given their first chance to ask questions about a proposed wind turbine project, board of appeals members on Thursday offered a glimpse of the concerns they will carry into deliberations. Representatives of Competitive Energy Services, which hopes to erect three electricity generating wind turbines on Beaver Ridge, were quizzed on issues of noise and whether they would be able to hook the turbines into the electrical grid, should the project go forward. Anthony Rogers, the consultant hired by Competitive Energy to conduct a sound study, said he did not take ambient noise readings before concluding the proposed turbines would meet the 45-decibel limit mandated by the ordinance. He based his findings on an ambient, or background, noise level of 35 decibels. Steve Bennett, one of several abutters appealing the planning board's December decision to grant a permit for the project, said ambient sound readings he took over several days never fell below 33.5 decibels. "The predicted sound levels (of the turbines) are very close to the limit," said appeals board member Francis Walker. "Whether there are ambient noises or not might make the difference in whether the project is compliant or not."

On Capitol Hill, the Audubon Society is leading the fight to increase production of climate-friendly power. So why are Audubon enthusiasts battling a wind farm that could help meet that goal? For one thing, there are trout in nearby streams, which activists say are at risk from chemical and sediment runoff from construction of 30 turbines, each soaring about 400 feet -- taller than the Statue of Liberty. Then there are the bats and hawks, which might be puréed by the giant blades that would catch the wind gusting along the Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. "They're enormous," says Tom Dick, a retired veterinarian who founded the local Audubon chapter. "When you start looking at this, it's like, 'hell, this is not right.'"

"My fear is that the aesthetics, the whole feel of the area and the views of the ridge, I really feel that this will be gone soon," Wotton said. "That's my biggest fear." That's why Wooton is a member of the newly formed Friends of Rollins Ridge group, an organization of about a dozen town residents that is investigating, and likely will oppose, a proposed $120 million wind farm that, if approved, will go on sites in Burlington, Lee, Lincoln and Winn, including Rollins Mountain.

As opponents of a $120 million wind power development slated for Rollins Mountain, the Friends of Lincoln Lakes residents group will ask the Town Council and planning board next week for a moratorium on all pending wind projects, its organizers said Thursday. Group members will attend council and board meetings next week after taking in the third hearing held by wind farm proponent First Wind of Massachusetts on Wednesday at Mattanawcook Academy, group member Gary Steinberg said. They fear that local boards haven't had adequate time to learn enough about wind farms' potentially hazardous impact upon municipalities and wildlife.

LEE, Maine - The developer of a wind farm proposed for northern Washington County told state regulators Wednesday that noise levels from the massive turbines are expected to be well within legal limits. Representatives of UPC Wind Management described Stetson Mountain - located between the communities of Danforth and Springfield - as an excellent location for a wind energy facility because of the remote location, existing road network and steady winds. "No site is ideal in every respect, but from our perspective, Stetson comes as close to ideal as you can get for wind energy," Dave Cowan, vice president for environmental affairs with UPC, told members of the Land Use Regulation Commission.