Does an industrial scale wind turbine sound like a refrigerator to you?

Wind developers in the State of Wisconsin (and elsewhere) want to put industrial scale wind turbines that are 40 stories tall just 1000 feet from people's homes. That's about 350 steps.

They tell us at this distance, the turbines make no more noise than a refrigerator. A similar statement appeared in the National Wind Permitting and Siting Guide 2002.
A member of our community wrote the NWCC and asked them if they knew the source since there wasn't a footnote listed with a supporting reference.

They didnt know.

AWEA referenced the National Renewable Energy Lab as the source, so the community member wrote them who tells us, "Even though they were very helpful and put me in touch with their staff noise authority, they could not come up with the author of that statement, however they did copy pages from books that their noise authority called the quintessential references on wind energy and noise."

So, then I Googled it. I typed in the refrigerator statement in question and came up with these statements from the American Wind Energy Association.

Author Tom Gray, AWEA: Today, an operating wind farm at a distance of 200 meters (658 ft.) is no noisier than a refrigerator .

Author Tom Gray: Wind turbine noise (at 200 m) is as loud as your refrigerator heard from the living room.

Author Tom Gray, AWEA: Today, an operating wind farm at a distance of 300 meters (987 feet) is no noisier than a kitchen refrigerator or a moderately quiet room.

Author Tom Gray, AWEA: Today, an operating wind farm at a distance of 350 meters (1151.5 feet) is no noisier than a kitchen refrigerator or a moderately quiet room, to:

Author Tom Gray, AWEA: Today, an operating wind farm at a distance of a quarter of a mile is no noisier than a kitchen refrigerator or a moderately quiet room

(Editor's note: Windaction.org wishes to thank our colleagues at betterplan.squarespace.com for their tireless efforts in helping to raise awareness in Wisconsin and around the U.S. of the detrimental impacts of large-scale wind energy development near where people live.) :