Wind turbines not so benign
Rutland Herald|Justin Lindholm|November 13, 2009
In his letter to the editor on Nov. 6, Jeff Wennberg painted a ridiculously benign picture of the impact on the mountains of Ira if construction of about 40 wind turbines takes place there. For instance, Jeff states, "Anyone who has seen a completed wind farm on forested land knows that these projects follow the contours of the terrain." He cites the Lempster wind turbine site as an example. ...The blasting and construction of wide service roads and tower base areas there have changed the contours of the land so drastically that, when I now stand in the area of this project, I have a hard time imagining what the terrain looked like before.
In his letter to the editor on Nov. 6, Jeff Wennberg painted a ridiculously benign picture of the impact on the mountains of Ira if construction of about 40 wind turbines takes place there. For instance, Jeff states, "Anyone who has seen a completed wind farm on forested land knows that these projects follow the contours of the terrain." He cites the Lempster wind turbine site as an example. ...The blasting and construction of wide service roads and tower base areas there have changed the contours of the land so drastically that, when I now stand in the area of this project, I have a hard time imagining what the terrain looked like before.
In his letter to the editor on Nov. 6, Jeff Wennberg painted a ridiculously benign picture of the impact on the mountains of Ira if construction of about 40 wind turbines takes place there. For instance, Jeff states, "Anyone who has seen a completed wind farm on forested land knows that these projects follow the contours of the terrain." He cites the Lempster wind turbine site as an example.
Well, my family has owned land on Lempster Mountain for over 70 years, and I've become quite familiar with the place. The blasting and construction of wide service roads and tower base areas there have changed the contours of the land so drastically that, when I now stand in the area of this project, I have a hard time imagining what the terrain …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]In his letter to the editor on Nov. 6, Jeff Wennberg painted a ridiculously benign picture of the impact on the mountains of Ira if construction of about 40 wind turbines takes place there. For instance, Jeff states, "Anyone who has seen a completed wind farm on forested land knows that these projects follow the contours of the terrain." He cites the Lempster wind turbine site as an example.
Well, my family has owned land on Lempster Mountain for over 70 years, and I've become quite familiar with the place. The blasting and construction of wide service roads and tower base areas there have changed the contours of the land so drastically that, when I now stand in the area of this project, I have a hard time imagining what the terrain looked like before. A spokesman for the project bragged about the massive amount of explosives that were required to transform this site. The service roads don't look anything like the cute country roads Jeff talks about. The blasted and excavated area of these roads is up to 60 feet wide. The top maps of this area will definitely have to be redone.
The scary thing here is that the Lempster ridge area is gently sloping and almost flat compared to the steeply climbing and diving, sharply defined ridge line at Herrick Mountain, where many more turbines are proposed to be located than are found at Lempster. I have not heard of even one turbine site in the country that approaches the roughness between towers that the Herrick site presents. I envision a tremendous amount of blasting on Herrick Mountain, the scars of which will be seen for miles.