Crowned Ridge Wind challenges complainant’s right to offer evidence of noisy turbines
Dakota Free Press|Cory Allen Heidelberger|Oct 5, 2023
As I type this morning’s blog posts, the noise level in my office is floating between around 50 decibels when I type and 35 decibels when I stop to think (gotta keep it down—some people are still sleeping!). I get those figures from my Decibel Meter app on my phone.
Wind farm operator Crowned Ridge Wind says such amateur observations have no place in formal hearings concerning complaints about the noise its wind turbines make. Amber Christenson of Strandburg and Linda and Timothy Lindgren of South Shore complained over a year ago to the Public Utilities Commission that Crowned Ridge Wind’s turbines make too much noise when they get frosty, the company hasn’t properly studied sound at its sites, and Crowned Ridge Wind has thus not obeyed …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]As I type this morning’s blog posts, the noise level in my office is floating between around 50 decibels when I type and 35 decibels when I stop to think (gotta keep it down—some people are still sleeping!). I get those figures from my Decibel Meter app on my phone.
Wind farm operator Crowned Ridge Wind says such amateur observations have no place in formal hearings concerning complaints about the noise its wind turbines make. Amber Christenson of Strandburg and Linda and Timothy Lindgren of South Shore complained over a year ago to the Public Utilities Commission that Crowned Ridge Wind’s turbines make too much noise when they get frosty, the company hasn’t properly studied sound at its sites, and Crowned Ridge Wind has thus not obeyed the conditions of its PUC permit.
Crowned Ridge is arguing, via a motion from Sioux Falls lawyer Miles Schumacher, that Christenson in particular is no expert and thus should not be allowed to say much about the soundness of sound studies:
Schumacher in his motion stated, “Ms. Christenson is not an expert in the specialized field of conducting post-construction sound studies on wind turbines, nor does she profess to be an expert.” He added, “It is axiomatic that conducting post-construction sound studies on wind turbines requires specialized knowledge, skill, experience, and training. On their face, the highly technical 2020 and 2021 sound studies submitted by Epsilon Associates, Inc. (‘Epsilon’) and the studies submitted by Hessler Associates, Inc. (‘Hessler’) reviewing the Epsilon studies demonstrate the high degree of scientific and technical knowledge needed to opine on the sound produced by wind turbines and whether the wind turbine sound is within the Commission’s sound thresholds. It is undisputable, therefore, that the field of post construction wind sound studies is not one a lay person can testify on with regard to the validity of the sound study, the techniques applied in the sound study and the results of the sound study, for example” [Bob Mercer, “Crowned Ridge Wants to Limit Complaint Testimony,” KELO-TV, 2023.10.03].
Christenson responds vigorously on behalf of all of us lowly lay people:
Christenson, who is representing herself, said in her response, “Crowned Ridge keeps telling you that I am just a lowly lay person. This lay person wants to hold their feet to the fire. This lay person wants you, the Commission, to remedy the noise problem here where we live. WIOM (winter ice operation mode) doesn’t solve it, and I don’t have to be an expert to read the spec sheet. I don’t have to be an expert to know that when turbines run at full power, they are louder than when they run at low power; not only is that common sense, that has been testified to you in hearings” [Mercer, 2023.10.03].
The PUC will hear these arguments at its October 10 meeting and decide how much Christenson can say at the evidentiary hearing on the complaint October 11–12. Perhaps Bob Mercer could bring his phone and test the decibel levels of Christenson and Schumacher.