Engineer questions government wind turbine sound testing methods
24/02/2016, 03:11
By Barb McKay
An acoustics engineer is questioning the Ontario government’s methods for setting baseline sound limits for wind turbines after field testing was recently conducted in Kincardine.
Todd Busch, project manager for Swallow Acoustic Consultants Ltd., was in front of the Municipality of Kincardine council during its meeting last Wednesday to go over data from a study conducted within the boundaries of the Armow Wind Project last fall. Swallow was contracted by the municipality to study baseline acoustic and infrasound levels prior to the 92-turbine, 180-megawatt project becoming operational.
Engineers conducted interior and exterior sound testing at five homes within the project area between Oct. 30 and Nov. 14, 2015, using special microphones designed specifically to record infrasound (sound not picked up by the human ear). The sound measurements account for sound levels from wind in exterior testing.
Busch said when a noise impact study was conducted with audible sound testing for Armow Wind in 2013, engineers who did the study declared that the project would comply with Ontario Ministry of the Environment noise limits for industrial wind turbines. He said the study was done using an average wind speed at a particularly quiet site and a measurement of seven decibels was added to factor in sound levels at a higher wind speed. In the noise impact assessment summary, Busch said sound levels were calculated at between 37 and 39.8 decibels. The noise level limit set by the province is 40 decibels. Infrasound levels were not tested.
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 
The Ministry of the Environment was going to require the monitoring of infrasound, but CanWEA (Canadian Wind Energy Association) lobbied the government not to do it. What did the ministry know if they recommended it? It has been known since the 1980s that wind turbines produce infrasound when it was found that it was bothering residents at a test facility in the USA. Look up documents by Neil Kelley. It will blow your mind.
Marie Jane asks:
Are we on the brink of another Silent Spring…….once again at the hands of mankind? Is there a difference between the industrial wind turbine agenda which has known “silent” health and environmental impacts and the pre-Silent Spring denial of pesticide/chemical negative
impacts on humans and wildlife?
Ironically Al Gore who wrote the introduction to the 1994 edition of “Silent Spring” referred to the chemical issues and impacts on humans and wildlife addressed by Rachel Carson as “invisible dangers”…….what then is low frequency noise and infrasound which is known to be a human health hazard? Neither low frequency noise nor infrasound is being acknowledged by the wind industry or our governments as human health hazards, both being directly attributed to the industrial wind turbine as early as 1987.
In the 1960’s bird deaths and human illness was attributed to the chemical industry; there was then as there is now mixed opinion in the scientific community about the harm to birds, wildlife, humans (later proved to have serious impacts including the near extinction of the bald eagle…..history repeats itself?). Rachel Carson referred to the chemical industry’s attempts to ignore the dangers as “flagrant propaganda”. Is this not similar to what the wind industry and our government and all complicit in the furtherance of the industrial wind turbine agenda are practicing today by ignoring the known hazards and the victims battling the negative impacts of the industrial wind turbine?
Are we on he brink of another silent spring at the hands of the industrial wind turbine agenda?
Marie Jane asks:
Are we on the brink of another Silent Spring…….once again at the hands of mankind? Is there a difference between the industrial wind turbine agenda which has known “silent” health and environmental impacts and the pre-Silent Spring denial of pesticide/chemical negative
impacts on humans and wildlife?
Ironically, Al Gore who wrote the introduction to the 1994 edition of “Silent Spring” referred to the chemical issues and impacts on humans and wildlife addressed by Rachel Carson as “invisible dangers”…….what then is low frequency noise and infrasound which is known to be a human health hazard? Neither low frequency noise nor infrasound is being acknowledged by the wind industry or our governments as human health hazards, both being directly attributed to the industrial wind turbine as early as 1987.
In the 1960’s bird deaths and human illness was attributed to the chemical industry; there was then as there is now mixed opinion in the scientific community about the harm to birds, wildlife, humans (later proved to have serious impacts including the near extinction of the bald eagle…..history repeats itself?). Rachel Carson referred to the chemical industry’s attempts to ignore the dangers as “flagrant propaganda”. Is this not similar to what the wind industry and our governments and all complicit in the furtherance of the industrial wind turbine agenda are practicing today by ignoring the known hazards and the victims battling the negative impacts of the industrial wind turbine?
Are we on he brink of another silent spring at the hands of the industrial wind turbine agenda?
Another concern is how the Armow Wind Project is classified – one of the main reasons the municipality wanted the sound testing completed. Armow is designated a Class 3 area by the province. That classification applies to agricultural areas, cottage and recreational resort areas, wilderness areas and small communities with populations less than 1,000 people and refers to areas that have mainly nature sounds and little to no road traffic.