A wind turbine project has been in the works for some time for Buchanan County. NextEra has been securing leases for locations of turbines with landowners without knowledge from the general public or nearby landowners. Many landowners are just now finding out about the plan to change our beautiful rural landscape into an industrial electrical nightmare. Many factors come into play such as setbacks from dwellings, CSR (crop sustainability ratings), zoning regulations, etc., when determining whether or not this project will happen. If we do nothing then it probably will. A grassroots effort is taking shape to amend the WECS regulations currently in force for our county (Wind Energy Conversions Systems).
What’s So Bad About Wind Turbines Anyway?
The claims made by these multi billion dollar companies and the corporate renewable energy organizations are downright fallacies. The consequences of wind turbines on humans’ physical and mental health are disastrous. I’ve researched and chatted with people who have gone through hell living with turbines. They have found their lives ruined and been forced to move. Property values plummet and it’s difficult to sell.
The carnage done to animals is similar. Placing these wind farms among farmers and rural landowners who own livestock is criminal, as they watch their life’s investment suffer untold losses. This is not Iowa’s legacy!
The loss of wildlife is a travesty. Rural Iowa has the admirable quality of being able to respect wildlife and co-exist with a vibrant farming economy. Its one of the attributes of why people love Iowa — for the beauty of our land and wildlife. Wind Turbines destroy the land. The land is torn apart like a predator eating his prey. Roads are destroyed and not repaired. Gigantic transmission lines and turbines send infrasound shockwaves through the ground and air. Thousands of gallons of oil leak and seep into our groundwater and sterilize our soils. Huge caverns of concrete and steel are placed underground and never removed, even if the turbine is. The most ironic damage on the tail end is that these turbines are not sustainable as claimed. They need fossil fuels as a backup 100% of the time. They have frequent repairs and malfunction often causing dangers of fires, collapse, and even flying projectile blades. But the worst of all is that they don’t even last that long and many times are just left in place when no longer operational. If taken down the base is left in place like a giant tumor. One of the saddest negative consequences of wind turbines is the destruction of community relationships. Landowners are duped into signing leases without realizing the costs. Is a few thousand dollars worth knowing what you did to people’s lives? I for one would never do that to my neighbor. The irony is that you are not just doing it to your immediate neighbors. It’s your community and the state as a whole. What happened to the friendly Iowan spirit that for generations we have been known for?
What will you do?
Do you want to have sleepless nights, headaches, nausea, and ringing in your ears? Do you want to be confined to your home and not be able to go outside? How about a shadow flicker every few seconds? How about complete desperation and having to sell your property? My guess is that you don’t want any of that for yourself, your children, your grandchildren, your friends and neighbors, your pets, or your livestock!
- Get involved and attend community meetings, and P & Z meetings:
- Board of Supervisors Meeting: Monday, July 24th at 6 pm. St. Athanasius Gym in Jessup
- Email, call or write your County Board of Supervisors:
- Clayton Ohrt 319-332-1766 | cohrt@co.buchanan.ia.us
- Dawn Vogel 319-332-1765 | dvogel@co.buchanan.ia.us
- John Kurtz 319-332-1764 | jkurtz@co.buchanan.ia.us
Or write to the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors at:
Buchanan County Board of Supervisors
PO BOX 317
Independence, IA 50644
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece written by an independent author. The views and opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or of Buchanan County Alliance.
There are case after case where property values HAVE gone down, regardless of claims to the contrary by NextEra and the lobbyists. There are many cases where homes could not be sold. In some cases, the family could no longer live in the home, so it just sits there abandoned.
Two families I know could not hear the turbines inside the house, however they were affected by the infrasound. Without looking out the window to see if the turbine blades were turning, they could tell the instant the turbines were turned on and when they were turned off, strictly due to infrasound.
Kathie – Regarding your comment about turbines needing a back up 100% of the time: NextEra has a quote in their Jubilee Wind Facebook page stating, “Wind turbines produce reliable electricity through the heat of the summer and the chill of winter, as long as the wind is blowing.” Yup, so when the wind is not blowing, they need coal, natural gas or nuclear as a backup to pick up the slack.
Regarding your comment about huge caverns of concrete and steel being placed underground and never removed: The amount of concrete that is left in the ground is between 1,300 tons and 1,800 tons depending on the size of the turbine. Now add in 27 to 120 tons of rebar in the concrete. The base can be 60 feet or more in diameter. So when the turbine is decommissioned,
NextEra will only remove the top 4 feet and replace it with soil which may or may not be the same quality soil that was originally removed for the turbine. So, with the huge slab of concrete and metal just below the surface, do you really think anything will grow there? This would be similar to abandoned railroad lines where nothing grows. Not to mention how drainage will be affected.
Kathie — We have also spoken with people who are dealing with the exact problems you mentioned. And several of those families really were desperate enough to abandon their homes for the sake of their health and sanity. They have never moved back and never will. The homes sit empty. That used to be an unbelievable scenario, but I fear it is becoming more and more common. Counties need to stand up to these companies and set reasonable requirements. Reasonable for the people who will be affected by these behemoths and not just for the companies whose employees will never experience the destruction of living near one. We must ask our leaders to step up and protect the people of Buchanan County. Why is this of such immediate importance? Because those turbines will be here for decades. And when these are put in, chances are extremely high that this or another company will be back to add more, just like companies have done all over this country. Real safety regulations need to be established in the beginning because there’s no going back once that door has swung open. It will be too late for regrets.
I hope you will be able to mention on Monday about the abandoned homes. The BOS needs to understand just exactly what would be taking place here. They have a tremendous responsibility and a historic decision to make for the health and welfare of their citizens!! I pray that they will just say NO altogether!! I feel like as you said, once they get their foot in the door it’s all over folks!
So many things to say, and only 3 minutes to speak. Right? Thank you for putting up contact information for the Board of Supervisors. People can say so much more in an email to each one. I do hope people will take the time to write, and not just once. We need to remind the Board that we’re depending on them. All we hear about are landowner rights for those who have signed contracts for turbines. What about the rights that will be taken away from the landowners who do not want the turbines or the transmission lines and yet will be forced to live with them and the consequences they bring, or give up everything they’ve worked decades for and move? These landowners, by the way, are the majority. And we need to be heard.