The FAA permit for the EDF Livingston County Windfarm was submitted on 8/21/2019 for 106, 499-foot turbines, marked as in Campus, IL. They are shown in yellow below.
The FAA cases are in this range, shown are the 1st and last turbine, click on them for details:
2019-WTE-7386-OE to 2019-WTE-7491-OE
You can read our previous article on this project here: http://www.pcwindfarm.org/edf-livingston-wind-project-2019/
I became familiar with Acoustical Society of America (ASA) when every “Sound Expert” (Acoustician) that testified for the Wind Companies listed being a member of ASA in their credentials.
When you join the ASA, it includes a complimentary Quarterly journal in the mail called “Acoustics Today”. It’s color, printed on high-quality paper, worth reading if you have interest in sound.
This month’s issue raised my interest with a blurb on the front page “Ambient Noise is ‘The New Secondhand Smoke'”.
This is a really good article, it talks through all the various sound levels and at what point they cause issues. It has TWO pages of References at the end to support all of it’s claims. I roughly counted 73 references.
To me, a Wind Industry skeptic, this rang true — sleep can be disturbed at 30 dB(A)[LAeq, a more constant noise] and 45 dB (LAmax, a more spiked noise). The author of the article also touches on how noise CAN find a pathway to cause physical health problems. With sources.
Some of the studies quoted, like Munzel on cardiovascular disease (2018), didn’t come out until after our hearing.
So, what we have is an article, published in a journal by an organization that the Wind Industry sound experts themselves list on their bio’s, that supports what we’ve been saying all along.
It will be interesting to see how the Wind Industry’s “Sound Experts” react. Will they attempt to discredit all 73 references?
Here is a link to the full article:
From the Pantagraph 9/29/2020:
LEXINGTON — Tim Jolly is a fifth-generation McLean County farmer and is looking forward to a safe harvest this fall.
However, while farming in the footprint of a wind farm near Lexington, Jolly has major concerns over the potential of falling debris from nearby wind farm turbines from the Bright Stalk Wind Farm.
At least three of the turbines appear to have been damaged over the summer and Jolly is wondering why.
….
For the full article, click here:
May 21, 2019 – It’s been a long road since 2014, but the Pleasant Ridge Wind Farm application (as filed in 2014) is officially dead.
Invenergy’s last day to file an appeal against it’s summary judgment was yesterday and they did not file, which ends this saga for southern Livingston County.
If you look at the goals from the 2014 PCWindFarm.com webpage:
The goals were:
Today, the project is stopped, and the majority of Livingston County now has a great Wind Ordinance to protect the families living there… Congratulations!
March 12, 2019 – Citizens in the north-east part of Livingston County received post cards today, from EDF Renewables out of Minneapolis, MN inviting them to RSVP to a dinner and introduction to EDF’s Livingston Wind Project at the Tri-Point High School (in Cullom) on April 3rd at 6pm.
The Livingston County zoning ordinance specifies a public notice period before an application can be filed:
Sec. 56-622. - Public participation and pre-application.
Nothing in this article is meant to augment or diminish existing opportunities for public participation. At least 90 days prior to the submission of any WECS application, the applicant shall make a reasonable effort to inform members of the public of the proposed project. Mailings and notices of public community meetings or open houses shall be sent out to landowners and residences within the footprint and to landowners and residences within 1.5 miles of the proposed outside boundary of the project. These mailings should make reference to where additional information can be obtained regarding the proposed project. Advertisements in local newspapers and at least one community meeting are also required.
If this invitation counts as the public notice, an application for the project could be filed around June 11th.
Livingston County’s current ordinance specifies a maximum height of 500 feet towers:
(k) Height. The permitted maximum height of a WECS shall be 500 feet.
(1) State and federal regulations may require a lesser height.
(2) A WECS and transmissions poles shall be constructed with a tubular tower or monopole structure, not a lattice tower.
Note that the setbacks as listed on the County Ordinance link are not up to date:
(h) Setbacks.
(1) All WECS towers shall be set back six times the height of the tower or 3,250 feet, whichever is greater, from any primary structure. The distance for the above setback shall be measured from the edge of the primary structure foundation closest to the WECS tower, to the center of the WECS tower foundation. The owner of the primary structure may waive these setback requirements but in no case shall a WECS tower be located closer to a primary structure than 1.10 times the WECS tower height..
For this area of the county, the setbacks are now 1600 (or 1640?) feet based on the results of the 2016 referendum on the ballot.
See the following two articles for background information:
https://www.pontiacdailyleader.com/news/20161111/division-of-setback-voters-rather-clear-cut
And the subsequent action by the County Board in 2018:
https://www.pontiacdailyleader.com/news/20180216/setback-issue-finally-resolved-by-county
Noise Review by expert acousitician Robert W. Rand, ASA, INCE:
July 7th, the ZBA Hearings began hearing testimony on the Livingston County Wind Ordiance. To hear Mr. Rinkenmeyer from Avangrid(formerly known as Iberdrola) click here. Owners of private airstrips also testified this night.
On July 12th, Kevon Martis, Director of the IICC, Inc. (Interstate Informed Citizen’s Coalition) and expert on setbacks for wind energy conversion systems and Dr. Schomer (the foremost acoustician in Illinois and original member of the IPCB) testified. Private airstrip owners also testified this evening. To hear their testimony click here.
The next hearing will be September 1st at 7 p.m. at the historic courthouse in Pontiac.
May 26th UPDATE: Livingston County Judge Travers has ruled on the petition to intervene in the Invenergy lawsuit against Livingston County:
“Wherefore, the court grants the Petition for Intervention to the forty
petitioners who own property contiguous to the project boundary and/or the six
petitioners within the project boundary.”
FARM BUREAU MEETING ABOUT CONTRACTS. PART 3 IS CRITICAL INFORMATION ABOUT CONTRACTS!!!! (to get to all 4 parts, click the bars in the upper left hand corner of the video where it shows 1/4).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rdjt1rpsE&list=PLYbaayIzQ02qSiEg4Qx6ncJhu4jhxzTSX&index=1
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH THE AZES COMMITTEE MEETINGS, COUNTY BOARD MEETINGS, AND THE INVENERGY PROJECT HEARINGS? CLICK HERE.
LAWSUIT FILED BY INVENERGY:
INVENERGY DOCUMENTS AND PRESENTATIONS FILED WITH THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS:
Click the link below to read/print the presentations and documents submitted to the Zoning Board of Appeals: