Feb 10 - Portland Press Herald



A new state law aimed at speeding up wind energy development will be tested for the first time today in an appeal before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

The central issue is whether the state Department of Environmental Protection relied on flawed studies and ignored evidence about the potential effects of noise generated by large wind turbines when the agency approved the proposed Rollins Wind Project in eastern Maine.

The case reflects arguments being made across the country that conventional noise regulations fail to protect people who live near wind-power projects from disturbing sounds and possible health effects.

Activists hope that a court ruling in their favor will prompt an overhaul of state noise regulations and slow the development of wind projects in Maine.

 The criticism has collided with Maine's Wind Power Act. The law is meant to expedite permits in areas of the state that are found to be compatible with wind-power development, while protecting the environment and nearby residents. It's part of a broader strategy to increase Maine's energy security and combat climate change.

But the law is spawning opposition. It has led some communities to pass moratoriums on wind development and enact rules that severely limit where turbines can be erected.

In the Rollins case, the DEP says it relied on existing noise regulations for its approval. It also got input from an independent expert and the state's public health director to set guidelines that offer additional protections.

But Maine's noise regulations are geared to loudness and not the more subtle, but deeply disturbing, sounds of wind turbines, said Lynn Williams, the lawyer representing Friends of Lincoln Lakes, a group of property owners in southeastern Penobscot County that filed the appeal.

Around the world, some people who live near wind farms complain of low-frequency sounds and so-called amplitude modulation, the "thump" of moving blades. The causes and effects of the noise are open to debate.

Wind-power opponents also are looking beyond Rollins.

Williams, a Green Party candidate for governor, hopes the court case can force the state to put the brakes on wind-power development and amend current noise rules. Activists are trying to accomplish the same thing through the Maine Legislature.

"There need to be adequate setbacks, and we need to determine what they are," she said. "These projects can't be in residential areas. They are industrial facilities."

The 60-megawatt Rollins wind farm would consist of 40 turbines standing along ridgelines in Lincoln, Winn, Lee, Burlington and Mattawamkeag. It would be built by Evergreen Wind Power III LLC, a subsidiary of First Wind, which also has projects in Mars Hill and western Washington County.

The noise-modeling standards used to approve the projects are sophisticated and appropriate, said John Lamontagne, a spokesman for First Wind.

"In our view, the DEP has been very thorough in developing its sound regulations," he said.

The DEP's board approved Rollins in April and denied an appeal in May by the Lincoln Lakes group. Under the new wind-power law, the appeal goes directly to the state Supreme Court.

The group also questions the project's effect on wildlife habitat and raises a constitutional issue about the new appeals process.

Briefs filed in the case show that much of the legal debate hinges on details of acoustic computer modeling. The software is used to assess how sound would travel from the project and how loud it would be at certain locations. In summary, the Lincoln Lakes group says the model isn't designed for wind turbines.

In response, the assistant attorney general representing the DEP, Margaret Bensinger, says the model has been used to analyze similar wind projects in Maine. Based on that experience, the DEP built in "conservative assumptions," such as a lack of foliage on trees to deaden sound.

The state also is rebutting arguments about perceived health effects. Peer-reviewed medical and public health literature has found no health risks from wind turbines, according to comments from Dr. Dora Anne Mills, Maine's public health director.

Beyond the technical issues, First Wind is using a broader defense.

In its legal filings, the company outlines Maine's Wind Power Act goals of installing 2,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2015 and 3,000 megawatts by 2020. The act passed without opposition in the Legislature, noted Juliet Browne, First Wind's lawyer.

She wrote: "While appellants may not agree with the objectives of the Wind Power Act, the Legislature unambiguously and resoundingly concluded otherwise."

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:

tturkel@pressherald.com

Originally published by By TUX TURKEL Staff Writer.

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