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Health effects of living close to the Waubra wind turbines 

Author:  | Australia, Environment, Health, Noise, Property values, Regulations, Wildlife

I am writing in regards to the Federal Parliament enquiry. I am a third-generation farmer on our Waubra farm, we farm 4200 acres of high-quality farming land and are currently running 16,000-20,000 sheep, 500 acres of crop and 100 acres or irrigated land included.

From the first day we were asked to have wind turbines on our farm we were very concerned about the impacts of a wind farm in our community. We declined to have 4 wind turbines on our land.

Eventually the Waubra wind farm was under construction, with large amounts of destruction to poor local roads, and destruction of quality farming land. Consisting of new roads through farms, thousands of tons of concrete poured into the ground, massive power grids in paddocks, machinery and administration offices in paddocks and worst of all, hundreds of kilometres of new above ground power lines. Which are a whole new danger in the summer fire season.

It was at this stage when the foundations were laid for the Waubra wind farm. The Lexton wind farm was approved, which is not under construction yet. We were approached by a representative from Wind Power that they needed to run a new above ground power line from the yet to be built but approved Lexton wind farm, straight through our farm to connect to the Waubra wind farm grid. Obviously more cost effective than building another grid at the Lexton site. We declined, therefore weeks later we were approached then by an Acciona representative to put a further 4 wind turbines on our farm, making a total of 8. We declined once again, therefore the proposed new above ground power line has to follow the roads near our farm as we didn’t want it through our farm.

The destruction if the power line goes ahead will consist of cutting native trees down and disturbing large amounts of native grasses, then follows the disturbance of bird life, including brolgas and countless other species. This is very concerning and distressing.

Then before long the Waubra wind farm was up and running.

The closest wind turbine is 900 metres from our house and we have 5 wind turbines within 1500 metres from our family home, where I live with my wife Samantha and three children Jacob, Courtney and Joshua. There are about another 6 wind turbines within 2000 metres of our land at another location on our farm.

We can see nearly all the wind turbines from most areas of our farm. The first day the wind turbines started operating closest to our home, my wife Samantha started feeling ear and head pressure. Similar, she described, as when flying in an aeroplane. About six months after, I started feeling similar affects as Samantha. As the weeks went on it has gotten worse and worse. We now suffer headaches, chest pains, a feeling of heart palpitations, continuous lack of sleep. Every night we can’t sleep, we go to sleep then wake and just never settle into a good night sleep.

I have never seen my wife of 18 years look so tired, stressed and unhealthy. This is a huge concern. My children are also more tired and emotional. We have no other illness or medical conditions that could cause us feeling like this, we have not changed anything in our lifestyle since we started feeling like this.

We have had talks with the operator of the Waubra wind farm, Acciona Energy, telling them of our concerns of our health effects of living to close to the wind turbines and the effects on the asset values of our land.

Acciona Energy have replied that we don’t have any evidence the wind turbines affect our health. We have large concerns about the [their charge of] lack of any evidence wind turbines don’t affect our health. We have lived near wind turbines for about 14 months and are feeling the worst in regards to our health and the depressed feelings we get from the visual effects of wind turbines day and night, as they have aviation lights at night, the noise they create and the inaudible noise that I know affects our lives. And the effects in changes to bird life such as our decreased number of brolgas breeding in our area. The total loss of bats we used to hear nearly every night and so on.

We have now gone to the desperate measure and moved out of our family home on our farm and into Ballarat, which is 45 kilometres drive away and we will travel daily to our farm. This is a large financial outlay. Our house on the farm is only 10 years old and will remain empty as we could not rent or house farm employees due to wind turbines being too close and therefore having health effects on them.

In conclusion we have massive concerns about the health effects of living and working too close to the wind turbines. We are members of the Lexton Land Care Group, we have planted thousands and thousands of trees, fenced off creeks and are all for the environment and green energy such as wind power or solar or whatever it takes to help our environment, but to watch myself and family suffer from health effects from living too close to wind turbines is a very big concern.

There has to be a compromise.

Carl Stepnell

(((( ))))

My health concerns regarding living so close to the Waubra wind turbines:

Our family home is about 800m to 900m from five turbines that are closely clustered together. Our farm is also surrounded by turbines. My bedroom is the closest room to the four turbines. The health impacts from living so close to the wind turbines began the day they began operation near our home are:

  • Chronic sleep deprivation from repeated disturbance during the night from the noise the turbines make.

    When the noise of the turbines wake me up, I find it very difficult to go back to sleep. This can happen a number of times a night. When I wake in the morning, I feel as if I have had no sleep at all. I also feel very tired all the time and have no energy and very lethargic.

    Prior to the turbines being built, I was able to sleep peacefully with our window open (in the summer) and wake up feeling like I have had a great sleep, and ready for the day ahead.

  • Feeling of uneasiness.
  • Suffering from pressure in my ears and head. Some days the noise is that bad, the pressure is unbearable. The only way I can explain how I feel, it is like being in a plane with that pressure in the cabin from flying. Except it does not go away.

Our farm is 4200 acres and it is our business, my husband and I work on the farm so we are frequently outside. The noise from the turbines in certain conditions is unbearable and makes our workplace on the farm very hard to put up with, I find it very upsetting and stressful.

I feel very depressed and some days I could just curl up and cry.

All these symptoms – headaches, ear pressure and sleep disruption – have only occurred since the turbines began operation and they only occur when the turbines are operating. This has made our working and home life very difficult. It has added an enormous stress which is affecting our health and well-being. It is also affecting our quality of life.

I feel the longer I am around the wind turbines, it is affecting my health even more. I feel it is taking me longer to get over the health problems that I am suffering from.

For example: My family and I just returned from a week’s holiday. I slept all night and when I woke up, I felt like I had a good night sleep. I woke up from my night’s sleep with lots of energy. This is the way I should feel all the time. There was no pressure in my ears and head. I felt like I was back to my old self. The day I returned from holidays, I began to feel all the symptoms that I have explained, they had returned.

I am finding living in our home very difficult and the turbines have added an enormous amount of stress to my health and living. This is purely because we are located too close to the wind turbines. They have destroyed my quality of life living in my own home with my husband and our three children. I feel and know that the only thing for us to do is to leave our family home and move away from the turbines.

We had no choice but to leave our family home we built nine years ago on our farm. Our health was really suffering, we could no longer live in our home. We have moved to Ballarat, and we travel out to the farm to work each day (Ballarat is 45 kilometres away from Waubra).

The day the furniture removals came (4/11/10) was an extremely sad day for my family and I, to pack up our belongings and leave our family home we built. It was our family home, we bought our three kids home from hospital and we were going to live there forever. But we have been forced to move away from our home because of the Acciona Wind Farm. We thought that we would grow old together in our home on the farm and watch our children grow up and move on with their lives. Now, that is not the case, we have been forced out of our home because of the Acciona Wind Farm.

We have nothing against windfarms. I am all for the environment, we plant thousands of trees for our farm each year. The planning of a wind farm has to be in a better location and not so close to residential areas. The Waubra Wind Farm has destroyed our life and we have been forced out of our home. We’ve had to purchase a house in Ballarat, it has put huge financial pressure on us, but we had no choice but to leave. Our health is number one and it was really suffering, living so close to the wind turbines.

The first night we slept in our new home was the first time we have had a full night sleep in 18 months. I am fine when I am away from the turbines and as soon as I return to the farm, the symptoms return. I find it very difficult to enjoy a day’s work on the farm because of the health effects caused by wind turbines.

We have a part-time worker and a shearing team throughout the year, we are very concerned about where we stand with worksafe issues. Because of the health effects are people suffering working so close to wind turbines? As our whole farm is surrounded with wind turbines?

If you care for the health and well-being of my family and I, could you please take the matter of the health effects from living so close to the Waubra wind turbines very seriously.

You are more than welcome to come and experience what it is like to be so close to the wind turbines, as no letter will ever express exactly what we are feeling. There are no words to describe these feelings and how the turbines are affecting our health. Feel free to contact me [about] the above information.

Thank you for your time and please take this letter seriously.

Yours sincerely,
Samantha Stepnell

[photos included in original document]

(((( ))))

Acciona Energy
30 September 2010

Dear Sir,

re: Carl and Samantha Slepnell

I saw this couple on 29 September 2010 regarding health problems related to wind turbines which are located nearby in Waubra. They have a 4500 acre farm on which they run sheep and grown grain. The farm is surrounded by wind turbines but the ones that they feel are contributing to their current symptoms relate to five turbines, located within 900 metres of their home.

These turbines have been in operation for the last fourteen months, as I understand, and Carl and Samantha acknowledge they have been aware of a constant sound while the turbines are in operation since this period of time. However, in the last six months the Stepnells have had increasing problems including increased feeling of pressure in their head and ears, a feeling of uneasiness and frequent waking at night. This has led to increased lethargy and inevitably a lowered mood.

Last May, Carl and Samantha noticed when the turbines were not in operation for two weeks that their symptoms significantly improved, but worsened again when the turbines came back on line. Carl and Samantha have also noticed that they have significantly less problems when away on holidays. Samantha Stepnell notices that her symptoms are more persistent and severe as she spends more time in the house closest to these five turbines. Her husband, Carl, is also constantly affected but is able to move around the farm doing his usual work and therefore at times, is farther away from the turbines. Their three children spend most of the day away from the farm, and as such, have minimal symptoms. The couple has not had a past history of these symptoms, nor has there been a past history of depression, stress or anxiety. They feel that they can accept the visual impact of the turbines and the red flashing lights at night, but it is the noise from the turbines that is causing their symptoms.

I also confirm that I have one other patient who lives at Waubra on a 10 acre farm who is distraught with exactly the same symptoms as the Stepnells. I believe from the circumstantial evidence that there is a strong correlation between their symptoms and the operation of the wind turbines nearby.

I hope therefore that you can take this into consideration in your discussions with Carl and Samantha Stepnell to try and come to an outcome that will resolve these symptoms.

Yours sincerely

Scott Taylor
M.B.B.S.Dip.R.C.D.G.D.A.R.C.A.

(((( ))))

Brolga (click for larger image)

Download original documents: submissions 129 and 130 to the Australian Senate inquiry of The Social and Economic Impact of Rural Wind Farms

This material is the work of the author(s) indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this material resides with the author(s). As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Queries e-mail.

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