Mr. Richard Braithwaite, of Keyser, WV, is one of several families negatively impacted by the Pinnacle industrial wind project.  The project, owned by Edison Mission Energy, is located along a ridgeline on Green Mountain, above Keyser,WV.  The project is scheduled to be fully operational prior to the end of 2011.

Mr. Braithwaite noted in his email to me that he and a friend measured the noise level at about 1 pm Sunday, December 11, 2001.  His digital sound meter registered 83.4 db.  His friend, from Maryland, said even before they took the reading that he “never would have believed they would make that much noise.”  Mr. Braithwaite adds, “That was even when only one wind turbine was running.

We thank Mr. Braithwaite for granting his permission to post his recent letter to the editor of the local papers, provided below, for your convenience.

Letter begins:

NOISE FROM WINDMILLS ONGREENMOUNTAINPINNACLE WIND FARM

The noise from these windmills is so great that it is impossible to live near them. When the wind is from the east there is a constant loud whining that can be heard from inside your home and if it is from the west it sounds like a train running. The vibrations are so great from the windmills they rattle the windows in my and other neighbors home. The only time there is no noise is when they are shut down. The front picture window in my house frames 3 windmills perfectly. I can close the blinds to get away from seeing them, but I cannot get away from the noise. Anyone who would like to experience this high noise level is welcome to come into my driveway and listen to it. I know this noise is so great that it can never be eliminated.

Neighbors have told me that they have spoken to our county commissioners about this but they were told they could not do anything about this. I believe all of our county commissioners were for the wind farm. These windmills have ruined the lives of both my family and my neighbors. I want the public to know what these windmills will do to anyone’s life who lives close to them. I have never heard or read anywhere where the windmill advocates ever mentioned the noise level of the windmills.  Most of the time I can hear the windmills from in every room of my house.   I have called almost everyone associated with the windmills that I could find a phone number for, but they quit answering or calling me back.  I even called Maria Litos inCaliforniawho works for I believe Edison Mission Energy and she said they would shut them down at night until they found a solution to stop the noise, but this never happened.  This constant drone from the windmills even makes your head hurt. Something has to be done about this noise because the people around here cannot live with this.

Another problem we have is with the Tasker Road, which I live on, is the cap they put on our road. This was nothing but a layer of gravel over our original hard surfaced road. This made our road very dangerous as cars would slide almost like on ice. Most of the gravel has been thrown off of the road by the traffic within a few days. Even the resident on the Pinnacle Road told me they were not happy with the repairing of their road. I can hear the windmills loud whining even as I write this letter.

Richard L Braithwaite

Keyser, WV 26726

Letter ends!

Allegheny Treasures notes:

We fully support Mr. Braithwaite and his neighbors in their effort to maintain their quality of life.  Edison must take all necessary measures to insure a rapid correction to the justifiable complaints registered by these good neighbors.

We also feel strongly that the County Commissioners and other local and regional leaders who chose to actively promote this project must devote at least as much effort to insure a positive outcome for these citizens.

It is not acceptable for our County Commissioners and other elected officials to have utilized their position of influence to promote this project before the  West Virginia Public Service Commission, and now claim that they are powerless to act on behalf of these citizens.  Sorry folks … you just can’t have it both ways!

We encourage other members of the community to join with our neighbors to insist on a positive outcome.  It shouldn’t be necessary to say that you might be next but, with “rumblings” around the area that even more turbines are planned … you likely are!

Do the right thing!

Related link:  WHAG, NBC Affiliate in Hagerstown, MD interviews Keyser residents about wind turbine noise – http://your4state.com/fulltext?nxd_id=224487