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Italian Windfarm Diary

Copied by Gail Mair from original with notes - 26 - 29 December 2007


We moved to Murci in October 2006. We were not informed of the plans to build a wind power station of this magnitude beforehand.

Parco Eolico di Scansano (wind farm) – tests started at the beginning of November 2006

We can see 5 turbines on ‘our’ side of the ridge and the tip of the rotor of one of the other 5 on the other side of the ridge.

There is no day-by-day account for 2006 because we thought that the noise emitted by the turbines (121m – including rotor) would be eliminated during the tests. This was not the case and in fact the noise seems to have increased.

We spent Christmas 2006 in Germany but returned to Murci, Scansano for New Year.


January 2007

There is little record of the noise produced by the wind turbines in January because we were still of the opinion that the annoyance would stop. The company which erected the station, Gamesa, had declared them to be silent, so we were expecting them to fall silent at some stage. This erroneous statement was echoed everywhere in the press.
However, I recorded the ’Brummton‘ (the disturbing pulsating buzzing tone heard inside and outside) for the first time on 4 and 5 January 2007, then on 7, 14 and 27 January 2007 when it was particularly irritating. I spent a lot of the time away from home (in Grosseto) in January, so didn’t bother to note down all the noise.
There are four entries about the noise inside and outside: 4 and 5 January, like an airport and 7 January: a low metallic drone and then on 28 January: heard inside the house.

At the end of January we began to realise that there was a major problem

N.B. The entries were made at different times and these noted. That does not mean that there was no noise in between whiles. Most times the noise simply continued changing timbre, pitch and volume during the day and night


February 2007

This was the start of slightly more detailed notes but we were still trying to differentiate between different sounds and wind directions and what it was that was making us so edgy. There seemed to be no pattern we could discern.

Pulsating buzzing tone: 4,5,11,12,15 (low), 16 (woke me up during the night) and 22 February 2007

Outside noise
4 & 5 - heard in house with shutters closed
6 & 7 like an airport (I grew up near Heathrow, London, so I know what I’m talking about)
10 metallic drone
11 metallic drone – strong physical and mental agitation
12 airport
14 metallic drone a.m. agitation (10.30 a.m.), low airport noise p.m. heard in house with shutters closed
15, 17 metallic drone (even with no mills going this side!), airport
18 airport
21, 22 (1 turbine), 23, 24 metallic drone
25 rain 6.30 – 7.00 a.m. horrifically loud
Holidays from Sunday 25 February – 14 March 2007 I can see by my writing how elated I was to be going.


March 2007

15 whiney, metallic drone
16 (PET exams at Follonica – I am an oral examiner for Cambridge language exams)
This is not relevant to the diary but it was noted on the hand-written original.
Pulsating buzzing sound: 21, 22, 25, 26, 27,28,29, 31
18 airport
19 airport a.m. - felt queasy and nauseous – rain – loud whine in the evening
20 hail in the night – airport
21 airport
22 BEC (oral exams in Rome) airport p.m.
23 turbines (can’t remember what that was meant to be)
24 airport p.m. SE wind - heard inside house/bedroom with shutters closed
25 8 a.m. airport SSE wind – turbines - heard inside house/bedroom with shutters closed
26 misery and bouts of weeping - rain
27 nervousness
28 rainy – sound from turbines like a vacuum cleaner. No movement, but still the metallic whine – felt queasy and nauseous again – 5 p.m. peace – very little noise (because men are working up there? Meaning at the power station.)
29 rainy – vacuum cleaner noise (from the turbines), pulsating buzzing, misery and more weeping
30 vacuum cleaner
31 vacuum cleaner – pulsating buzz – sunny and cold – turbines off, no drone in house
(in the afternoon) but still a hum. Cried (howled) again


April 2007

1 - vacuum cleaner – woke up twice in the night because of pulsating buzzing noise (3 am and 6 am) Walter woke up at 2 a.m. and 4.30 a.m. Buzzing loud at 18.30.
2 - misery and crying - found comfort at a friend’s house. I remember that day particularly, I couldn’t go back to sleep and sobbed my way up the road to her house. No turbines, no buzzing that night – SLEEP!
3 - noise stopped in the morning but in the afternoon the vacuum cleaner noise started again but NO buzzing sound!
4 – loud swish heard in house at 1a.m. (night)
5 – NE wind. 8 a.m. turbines stopped, but started at 9 a.m. Airport heard in house (afternoon) In the evening the turbines stood still but there was still a metallic drone like a vacuum cleaner
6 – W wind – turbines stopped 8 a.m. – PEACE – but I cried again in a friend’s office – (it wasn’t the first time that I’d broken down in front of him and I’m NOT a weepy type AT ALL – I was very embarrassed that I couldn’t hold it back)
7 strong agitation – 1 p.m. buzzing noise – telephone dead again
8 & 9 ESCAPE – HOLS [holidays] (in South Tyrol)
10 woke up 3 a.m. because of palpitations (fast beating heart)
11 woke up again because of palpitations – 5.30 the egg-timer went off
12 vacuum cleaner noise – pulsation (buzzing tone) started again – agitation – all 5 turbines rotating
13 vacuum cleaner
14 my husband woke up 1.30 because of noise
15 NE wind 7.30 a.m. loud airport swish heard inside. SSW wind 11.30 – sounded like a motorway on the terrace – from 13.30 onwards, vacuum cleaner – my husband woke up 2.30,
16 NE wind - loud airport same as yesterday from 7 a.m. to 8p.m.– buzzing low but it woke me up again
17 13.30 cried – buzzing sound – NW wind - airport in the evening. Turbines loud. 23.30
– maddening noise inside house, turbines.
18 woke up during the night and cried because of the buzzing – in the afternoon vacuum cleaner – HORRIFICALLY LOUD 22.30
19 12.30 horrific pulsating buzzing sound – queasy and nauseous. Same terrible pulsation at 00.15
I escaped to England from 20-28 April 2007 but my husband continued the record (in italics)

22 – 4.30 a.m. no wind but loud turbines (he woke up)
26 – 4 a.m. utter madness (intolerably loud pulsating sound) East wind – same again at 8 a.m.
27 – 4 a.m. a hell of a racket and loud pulsating sound – East wind. Same at 8 a.m.
28 – 5 a.m. down here no wind, up there they’re grinding (rotating)
29 - peace (p.m. vacuum cleaner for a short time)

30 – 11 a.m. pulsating started, several blackouts, 18.00 only no. 3 turning but loud turbine noise.


May 2007

1 – Thundery, pulsating – 9 p.m. loud drone outside
2 – a.m. swish – we went to Florence – p.m. loud turbine whine
3 – S wind. 2-3 p.m. loud swish till evening – heard in house – rain
4 – S wind rain – loud swish in house – all day turbine noise
5 - 8.30 terrible – rain – turbines – ringing ears
6 – turbines standing still in the morning but pulsating sound in house, queasy and earache – relative PEACE this evening. Two friends came to assess the situation possibly for an article (but nothing came of this)
7 NNW wind – vacuum cleaner – pulsating sound – queasy – thundery
8 Vacuum cleaner, turbines LOUD in the evening. AWFUL AT NIGHT
9 SE wind –– airport – pulsating sound
10 Turbines still in the morning but strong pulsing buzzing – trembling in arms, legs, fingers
11 Holidays! I think we went out for the day – South wind – loud turbines in the evening
12 SE wind – turbines loud – headache and pressure in my ears - loud turbines in the evening and airport
13 8 a.m. turbines still but noise started at 9 a.m. A guest of ours noticed the noise and said ‘awful’
14 SE wind - woke up 3 times during night 2.45 pulsating/buzzing – headache – window open – turbines louder at night. A.m. airport, pulsation and I cried
15 NW wind – vacuum cleaner – strong agitation – depressed – very tense
16 Pulsating loud - woke me up twice with pulsing in my ears – despite earplugs – wept
17 Loud turbines – pulsating – queasy and nauseous
18 Pulsating loud during the night – headache and earache in the morning – escaped to Grosseto
19 A.m. loud swish – examined in Castel del Piano
20 Vacuum cleaner, pulsating sound at night EP (earplugs but they don’t help because the vibrations are picked up by my body, too)
21 a.m. still – queasy in the afternoon. No pulsating at night or very low.
22 - headache – out all day – vacuum cleaner in the evening
23 headache – turbines standing still but still there is the metallic (vacuum cleaner) drone all day and the swish of the rotors – thundery – 3 drops of rain
24 discovered 3 queen cells in my bee colony. Woke up at 4 a.m. very agitated, strong pulsating sound 10 a.m. – really bad 23.30 (at the side: shopping list for motor oil)
25 bad pulsating sound 5 a.m. metallic drone terrible in the evening
26 Airport – terrible – motorway
27 Vacuum cleaner – we went up to the station today and strange clunking and grinding noises were coming from turbine no. 4 when the rotors went over a certain point.
28 Rain – airport – up at the station again – men in turbine no. 4 (to repair?)
29 I escaped to Grosseto
30 Metallic drone – pulsating sound 9.30
31 Metallic drone – 10.30 p.m. loud – heard in house with windows shut


June 2007

1 – 6 a.m. heard in house – in the evening metallic drone
2 – swish, turbines loud, rain
3 – rain – pulsating sound p.m.
4 – low metallic drone – pulsating sound – loud swish
5 – metallic drone – swish – pulsating sound – earache – thundery
6 – ditto (bees swarmed)
7 – vacuum cleaner – pulsating sound
8 – ditto
9 – Gail out all day – Rome
10 – vacuum cleaner from 16.00, pulsating at night – new bee queen ‘tooting’
11 – pulsating
12 – vacuum cleaner all day
13 – ditto – another small swarm
14 – vacuum cleaner and pulsating all day – jittery
15 – airport – woke up at 3 a.m. loud pulsating
16 – vacuum and pulsating
17 – vacuum and pulsating, tried earplugs again – didn’t work
18 – metallic drone – loud. Inauguration of the [wind power] station in the afternoon – the turbines were making only a gentle swish (but we’ve since learned that this can be done at the flick of a switch. When they came to measure the noise levels, they turned them off completely to get readings of ‘before and after’)
19 loud metallic drone and swish
20 loud metallic drone
21 HEAVENLY PEACE IN THE MORNING
22 metallic drone
23 Gail Rome
24 Gail Rome – in the evening SE wind, very loud swish heard in house
25 loud swish, airport all day
26 metallic drone
27 metallic drone and loud swish – pulsating sound started in the evening (20.30 but also before)
28 metallic drone – 12.00 exquisite peace (the reason we wanted to live here in the first place) – evening pulsating sound
29 – quiet in the morning but metallic drone in the afternoon and the pulsating buzzing
30 – pulsating buzzing


July 2007

I was working in a hotel 6 evenings a week this month, so the entries are less detailed. I usually arrived home around 24.00
1 – (aspo = aspirapolvere = vacuum cleaner (VC) = metallic drone (MD)) VC – loud swish-1 p.m. loud!
2 – airport - pulsating – 7p.m. VC loud – our carpenter made a comment on the annoying sound
3 – VC and pulsating
4 – airport
5 – VC loud -24.30 terribly loud and pulsating
6 – VC loud
7 – VC loud 24.00 (Vacuum cleaner drone – awful – marvellously starry sky and this bloody noise)
8 – VC
9 – VC – loud turbine swish at 00.20
10 – VC – pulsating sound – p.m. loud turbine swish – Maestrale wind (NW) – my free day
11 – VC in the morning in the afternoon the sound changed to washing machine (drone and rotor swish) and airport – loud VC and pulsating
12 – in the morning perfect peace – only the birds. In the afternoon the metallic whine started again. 00.00 loud pulsating noise – my husband heard it
13
14 - VC loud and pulsating
15 – horrible droning sound – had to close window for afternoon nap (it was well into summer by now and we couldn’t have the windows open at night) - depressed
16 – no wind but horrible drone – depressed
17 – no wind but same horrible drone. My day off- NO PEACE
18 – 13.00 no wind but loud drone
19 – whine
20 – whine and loud swish (01.30 LOUD!)
21 – whine loud
22 – same 01.00 - loud swish and whine
23 – same - AIRPORT 01.00 – loud
24 – 4 a.m. – AIRPORT, evening – AIRPORT
25 – same – earache
26 – turbines standing still but there is still the whine (from the generators?)
27 – 00.00 loud swish from rotors
28 – turbines and washing machine noise
29 – same
30 – little noise
32 – almost nothing, what peace!
33


August 2007

1 – loud swish – in the afternoon little noise – appetite gone
2 – marvellous: little noise but in the evening loud swish and whine - appetite gone
3 – airport! Whine! In the evening less noise. - appetite gone
4 – quiet
5 – loud swish – nausea – I closed the windows again in the morning straight after I’d opened them – pulsating.
6 - loud swish – washing machine – pulsating
7 – metallic drone all day
8 – light wind – airport – swish – GAMESA* HERE TO TAKE MEASUREMENTS - wind in the trees too.(*still waiting for the results of these readings even if we can be sure the company wouldn’t publish them if they were too damning…)
9 – swish and whine and VC – earache
10 – earache – had to close window for afternoon nap –whine – pulsating
11 – earache - had to close window for afternoon nap –whine – pulsating
12 – strong pulsating buzzing noise in bedroom 00.30
13 - loud whine
14
15 – I can’t bear this whine in the morning any more
16
17 – loud swish all evening – motorway
18 – whine whine whine vacuum cleaner
19 – whine whine whine, stir, stir, stir, pulsating
20 – loud
21 – loud
22 – misery
23 – VC – loud swish – misery. I had an accident in the afternoon in Grosseto. It was raining heavily and I walked into a half-opened shutter and cut my head on the sharp metal corner. Got patched up in hospital – injury not serious.
24 –
25 – whine started 10.15 – impossible to sit outside in the evening – windows closed all night (HOT)
26 – 13.30 loud in house had to close windows
27 – whine started 9.30 – they’re standing still but there’s still this drone. DECISION TO LEAVE!
28 – 13.00 loud drone – no wind – sound like a refrigerator?
29 – loud swish, woke up although windows closed. 23.00 sounded like a washing machine.
30 – whine, washing machine
31 - 9 a.m. loud whine but no movement – loud swish 23.00


September 2007

1 – 7 a.m. pulsating sound
2 – same – whine in the evening
3 – very loud airport p.m. with windows closed
4 – moderate wind. 7.30 a.m. loud, windows closed – pulsating in the morning – headache – pulsating all evening, tried earplugs again

ARPAT at a friend’s HOUSE to take readings of the level of noise( ARPAT = Agencia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale della Toscana)
Our friend returned to her summer house this year to find that one of the towers had been built just 100m from her house. The noise is indescribable – her pet cat would not leave the house for the whole of the time they were there and he used to love being outside. My husband spent two nights in her house to keep an eye on the equipment . I saw one of the readings on September 6 th at 11.30 a.m. (in the kitchen with the door open) when the needle oscillated between 60 and 70 – I take it that the unit dz on the equipment stood for dezibel/decibel. We are still waiting for them to publish the findings…


September 2007

5 – woke up in the night – pulsating. Airport – high winds
6 – VC loud. A.m. 11.00-12.00 60-70 dz readings in this friend’s house! – high winds
7 – VC, loud swish, morning and evening. Disco effect (stroboscope) from windmill no.2 in living room 19.00-19.15
8 - took a walk up by the station. Pulsating but turbines standing still. VC. 14.30 meeting with the wind power opponents from Roccalbegna (the county council wants to build 6 more in the neighbouring district) 1p.m. noise stopped. 3 p.m. started VC (can’t quite work this out – if I was at the meeting I wouldn’t have known that, but it quite likely
refers to the following day) pulsating and disco effect again
9 – headache – pulsating and VC – had to close the window at 18.30 – airport
10 – pulsating, woke up several times during the night because of this. Misery and more tears. Airport in the evening
11 – Libeccio (SW wind) and Mezzogiorno (South wind) loud washing machine and drone. Had to close windows but could still hear it
12 - whine, pulsating
13 – whine
14 - absolute silence! p.m. whine
15 – ‘our’ towers stationary but whine from the other side. 12.30 – all quiet, 16.00 whining again
16 – all’s quiet, still, 7 a.m.
17 – very loud swish – hellish 5-7pm – bedroom 00.00 heard in room windows and shutters closed
18 – fog, rain, swish – evening whine
19 – whine but little movement
20 – whine, airport
21 – 23 cooler during the day
21 12.00, little movement, but whining. I shut the window
22 – 8 a.m. STILL, 8.30 a little movement
23 – STILL! p.m. loud whine
24 – whine throughout the day but turbines not moving
25 – STILL! Went to the Daniel Spoeri Gardens with a friend – slight whine in the evening
26 – some whine and some quiet
27 – rain, a.m. loud drone, airport during the night, horrible noise had to close the window, woke up often
28 – pulsating, whining, high wind. Woke up often during the night – misery
29 – away most of the day but slept badly again – misery
30 – away all day


October 2007

1 - still (a smiley here), silence, peace a.m. – evening whine
2 – quiet in the morning – whining in the evening and pulsating
3 – still, peace, p.m. quiet drone
4 – drone – 12.30 horrible nerve-rending noise
5 – out all day Thank God – p.m. drone
6 – annoying drone
7 Back to Germany – from this point until I returned on 18 December 2007 my husband made notes. I had absolutely no health problems while I was away, not even a common cold. No headaches (I was never prone to them anyway), depression or earache.
My husband’s entries – he calls the metallic whine ‘singing’. I refer back to this now and again.

8 – 5 a.m. turbines ‘singing’ – 17.00 – N – 21.00
9 – 8 a.m. silence absolute. Turbines stationary. 17.00 singing (this is what I called ‘whine’)
10 – ‘singing’ at 7 a.m. and 18.00, but all turbines stationary
11 – 9 a.m. turbines singing but stationary. P.m. little noise, 21.00 singing again
12 – 8 a.m. singing but very little movement, 18.00 absolute quiet, 21.00 singing
13 – 9 a.m. singing but very little movement, 16.00 Scirocco (SE wind) washing machine noise
14 – 8 a.m. washing machine (Grecale – NE wind)
15 – 8 a.m. singing and washing machine, 16.00 singing without the washing machine
16 – 8 a.m. and 17.00 absolutely stationary but low pulsating buzzing noise
17 – singing and pulsating all day
18 – 6 a.m. stationary turbines, pulsating noise, 19.00 washing machine and singing LOUD
19 - 8 a.m. loud (Grecale – NE wind)
20 – 8 a.m. loud (Grecale), 20.00 hellishly loud noise
21 – 6 a.m. hellishly loud and now and again one of them is stationary, 12.00 all still?

My husband was away until the end of the month – he wrote ‘holiday’ but meant escape.

Today is December 27, 2007 4.45 am – I woke up twice during the night with ringing and the sound of the pulsating buzzing in my ears, and a feeling of tightness in my chest. I can’t go back to sleep – so I’m finishing transcribing the entries in the ‘diary’.


November 2007

1 – 9 a.m. washing machine noise – various sounds – no. 1 is stationary. Rest of day – various sounds
2 – 8 a.m. various – sometimes the turbines are stationary but they still sing. 12.00 nothing doing. 17.00 stationary but singing
3 – 16.00 quiet. 18.00 singing with little wind and some turbines stationary
4 – 9.00 singing with little wind. 16.00 loud singing (the metallic whine).
5 – 9.00 loud singing, little wind, 17.00 the same. Loud and irritating
6 – 8.00 loud singing stationary, 12.00 loud singing – irritating, 17.00 ditto in house, too
7 – 8.00 washing machine, 16.00 quiet 17.00, now they’re singing
8 – 11.00 singing so irritating I want to be sick, 17.00 washing machines
9 – 7.00 washing machines, also in house. Storm
10 – 8.00 singing, 15.00 same
11 – washing machines
12 – 9 a.m. singing, 18.00 washing machines
13 – 9.00 absolute quiet – great, 13.30 pulsating, turbines stationary
14 – 9.00 singing loud and irritating, 10.30 airport and singing
15 – 8.30 airport
16 – a lot of wind but relatively quiet. 21.00 airport
17 - 10.00 singing. 14.00 a hellish noise
18 – in the morning - airport, no. 1 stationary
19 – 6.00 horrible singing
20 – horrible singing, 18.00 hellish noise
21 – 6.00 hellish noise
22 - 6.00 hellish noise, 20.00 same
23 – 10.00 same, 13.00 – a lot of wind but not much noise. Mezzogiorno (South wind)
24 – airport, 15.00 singing, 22.00 airport
25 – 9.00 singing and airport, 16.00 singing
26 – 9.00 singing but turbines stationary
27 – 9.00 and 16.00 singing
28 – 6.30 pulsating sound, during the day turbines mostly stationary but the pulsating buzzing sound is all around, 18.00 airport
29 – 9 a.m. pulsating. Turbines stationary
30 – pulsating, stationary turbines, singing, 16.00 terrible ‘song’ (whine)
1 - pulsating, singing, stationary, 21.00 loud singing
2 – 7.00 hellish performance (Scirocco – south east wind) heard in house the whole day
3 – and the entire night. 21.30 airport, turbines with wrongly positioned rotors* (*I don’t know why he said that, have to ask). Mezzogiorno (south wind)
4 – 17.00 singing
5 – 7.30 and 19.00 singing
6 – 8.00 singing, singing though stationary
7 – 9.00 singing, 11.30 hellish noise, My husband’s brother heard it (and he lives a 14 minute drive away)
8 – relatively quiet – Tramontano (N wind)
9 – airport
10 – 9.30 absolute quiet the whole day and the whole night
11 – same again today
12 - and today
13 – and today


From 14 – 18 December my husband drove to Germany to accompany me back home. According to friends the turbines were stationary AND made absolutely no noise during this time. We have not been able to find out why this was…
19 – 19.30 airport, p.m. singing (here I took up the diary again and added ‘heard in bedroom and kitchen 23.00’)
20 – no entry – couldn’t be bothered
21 – heard in house – cried
22 – heard in house
23 – heard in house, pulsating
24 – pulsating, misery, cried again
25 – woke up at 6 a.m. pressure on chest (a feeling of tightness), same as the day before, 7 a.m. turbines stationary but loud industrial whine all day, pressure in ears.
19.30 terrible pulsating sound – earplugs at 10 p.m. (while I was reading) helped somewhat but pulsating still noticeable
26 – vacuum cleaner drone – pulsating in house – I cried
27 – woke up twice during the night because of the pulsating drone in my ears. At 4 a.m. I heard loud swishing in the house and feelings of panic kept me awake, so I’m finishing this off. Also had difficulty getting to sleep last night - agitated. Phoned 2 friends and burst into tears on the phone – they only need ask ‘How are you?’ and it sets me off. Another friend came to visit this morning and I turned off the CD player. (I had not mentioned the pulsating drone to her before ) She looked at me aghast and said ‘Oh, that is really unpleasant’. The unpleasant ‘silence’ in our house can be heard by other people. I spent most of the day out of the house walking in the hills
28 – both of us slept badly and woke up tired. Pulsating sound not quite so noticeable this morning.
29 – Woke up again several times during the night. Depressed, jittery and agitated all day, although the turbines were not moving at all. Slight metallic whine all day.


The entries speak for themselves. On re-reading what we’ve been through this year it sounds like someone’s worst nightmare – and so it has been. The idea that someone, somewhere has made a lot of money by effectively dispossessing us, doesn’t bear thinking about, but it happens all the time, all over the world and the horror is creeping nearer home…
This odyssey has filled our lives for a year and we’re now facing the financial
consequences. The effort put into research and documenting everything has cost us the energy we needed to become integrated and look for suitable work. One of the reasons I gave up my job in the hotel was that I was simply exhausted and couldn’t ‘tank up’ [relax & regenerate] at home. Whatever the outcome we are now being forced to go elsewhere to look for work because it is impossible to concentrate here.

The more people know about this, the better.


Gail Mair
Via Chiesa in Giù 34A
58050 Murci (GR)
Italy
gail.mair@yahool.it



NOTES : The Mair´s house is located 350 to 400 meters from the nearest turbine. But the noise from these machines is also known to make life miserable for people living further away, to the point where the French Academy of Medicine has recommended a minimum distance of 1,500 meters.

Of the many articles that were written on the subject, these two are the most recent :

www.windaction.org/releases/13529

www.wjactv.com/news/15024720/detail.html

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