Citizen's group warns of wind farm dangers
Ron Fleck’s DeKalb County home is about 500 yards from four wind turbines that went online and began working at full speed in December.
That’s when the trouble started, Fleck said March 6.
As the wind started blowing through the turbines’ blades, a kaleidoscope of shadow flickers began bouncing around the house.
Those flickers especially bothered his wife, who suffers from vertigo, Fleck said. She refused to sleep in the couple’s bedroom for three weeks, and he had ringing and pain in his ears.
“Not everyone may experience what we did,” Fleck told a nearly packed crowd Saturday at the Mills and Petrie Memorial Gymnasium, Ashton. “You just don’t really know until you get there.”
Fleck was one of several DeKalb County residents and other speakers at a symposium to inform the Lee County community about the impact of wind farms.
The event was organized by the Lee County Informed, a group of about 10 families fighting to block an international wind farm developer from starting up in and around Lee County.
Specifically, the group said it aimed to inform the group of the things wind development companies don’t tell you.
Residents say representatives from RES Americas, a Colorado-based subsidiary of British energy concern RES Group, have been scouting eastern Lee and southern Ogle counties for nearly two years.
More than 100 wind turbines have popped up across DeKalb County in the last year, causing devastating effects, said Mel Hass, spokesman of the anti-wind farm group Citizens for Open Government.
Rockford attorney Rick Porter represents the group in a lawsuit filed against the DeKalb County Board and Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC.
He spoke at length Saturday about the problems farmers and landowners face when signing agreements with wind energy developers.
Aside from the noise and bright lights, wind farms remove crops from production and affect farming practices and crop dusting, as well as property values.
“There is a tremendous amount of problems associated with wind turbines,” he told the group. “They are coming up like wildfire.”
Tammy Duriavich, who owns 10 acres of land in Clinton Township in DeKalb County, said the presence of wind turbines has pitted neighbors against neighbors. Like Fleck, she talked about the intense noise and hassles.
“You feel them and you hear them,” she said. “It’s not a wind farm – it’s a power plant. (Wind farms) have nothing to do with agriculture.”
Lisa Hall, 45, and her husband, Bill, own 10 acres of land in Franklin Grove.
“I’ve not made a decision on the issue, but I have been leaning toward not having wind turbines on our land,” she said. “I don’t think I want them to be sitting next to my house, especially with the noise and flashing lights.”
Kristen Cady, 40, of Rock Falls, attended the symposium with her husband Les, an aerial spraying pilot, who spoke to the group Saturday.
“We just want some reassurances that it’s safe for pilots,” she said. “Wind turbines make it extremely difficult to spray crops safely.”
