Council petitioned to tighten turbine regulations

Protect Our Land’s Future (POLF) brought attention to a variety of concerns they had regarding the proposed expansion of Invenergy wind farm in southern Union County.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, POLF chairman Francine Ide shared studies and concerns regarding future city development, as well as possible safety issues in connection with the wind farm.

“Due to the regulations outlined in our county ordinance, once a windmill is constructed, there are restrictions on the placement of additional structures nearby,” Ide said. “Although we may not have any current development projects in this region, we don’t want to limit any opportunities we may be able to pursue in 10, 20 years down the road.”

Ide explained two studies that looked at realtors’ views of wind farms on housing marketability.

“What they found after interviewing dozens of realtors that had nothing to gain from that study was that an overwhelming majority of realtors said that wind turbines negatively impact property value,” Ide said. “They estimate the range of impact to be somewhere between a 10% price reduction to being completely unsellable.”

In addition, another study she cited showed of 67 people living in a wind farm area, at least 36 reported taking steps to lessen the “adverse health effects” they were experiencing, which involved dealing with noise, blinking lights, and view obstruction.

Ide also shared documents from a wind turbine manufacturer that advised people working on the turbines to stay at least one kilometer, or 3,281 feet, away from the turbine during a thunder storm, due to the dangers of a lightning strike.

“They say that it is not safe within 3,281 feet for their employees during the event of a lightning strike,” Ide said. “Considering this information, we would encourage the council to reach out to the Union County Board of Supervisors, encouraging them to extend the municipality setback to 2 miles. Currently it’s 1 mile.”

Roger Lanning, chairman of Southwest Iowa Hot Air Balloon Days, shared how the proposed wind farm would effect the annual event.

“Any time you have a tower or any kind of structure, it’s going to be something that they’ve got to be aware of and stay away from,” Lanning said. Remember that balloons do not have a steering wheel, so it’s going to make it very difficult if we get a lot of towers to the south of Creston to have takeoff areas.”

These flying difficulties could result in less balloonists coming to the event.

“To make the event go, we have to have a certain amount to make it financially feasible,” Lanning said. “If we start to lose numbers, the event could be in danger.”

Along with Balloon Days, the group said other aviation-related activities could be impacted.

“On the Iowa Ag Aviation Association website, they have a public statment where they strongly discourage the placement of any industrial wind turbines on ag land due to the safety risk of their pilots and the inability to apply those chemicals on ag land,” Ide said.

Protect Our Land’s Future is also asking the council to look at their petition, which states: “As residents and/or landowners of Union County, Iowa, we are requesting a two-year abeyance be put in place immediately on all industrial wind power projects at any stage of planning and development within Union County, IA.”

The council took no action regarding this at the time of writing.