Wind and Water in the Rural Communities
June 29th, 2009 |
National Public Radio, this morning, featured the challenges of siting new wind farms. Bob Welch, a former Wisconsin State Senator, was the guest speaker. Mr. Welch claims that siting a new wind farm is problematic and that residents are asking for a 1/2 mile to 1 mile distance to the nearest wind farm. The primary concern is noise. Others claim they can walk by these wind farms and find no noticeable noise to be of concern while others claim the prevalent issue becomes apparent while they are sleeping.
Some people believe the primary problems are related to the turbans and that turbans are the source and cause of the wind noise. Mr. Welch evoked some support of wind farms by claiming that many farmers claim they have no safety concerns approaching turbans provided they wear a hard hat.
The discussion of wind farms invoked one caller to change the emphasis to wells expressing concern that contamination of rural wells was of a more grave concern and that polluting the wells with atrazine was the problem, not wind farms. The callers message was rather apparent that clean water must not be tampered with an unknown zone of chemicals.
Weighing the importance of wind over water or water over wind is a good question. The pureness of water is of critical importance and getting it right first should be in order. The technology behind turbans and its relations with wind could also be dealt a better hand provided more emphasis was placed on solutions that created better sounds such as periodic triumphant sounds of church bells, a passing distant sound of a train or a melodic wind chime.
Barbara Behlke is the President of Behlke Consulting and a communication consultant who specializes in writing about environmental issues. To learn more about Behlke Consulting please visit http://www.behlkeconsulting.com
