And they never saw it coming ….
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In the month since Steven Cooper’s groundbreaking study into the adverse effects from turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound on wind farm neighbours at Cape Bridgewater hit the press, the wind industry and its parasites have reacted in a form of panic that can only be described as hysterical.
None more so, than that wind farm’s operator, Pacific Hydro. And, for a very good reason: by unleashing Cooper it has inadvertently provided its victims with precisely the evidence needed to establish legal liability against it.
To call Pac Hydro’s response a “debacle in diplomacy” is mastery in understatement.
After weeks of trying to manipulate the media and massage public opinion its way (see our post here), the wheels finally left the corporate image wagon, in spectacular fashion, with its disastrous “community meeting” at Portland last Monday night – where Steven Cooper explained the significance of his results; and Pac Hydro practically told its long suffering victims to “get stuffed” (see the last video in the series for an utterly “brilliant” piece of diplomacy in action).
Here’s video of the entire meeting where Pac Hydro’s reputation hits rock bottom (it’s presented in 10 parts, with roughly 10-20 minutes in each).
- Part 1: Introduction (19.48)
- Part 2: (19.09)
- Part 3: (22.01)
- Part 4: (8.05)
- Part 5: (17.27)
- Part 6: (16.42)
- Part 7: (16.27)
- Part 8: (9.28)
- Part 9: (16.05)
- Part 10: The response by Lane Crockett, Executive General Manager of Pacific Hydro Australia (12.23).
Pacific Hydro, taking its cues from another
Australian paragon of corporate virtue.
About stopthesethings
STOP THESE THINGS 
I myself have determined not to be silent. I gained acess to the cell phone of a mid manager because corporate no longer wanted to hear my voice messages. I text him on a regular basis telling him the problems and sending updated photos of darkened Erin’s turbines, stating the bearings need to be replaced or repaired or removed. If I fail to get feedback I resort to leaving voicemail again.
I update them often as to what is happening and how it feels using analogies to explain what’s happening. Perhaps then, and only then, may they experience only a minute amount of the annoyance. They know my name at Enel Green Power North America I’ve let them know I’m letting other states know what’s happening when they are planning new placements.
There are times like last evening when I’m tired and fear falling asleep on an 80 mile trip home from a work place. When I consider just taking my retirement and buying a small old home but I decide not yet. I don’t know what the answer is Melissa, but I look for one Daily. My prayers are with you and I hope you get the answer.
Anyone working in the scientific field of acoustics should take exception to Crocketts introductory comment that the study was an acoustic study and NOT a scientific study.
At the most basic level it was a scientific study as any work that follows the scientific method is a scientific study.
At the more detailed level acoustics is science no matter what that company thinks.
Pac Hydro (and the wind industry as a whole) true colours are revealed through devious wordplay and deceptive conduct. Crockett’s smart suit and shirt are no substitute for authenticity and integrity and do not cover up his contempt. The wind industry deception is no longer hidden, despite strenuous efforts through the tainted ABC.
All courage to you and your neighbours Melissa for working with this unprincipled industry in good faith. For those seeking the truth about this acoustic and corporate and regulation travesty, we are all deeply in your debt and full of praise for the utmost professionalism of Mr Cooper.
Damn! No youtube access from work. Something to watch tonight from home.
There is another weird thing that happens that I would like to ask about.
My brain seems to remember the sounds that saturate my home. It’s like a pumping sound and keeps it playing in my ears for hours after I leave home.
Is this something I should worry about?
I live in Texas. A wind farm that boast being the tallest in the US has built within a mile or less. My home is down a canyon that becomes a creek funneling the sound that is amplified in my home. I thank you for this site. I thought I was the only one.
Linda, you are not alone. This site is kept as a sanctuary for people like you. Feel free to share your experiences with others who face the same daily acoustic insults, knowing you will be respected and treated with proper empathy and human compassion on our site.
Giant wind turbines were placed near my home in 2007. At first my house vibrated. Later when there was an earthquake at my house I thought the vibration was due to earthquake activity. It grew worse over time.
I called the railroad commission and got phone numbers to an oil drilling company. They told me that the oil drillers were causing the vibrations. Then the drillers stopped and went away. But the vibrations continued.
I called the local manager of the wind farm who came to my home and heard and experienced the sounds and vibrations. He talked to his managers, stating they needed to consider purchasing my property. I suggested that a company person should come and live in my home as then they would know everything that was going on and would know how best to deal with it. The next week he called saying back to say that his managers had said it was not the turbines, and that it must be something else.
I continued to call the wind farm operator as I had confirmed the oil field was still shut down due to low prices. The operator said that he had been told to turn it over to his supervisor, who would call me.
For weeks I waited for a call. Desperate, I went and searched and found the corporate phone numbers. For days I left messages. Finally, they gave me this supervisor’s direct number. He then arranged to come to my home on the warmest day at a time when high winds were blowing from the south to north (I live south west) at 20 miles an hour – but you could still hear the noise outside.
He walked to the corner of my house and had a surprised look and then walked closer to the fence listening. Finally, he put his hands in his pockets and said “I can’t hear anything”. He then walked through my home where the sounds were significantly louder, especially in the bedrooms and then said “I can’t hear a thing”, having his hands again in his pockets.
Hi Linda, you can find lots more information here also: http://www.waubrafoundation.org.au . Best wishes to you.
Pacific-Hydro are in damage mode, and the virus is spreading to all the other windweasel grubs. A good profession to get into would be is the scrap metal business. STT will Stop These Things true to name.
So one would have to ask the obvious question…….when Pacific Hydro visited the families involved, the next day, were they offered a payment containing a gag clause?
No we were not offered a single thing. Seeking social licence to operate a wind farm in Australia is now obsolete. Resolving and remedying verified problems neighbours experience is non-existent or obsolete. Simply saying sorry is obsolete. Throughout the course of the community consultation process, pacific hydro were permitted to visit my home the once, representatives made a point of stating they could only hear ‘the fridge humming’ away which incidentally I am unable to hear and had to repeat that fact numerous times; and turbine noise in the stone walls sounded just ‘like the ocean’. Mr Crockett saw for the first time in 6 years the proximity of the turbines, the height and the immensity of his wind farm to our property. He observed the miniscule shrubs and lack of growth of the tree screening pacific hydro eventually provided us. Yet he has turned his back on the very people who assisted the study in getting to the bottom of the problems. Do I go quietly, submissively back to my toxic home as Mr Crockett wants?
Pacific Hydro signed its death knell that evening and Steven Cooper SECURED his place in the world of respected and trusted professional acousticians.
No one can now misrepresent what was said at that meeting, or what the purpose of the study was.
Thank you STT for making this video available to everyone to view. It will be impossible for Pacific Hydro to emerge from under the covers and try to reassert a position of power over people. You cannot gain power when people know what to expect from you.
Pacific Hydro and Hardies Fibro, a beautiful rhyme.
Thanks STT, they are made for each other.
Crockett’s weasel words make it perfectly clear. The wind industry is going down the Hardie’s asbestos path of denial and denigration of sufferers. It is obvious as they both have contempt for the truth and justice.
And like Hardies before them, they are intimately linked with unions and a corrupted NHMRC.
(See ABC journalist Matt Peacock’s outstanding long term investigation of the asbestos atrocity in his book Killer Company, and his analysis of union collusion and NHMRC corruption in the asbestos saga).
But the ABC is now also conflicted- ‘Dick Brain’ Crabb and Media Watch make that clear. They are not simply observers of an atrocity, they are advocates for a coverup of side-effects from a flawed technology. They have lost any pretence of independant investigative journalism of the calibre of Matt Peacock or indeed Gideon Haigh (Asbestos House) on this issue.
Bring on the senate enquiry and a Royal Commission and watch the rats crawl from the wreckage. The abused residents deserve nothing less.
That last part was very difficult to watch without a significant blood pressure rise.
Yes, the gloves are off.
Yes indeed.