National wind farm noise standard to be reviewed
The Dominion Post
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Central North Island
National noise standards that govern wind farms are to be reviewed.
Fraser Clark, chief executive of industry group the Wind Energy Association, said a committee of experts had been set up to review the 10-year-old NZS6808, which sets limits for all environmental noise.
Members would include representatives from the health and environment ministries, local government, community boards and universities.
Wind farm opponents complain that the noise standard is inadequate for measuring the types and levels of noise created by wind turbines. Acoustic experts say the standard is suitable, a view shared by the Environment Court.
The public will be invited to make submissions on the committee's draft recommendations.
Mr Clark said his association genuinely cared about people upset by noise, but complaints about loud noise or low-frequency sound from turbines tended to come from people who did not like them on the landscape.
"With regard to infrasound, there is a significant, and increasing, body of reputable and peer-reviewed research that shows that the level of any infrasound created by a wind turbine is well below the level that might cause any risks to health."
The Brock family in Ashhurst, near Palmerston North, have been asked by Meridian Energy to record Te Apiti turbine noise that the family say has been making life a misery for the past four years.
Wendy Brock says the family have been suffering from both loud noise and low-frequency sound that comes up through the floor of their house, causing weeks on end of sleepless nights.
Wellington consultant engineer John Third said wind turbines created a broad and complex spectrum of noise.
The problem was beyond the expertise of acoustic engineers, and the health effects were a matter for audiologists, not engineers, he said.
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My experience with wind farms in Australia in relation to the NZ standard are authorities who cannot enforce breaches in the standard due to the threat of litigation and residents who are left with no recourse due to the ability of the wind companies to exploit its vagueness, especially with regard to the penalties that surround "special noise characteristics". Background noise testing also gives wind companies the opportunity to inflate the level of noise they can subject nearby residents to. The sound production of a wind farm can only be checked by measurements when the wind farm operator cooperates - and guess what? In real life they don't and nobody can force them to do so. The consequence is an implicit partiality in favour of the operator detrimental to independent verification. Acoustic experts have lost sight of the true reality in which a neutral atmosphere is not very prevalent. Yet it is these very clowns - the acoustic "experts" and the industry hired consultants who will play the biggest role in "drafting" a new standard - that's where the money lies in an emerging boom industry and that's where they will make sure little changes to impede this stampede. Those fragmented residents who suffer at the hands of this industry, who work full time just keeping their heads above water and lack the skill or money to take on an industry with vast amounts of money to pay for scripted representation will not be heard in the process of this review. It will just be lip service. Unfortunately many more hard working citizens are set to suffer both in Australia and in NZ. They will not be adequately represented by the panel of "experts". The Brock family is not alone. I have stood in two houses in Toora, Vic and heard the same noise come up through the floor. On 11-15 nights per month sleep is impossible. Another house was even demolished as it was deemed uninhabitable due to the noise. The noise is not imagined - yet the wind companies will go to great lengths to cover this type of information up. Will it take a proliferation of wind turbines with masses of families and communities destroyed before authorities will take notice? This is a complete contradiction to the economic, social and environmental principles of Sustainable Development. Wake up NZ, before the opportunity passes.