Flicker, Noice, & Other

Surely all farmers, banking, and insurance industries should care about the effects on crop dusting because of the setbacks (or lack of them in this case) from industrial wind turbines. The fact that the Board passed the Adams County Wind Ordinance in one meeting means that none of our local industry representatives had an opportunity to discuss the details of this ordinance with the Board...yet our local banks and insurance companies certainly have a vital and vested interest in the success of agriculture in our area. For whole fields to go without crop dusting, or to pay 50% more for it, just because a neighbor hosts a turbine, impacts the bottom line.

Meanwhile, there are other agricultural issues related to wind turbines (such as topsoil loss and soil compaction around construction areas, cutting field tiles for electric trenches, * (See reader's comment on this below) issues limiting other potential farmland development during the term of the lease, destruction of county roads due to extremely heavy machinery, bisecting fields with wide gravel access roads, etc.).

However, these issues are not the main point of this website, and it is up to local farmers, banks, and insurance agencies to ask the County Board to reconsider if they want to have a voice in issues like agricultural setbacks or fair compensation for the lack of them.

Conflict over crop dusting surcharges, for example, is already happening in other places in Illinois...so will we deal with these issues now, or wait to see who gets stuck with the bills later?

* One person with Wind Farm experience in Illinois responded to the paragraph above by emailing us this comment on 1/31/2010:

The cranes are crawled across the fields in the most direct manner from one turbine to the next, not always on the access roads, but across the field to the next nearest turbine. There is as much compaction from the small trucks driving throughout the fields during construction and maintenance. The contract gives them the right to bring back cranes any time for maintenance so this can occur every couple years (generators at Twin Groves were replaced at 18 months). A farmer in Bureau Co. was upset when his contract paid him for compaction for first 4 years and his field was still severely compacted and yields reduced into year 5 but he got nothing.

The tiling problem is far more serious than just the cutting of the trenches....the cranes are so heavy they crush everything they go across....additional drainage problems occur from them removing tiling a certain distance around the base of the turbine and from the changes of water flow and direction from the access roads in the fields. But you may not discover those tiles crushed by the crane until the next wet spell, 6-8 mos. later.

(end of reader comment)

Do our local farmers, the banks who loan money to them, and the insurance companies who write their policies have an opinion about such extreme soil compaction, crop dusting limitations, dividing fields into small pieces by access roads, or field drainage issues? If so, they were not heard before the Adams County Wind Ordinance was passed in a single meeting, with no advance notice.

One reason for an open, public process is to hear legitimate concerns like the one above, explore the real tradeoffs for our county (good effects vs. negative effects)and make an informed decision about a policy that protects the various interests of the people in our county. We believe that the Adams County Wind Ordinance should be amended BEFORE the Board issues a permit based on the lenient terms it contains.

You can add your name to our letter asking for this ordinance to be amended (just email JeffR@adams.net) or contact the Board members yourself to ask them to include the public in this process and talk to us about how these kinds of concerns can be fairly addressed in our county.

The link below is an article about the conflict between Illinois wind farms and crop dusting, including quotes by Rick Reed, President of the Illinois Agricultural Aviation Association, who seems concerned about wind turbines and owns a crop dusting company in Mattoon, IL. In the article, the wind representative said, "Developers are trying to work with farmers and pilots, making sure they're aware of exactly where the turbines will be, so the pilots can plan how to avoid them." He added, "If you're going to fly into a field, you're going to need to know, number one, that there's a giant turbine there." In the article, the wind developer seems far more optimistic than the pilot that the towers will pose no problem. Here's the article:

The next link is an informative letter written by a crop duster explaining that they need a clear radius of one mile in all directions of their target field in order to be able to maneuver the aircraft, and explaining additional reasons why they cannot crop dust in the vicinity of wind turbines (he discusses wind turbine air turbulence, turbines being higher than their "clear" zone to reset controls, and other factors).