Could our MOM Triumph Over the Lake Winds Energy Farm?

[XLFD]

Here's the latest news about the wind farm scheduled to be put in to the southwestern section of Mason County:

 

CARRE has consistently fought the pell mell march by Consumers' to move wind turbines into our area by Consumer's Energy without properly vetting the process with concerned citizenry and visitors that would be adversely affected or want to look closer at the health and safety issues.  They have uncovered among other things, points that Consumer's Energy and our own county government thought were not significant enough to consider in depth, such as the advantages of safe setbacks, flicker, noise levels, the nearby presence of underground gas lines, etc.  Some of these have been looked at by officials, but few concessions have been given to the locals.  With the ZBA agreeing with the passing of the permits to raise the turbines, the met. towers are almost a sure thing to pass as well later today.  Is there any more avenues to pursue if you disagree with the small setbacks and the intrusive, expensive nature of the proposed wind farm?

 

Just ask MOM.  WMOM operates from downtown Ludington but their transmitting tower is out south of town, down Morton Road.  Right at the blue arrow.

 

Isn't that right in the midst of the proposed Lake Winds Energy Farm?  Sure is; here is the link to the full wind farm, here's a map with the WMOM transmission tower appearing as a black square surrounded by 500 foot towers.

 

WMOM sometimes advertises themselves as being broadcast from a short tower on a high hill.  Their tower is short in terms of broadcasting at 328 ft., considerably shorter than the 497 ft. wind turbines scheduled to be in its neighborhood.  The presence of these turbines springing up all around it will be devastating to its broadcastability.  

Operating wind turbines have been shown to dramatically affect communication transmissions.   In this study conducted by a Toledo TV station with a transmission tower near a proposed wind farm in Michigan where their tower is just slightly higher than the 497 ft. turbines at 512 ft., an expert determined a significant loss of their signal so that nearly 40% of their over-the-air viewers would lose their reception of that station.  And 65.2% would lose reception through cable and satellite!  Be sure and take a look at the maps at the end to see the extent of their lost viewership if this land use was approved for their proposed developers:

http://blissfield.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/wlmb-interference-stu...

 

Here are a couple of letters sent by the Michigan and National Assn. of Broadcasters to the area's Planning Commission for that project:  MAB Letter  NAB Letter

 

With the Lake Wind Energy Farm towering above WMOM's tower, their signal will be affected even more.  Their current range looks like this:

 

But with turbines all about them, some very close, this is soon to change.  I am no expert on such things, but if WMOM maintains the status quo, their broadcast ability will drop even more dramatic than the above station.  Yet, the Planning Commission, to my knowledge, has not even considered the ramifications to WMOM, nor has Consumers, or even CARRE. 

So WMOM has a few options.  They can point out their problem to Consumer's and likely get a dose of your (public) money from them to move or increase the height of their radio tower.  They can point out their impending problem to the Planning Commission now, and maybe go unheard.  Or they can wait for the turbines to go up, and go unheard on the airwaves.  Unless, perhaps, they sue a negligent county government that killed their own MOM.

[Eve Alone]

I hope CARRE and individuals keep up the fight to block these babies.  I listened in the background to a video about wind energy X was playing and it really made sense.  I hope he posts it here.  Its long but comprehensive.