Letter: Plenty to support idea of wind turbine at Winter Island
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To the editor:

I attended the Aug. 16 meeting of the Salem Park & Recreation Commission and heard the presentation of the Winter Island Master Plan.

The Cecil Group did a good job presenting their comprehensive, long-range plan for the park, which includes much-needed renovations of the bathrooms, reconfiguring the parking areas, shoring up the dilapidated former Coast Guard hangar and barracks, and restoring and showcasing elements of Fort Pickering, the Colonial-era fort located at the eastern tip of the park. In addition, there were specific recommendations for improving footpaths and making the island on the whole more accessible and usable all year-round. The plan even called for a wind turbine, to be situated on the westernmost tip of the peninsula, near the harbormaster's office.

As we all know, such plans have costs — in this case an estimated $10 million, not including a wind turbine. Given Salem's current financial challenges and the imminent loss of its largest taxpayer in the next 24 months (Salem Harbor Station), the city will need new sources of revenue in order even to have a chance of implementing this wonderful vision for Winter Island. I do hope city leaders and residents will therefore consider very seriously the proposal to install a wind turbine at Winter Island, the single most windy, city-owned property in Salem.

The Renewable Energy Task Force has spent the last three years studying potential sites for wind power in Salem and recently completed a state-funded, yearlong wind study of Winter Island. As a result, the mayor recently proposed the installation of a 1.5 MW wind turbine on the island.

This would become a distinctly 21st-century symbol for Salem (instead of the smokestacks), one that harkens back to Salem's great age of sail. The turbine would also generate an estimated $500,000 or more in revenue for the city, reducing our $1 million-plus power bill by 50 percent. It is a prudent investment with an eight-year payback and would provide Salem with a source of local power and a hedge against future energy price increases. In addition, for those who take seriously the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change and the urgent necessity of industrialized countries like the U.S. to reduce our emissions by 80 percent or more in the next 40 years, this one turbine would significantly reduce Salem's carbon footprint. It is the shape of things to come.

Winter Island is one of two city-owned sites with sufficient wind resources to support a turbine (the other being Forest River Park) and is the ONLY site that is far enough away from homes so as to not have any impacts based on shadows or noise. (See the city's website for the studies on these issues.)

Communities like Hull and Bourne on the South Shore have turbines next to parks and schools that are much closer to residences than what is being proposed here in Salem. Despite what some folks locally are claiming, there are excellent examples in our state of communities like Salem embracing and benefiting from wind power. Take a drive to Hull, another densely populated seaside town in our state, and see for yourself.

I sincerely hope voters and leaders of Salem will rationally review the objective facts, consider the interests of the entire city, and then support the common-sense proposal the mayor is putting forth for a wind turbine at Winter Island. When faced with the multiple challenges of shrinking tax bases, increasing energy costs, reducing our carbon footprint and the long-term needs of our beloved seaside park, "the answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind" — literally.

Jeff Barz-Snell

Salem

• Letter: Plenty going on IMBY

  To the editor:
  Many Winter island wind supporters are pulling the NIMBY card out on the Willows neighborhood. Well, let's see now. These are the things that we live with In My Back Yard or IMBY: Salem power plant; SESD; Willows Park, with its arcade, concerts and general noise and odors; Winter Island Park with the RV traffic, wood smoke and noise; and I can't count how many road races and charity fund walks that block traffic so we can not get to or back to our homes.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am
• Letter: Willows resident supports turbine plan

  To the editor:
  All wind turbines are not the same. The Boston Herald has made much of the noise problems with the older turbines in Falmouth whose rotational speed is controlled with a braking mechanism and gear box at their hubs. The Falmouth turbines did not employ the latest technology — even in 2006 when they were installed. We have learned from Falmouth.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am
• Letter: Turbine would be an exciting development

  To the editor:
  I want to thank The Salem News for its coverage of developments around the proposed wind turbine on Winter Island, and for its poll on this, where I proudly voted yes — yes, Winter Island is the right place for a wind turbine. I am confident concerns can be dealt with, and that technologies have advanced to the point that quiet, safe functioning is attainable.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am
• Brian T. Watson: Winter Island wind turbine would be a good fit

  Change is often difficult, and as our society struggles mightily to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels — oil, coal, natural gas and gasoline — we see time and time again how difficult will be a comprehensive transition to an economy propelled largely with renewable energy sources.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am
• Letter: Worries about birds overstated

  To the editor:
  In his Aug. 5 letter about the proposed wind turbine for Winter Island, former Mayor Salvo wrote, "many migrating birds will be killed by the blades of the turbine." This is a distressing thought, but I believe I can set Mr. Salvo's mind at ease in this regard. As a graduate student studying Environmental Management at Harvard Extension School, I learned that the myth of turbines killing birds was largely caused by the Altamont Pass wind farm, built in California in 1981. Altamont's turbines were completely different than those built today. They were shaped more like egg beaters, with vertical blades reaching close to the ground, and were spaced close together. Turbine design has improved greatly since then, and by 2006 the average turbine outside California was likely to cause only an average of 1.83 total bird deaths per year. To put this in perspective (if even one bird death sounds like too many), this is only 0.01 percent to 0.02 percent of all U.S. bird deaths caused by collisions with man-made structures—far below cell phone towers and glass buildings.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am
• Letter: Opponents offer no alternatives

  To the editor:
  The recent hearing on wind power in Salem was fraught with differences. Anger was in the air. The not-in-my-backyard crowd was there in full force. While understandably they opposed unsightly whirring turbines out their windows, Salem is about to lose a substantial tax rate from a local coal-fired power plant. I hear of no alternative from the opposition. The message was just no wind power in my backyard.
  
  If wind power is not a satisfactory replacement in the community with a diminished tax base then the question should be put to them what is their alternative that could benefit the community as a whole?
  
  The point I make as an air breather and clean-environment seeker is to maintain a policy of possible trade-offs when up against strong obstructionists. It should be put to them what's their alternative that would benefit the community as a whole. This presses them to find a response and keeps them on the defensive repeatedly. This scheme may not always succeed but I believe it is a good policy for the long run.

  Aug 13, 2011 5:00 am