The Locust Ridge II Wind Farm in Shenandoah gives an insight to what wind turbines would be like if approved for Bethlehem Watershed Authority property in Penn Forest Township.

Craig Poff, director of business development, and Paul Copleman, communications manager, of Avangrid Renewables, and Lee Van Horn, plant manager of the Locust Ridge 1 and 2 wind farms, provided a recent tour.Avangrid Renewables is requesting a special use exception from the Penn Forest zoning hearing board to locate up to 37 wind turbines.Van Horn, who grew up within sight of the project, knows the area like the back of his hand."I have hiked, biked and hunted in this area since I was a kid," Van Horn said. "I have not seen any change in the area as a result of the turbines, and that actually surprised me."The area surrounding the Locust Ridge project is more densely populated than the area surrounding the Bethlehem Water Authority.Poff said there are 7,446 homes that lie within a 1-mile radius of the two farms.Poff said there will be up to 622 homes within the same distance if the Penn Forest project is approved.A quick trip into town to talk with residents provided a better look into living with the turbines."There were people in town against the windmills when we were living here," said Anne Remington, of Columbus, Ohio. "I got married and moved away. It's funny when you come back to visit and they are everywhere. My grandparents have lived here their whole life. It doesn't seem to bother them at all. But my granddad is an old coal miner and he always told us that he would never let any one of us work in the coal business, so I guess to him anything is better than that."Others who still live in the area are of a mixed opinion."What bothered me the most was the construction," said Jay Krause, who travels into Frackville for work."It would tie up traffic, sometimes for hours. And when you are coming into work, you never knew if you would be late, or what time to leave the house, or where it might be. It was a giant pain in the butt.""We live within a mile and a half of these contraptions and I will never get used to them," said Giddy Smith. "I just think that they are an eyesore. Hell, they are even peeping up over the trees at the cemetery, though I don't think the people there, in the ground I mean, really care."Vibrations could be felt next to turbines. Swooshing and thumping could be heard, and shadows cast by the blades.Poff selected a site, 2,300 feet from the nearest turbine, which happens to be the same cemetery Smith spoke of, to demonstrate a point."We are 2,300 feet from a turbine and we are downwind. This is the closest that any setback in Penn Forest Township would be to a turbine," Poff said. "At this point on this very clear day, with the turbines moving, because there is a breeze, you cannot hear any noise or see any reflections from the turbines."Poff was accurate, at that point and at that time. You would have to step back away from the tree line to even see the turbines rising above them.Same tour, different dayA few months back a few residents from Penn Forest Township took the same tour.Hank Orlandini's home will be about a half mile away from the proposed turbines in Penn Forest Township.Orlandini says his tour started in the cemetery and then moved up to the operations building and then onto the turbines."When we arrived it was a partly cloudy day, not too hot," Orlandini said. "We couldn't hear the turbines at the cemetery. When we were near the turbines you could hear them and one was thumping pretty loudly. The operations manager said that it had been hit by lightning, but they still were operating it."Orlandini said on that day he counted turbines moving at about nine revolutions per minute and he was told that the turbine was in standby mode waiting to catch the wind."When we came back outside, the wind had picked up and the turbines were moving about 10 and a half revolutions per minute, and at that time you could hear the swooshing," Orlandini said.Orlandini had a different experience when he traveled down into town."The people we met didn't have anything nice to say about Locust Ridge, except for one guy who works there," Orlandini said. "One person said that they didn't even know about the project until they saw the trucks coming through town and it was too late."Orlandini also said some people told him they rearranged the rooms in their homes so that they don't see the shadows from the blades."It is different in where I live," said Orlandini. "I can just imagine lying in bed on a winter's night and hearing these things all night, because in the winter the sound is going to travel more."Safety at Locust RidgeBetween Locust Ridge 1 and 2 there are a total of 65 wind turbines. In the nine years since operations began at Locust Ridge 1 there have been two fires, and one major oil leak, Van Horn said."The towers are designed to actually collect the oil," Van Horn said. "The oil that leaked actually stayed within the tower, it just ran down into the bottom."The leak was of 100 gallons of lubricating oil used in the nacelle, the school-bus-sized box at the top of the tower, where the kinetic energy collected from the wind is transformed into electricity.Van Horn said safety is a primary concern at the site. There has been only one reportable injury in the past six years, and that was a contractor who injured his hand.Van Horn also said the site hosts safety drills with the local fire department yearly and that only specially trained firefighters or employees would be allowed to make any rescue attempts at high altitude if it should become necessary.Being a local, Van Horn is a strong believer in hiring from the local population."When we are hiring we get applications and resumes from all over the country," Van Horn said."But if I hire someone from say Texas, they will only stay for a short time, and people tend to go back to where they come from. I like to hire from the area. People want to stay near their roots, if they can get a good-paying job, stay near their family."Poff said the wind industry is constantly evolving. The turbine designs from Locust Ridge 2 are newer and more refined than Locust Ridge 1, and those that would be selected for the Bethlehem Authority site will be more refined than what is at Locust Ridge 2.Poff also said the proposed specifications on the Penn Forest zoning application are what he would call "best case.""I mean that we over-project on the application, and as we refine the design, we look for the best fit within the project," he said. "So once we are approved at a maximum point, we can always go smaller, further away and such."