WC Texas News

Sharla Bean said the correct terms need to be applied when discussing the wind production facility that looms over her rural Texas home.

“Our rural lifestyle has been changed to now living in the middle of an industrial zone — the middle of an electric production plant,” Bean told Lone Star Standard. “I refuse to call it a wind ‘farm.’”

She and her husband, Owen, live in rural Blanket in Comanche County. Logan’s Gap Wind was built nearby, and after five years, the Beans are fed up.

“The electrical generation plant that now surrounds our home has been very disruptive to our rural lifestyle, it has and will continue to have negative impacts on the enjoyment and value of our once peaceful rural home,” Bean said. “My husband spent his lifetime improving and increasing the holdings passed on to him by his parents through the previous operation of a dairy and now farming and ranching. That lifetime of work has now been negatively impacted by the electrical generation plant.”

The disruption has come in a variety of ways, all unpleasant, she said.

“We experienced severe erosion from a heavy rainfall due to extensive runoff from the new construction of the turbines several years ago," Bean said. "The noise from the turbines is horrific — especially for us when the wind is from the north. I have not had a good night’s sleep in my own home since the turbines began producing electricity. The audible sound in addition to the infrasound are very disturbing.”

They are not alone in finding the facility a pain in the ear.

“Our neighbors have also experienced negative effects listed here and more," Bean said. "Some neighbors suffer from shadow flicker from the turbines near them. The noise is the main complaint — we all feel our property values have been negatively impacted. I know of one family that sold to another neighbor and left a beloved home to move away from the noise.”

That was something she considered.

“I personally would have moved immediately after they began operation, but this has been my husband’s lifetime home, and it is difficult to care for both land and livestock if you don’t personally live on the property,” Bean said. “We live at least 5 miles off pavement and we are surrounded on three sides by the turbines — their reflections are on all but one of our windows — in all of our stock tanks and the intrusive turbines are present in almost every family photo taken in our own yard or at the barns. We cannot sit at our dining table or the bar in the kitchen without seeing spinning blades or blinking red lights, depending on the time of day. We are no longer able to enjoy the once brilliant night skies because of the blinking lights.”

Rodney and Kay Schoen have owned property in the county for several years, and moved to a rural setting 15 years ago, building a new home.

Since the wind farm began operations, their lives have changed dramatically, Kay told Lone Star Standard.

“There’s no way to prove it, but our house, it’s only 15 years old, pops and groans all the time,” she said. “The wildlife we had around here went away. They started to come back but not like they used to.”

The turbines are on a hill just behind their home, Kay said. It’s less than a mile away, and the noise is constant.

“It’s not a pleasant place to be since they put those in,” she said. “It’s an eyesore and the noise ...”

Esley and Rhonda Trowbridge gave up and moved away. Rhonda told Lone Star Standard “the noise and the red lights” got to be too much. After 14 years in a placid rural setting, they departed one year after the turbines started spinning nearby, six of them, only about 400 yards from their porch, she said.

The Trowbridges decided they had to get away, no matter the cost. Three other area residents also relocated, she said.

“Our house did not sell for what it was worth,” Rhonda Trowbridge said. “Our new house is on the other side of Comanche County.”

While the 87-turbine operation, owned by Pattern Energy, is in Comanche County, its headquarters are in San Francisco. It began operating in 2015.

The wind farm has 12 employees. Pattern Energy says it will have an $80 million impact on the area over a 25-year period. In exchange the wind farm was granted an appraised value limitation from $36 million to $10 million to keep its taxes down for a decade. It’s allowed under Chapter 313 of the Texas Economic Development Act.

John Dudley, a local cattle rancher, has been a big proponent of Logan’s Gap Wind. Half the turbines are on his land. Kay Schoen said they weren’t interested in that option.

“We wouldn’t let them on the property,” she said.

Bean said the wind facility has not been an economic engine for the area.

“The town of Comanche has not gained any new business from the turbines," she said. "They did enjoy extra hotel and restaurant business during the construction phase, but no new businesses were brought here to support the turbines and now the almost constant inspection or repair crews stay in the towns of Early or Brownwood while conducting their business on the turbines. Additional materials and supplies are brought in by FedEx daily. Fleet vehicles purchased for the turbine employees were purchased in the Metroplex rather than from local car dealerships in Comanche.”

The result has been a transformation of the area that her husband’s family called home for decades.

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to move to our area to live with intrusive noise, flicker, blinking lights, and increased traffic,” Bean said. “Those are things people move to the ‘country’ to get away from and now, unfortunately, they are permanently part of our lives because we are in the footprint of this industrial zone, which intruded into our once peaceful and enjoyable rural homes.”