Opponents of the Bog Wind proposal to erect wind turbines on three cranberry bogs in Wareham told the Zoning Board of Appeals at a hearing Wednesday night that the project would enrich large wind developers and a few local landowners while most local citizens would be stuck with noise and health problems.

"Wind is hopelessly unreliable, extraordinarily expensive, and we the tax payers are on the hook," said Barry Cosgrove, the organizer of Wareham Residents Opposed to Bog Wind which formed after the project was announced. "If you approve any of these behemoth structures, that are shoehorned into our neighborhoods, others [are next] and who knows after that."

The opponents organized their presentation to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which must give Bog Wind a special permit for construction of its six proposed turbines on three cranberry bogs throughout town.  Several individual speakers addressed concerns on the projects economic feasibility, as well as noise issues and health issues that have been associated with wind turbines.

Dave Pressman of Energy Ventures Analysis, an environmental consulting firm in Arlington, VA, and Cosgrove argued that wind power wasn't feasible for Wareham economically, regardless of aesthetic and quality-of-life concerns.   The wind resource is "marginal" compared with other regions of the United States.  And without the generous tax incentives offered for green power (which Cosgrove pointed out had been cut three times in the past ten years due to political fluctuations) wind power did not make economic sense - except for big companies who needed those tax breaks.

Through tax incentives and subsidies offered to developers and the utility companies, taxpayers have already paid 90% of the pre-development bill, he said.

Three sound experts discussed the potential problems with noise created by the turbines.

"The only reliable form of noise control for wind turbines is distance," said Robert Rand of Rand Acoustics in Brunswick, Maine, arguing against a common claim by wind developers that noise problems can be mitigated with technology and operating practices.

Rand said he has found noise produced by wind turbines to be particularly annoying to people because it is follows distinct patterns, but these patterns occur randomly. He compared it to speech: we speak at a fairly regular certain pitch, tone, and volume, and language follows distinct patterns.  However, the noise we make varies with which words we use.

Other sound experts criticized the report done by Atlantic Design Engineers, consultants hired by the developers. They found the level of ambient noise measured in the report to be surprisingly high - perhaps by 10 decibels - and suggested that the data examined were not suitable for the project because it was collected at specific times rather than continuously.

Michael Bahtiarian of Noise Control Engineering Inc. compared it to trying to characterize the sound of a ten-minute song by recording the noise at one moment.

Furthermore, the sound engineers said that Wareham's bylaw limit for noise - no higher than 60 decibels at the property line - was very high.  Bahtiarian said that the City of Boston's noise limit at night was 50 decibels of noise.

The consultants suggested that the firm hired by the town to independently review the project reevaluate the sound conditions currently existing in town and stressed that "meeting the bylaw was not enough," according to Bahtiarian.

Resident and nurse Mary Hourihan discussed the impact of noise on health, citing studies that attributed sleep disturbance, headaches, high blood pressure and dizziness as well as vibro-acoustic disease, or the thickening of body organs' walls in response to low decibel noise, in relation to wind turbines.

Wind turbines "have no place here," she said.  "Wareham is a place of beauty, history and peace, please allow it to stay so."

As the hour approached 10:30 p.m., the public hearing was adjourned until January 12 when more opponents of the project will speak on environmental concerns.

After the meeting, Bog Wind developer Glen Berkowitz said that he "cares very much about the health, safety and welfare of the community, and that he "looked forward to working with the independent reviewer to look at [the sound studies] to make sure it meets industry standards."  He noted that it was very difficult to apply the noise issues of one project to another, but said he was glad that those issues were presented to the community.

"I look forward to providing rebuttal testimony that will show Bog Wind was designed in a very sensitive way to Wareham community," he said.