Accusing the Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC) of manipulating the location of sound monitors, bad math, incompetence, and disinterest in the health of Old Mill Road property owners who abut the Evergreen Solar plant, resident Jay Wallace has asked the Board of Health to bring its weight to bear in the ongoing saga of noise that emanates from the facility.
After listening to Wallace, who is co-owner of Dunroven Farm, recite a litany of complaints at the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, the board called a special meeting for Dec. 14. It will invite members of the Ayer Board of Health and the two Harvard residents who sit on the DEC, Jim DeZutter and Eric Stoltzfus. Due to the last-minute timing, if invitees are unable to attend, the special meeting will be cancelled. The meeting will take place one day before DEC’s normally scheduled public hearing in hopes that the boards of health will come to consensus with Harvard’s DEC representatives present.
Time is of the essence, said Wallace, not only because of the serious health concerns—including sleep deprivation—expressed by neighbors, but also because the neighbors have only 30 days to appeal the Dec. 3 “Long-Term Monitoring Protocol” approved by DEC (see story).
DEC’s Dec. 3 meeting was significant, Wallace told the board, because the commission, in approving the protocol, “changed a measurement method to determine if [Evergreen Solar] is in compliance with its noise regulations.” He called the calculation process that was approved “flawed” because the sound monitors are located not at the property line between the plant and the residences it abuts, as DEC regulations mandate, but 190 feet farther from the plant. He also cited the commission’s refusal to hear comment from legal representatives of some of the neighbors at the meeting. Wallace further charged that the DEC “can’t reproduce the results” after setting a standard that accounts for how noise from outside the plant is affecting overall levels.
“The most dangerous part of what [DEC] decided is using math that doesn’t go to the property boundary. This sets an extremely dangerous precedent,” Wallace said. “DEC is charged with showing that technology can co-exist with neighborhoods. It’s an abject failure.
“The disregard for the health of the community is kind of shocking,” Wallace said. Referring to his wife, he said, “It’s as if she had a stroke in terms of her ability to get a sentence out—and those are her words.”
He singled out DEC Land Use Administrator Peter Lowitt for squelching public discussion. “He doesn’t want us to be heard by the commissioners. He wouldn’t approve me for the 15 minutes I asked for [at the Dec. 3 meeting in which the protocol was approved].” Notably, Wallace said, the DEC called a meeting of the Evergreen Solar, DEC, and neighbors’ noise consultants in order to gain consensus about a protocol, however there was little discussion because Lowitt ran the meeting.
Evergreen Solar has reduced the noise that is heard by some neighbors on Old Mill Road, however noise continues to wreak havoc with Janice Perry and her family. Prevailing winds, topography, and the variable effectiveness of sound-suppression efforts are affecting the perception of sound differently from home to home. The Perrys are in a direct line of the scrubbers’ noise, while Dunroven Farm is in line with the cooling towers, which are not running now.
Wallace noted that the DEC has no health professionals. The voice of the surrounding towns’ health boards must, therefore, be heard, he said. He cited research done in England that persistent low-frequency noise “vibrates the body and its internal organs.” Neighbors, he said, are suffering from the prolonged exposure.
“We’ve given them [Evergreen Solar and the DEC] the opportunity to correct, but it seems like smoke and mirrors,” said Tom Philippou, chair of the board. “We’re beholden to DEC to enforce the rules.”
“I don’t know how you force a board to enforce its own rules. Maybe if it’s a board-to board discussion it might have more sway,” Wallace suggested.
