The Tallinn Administrative Court has overturned the Health Board’s decision to terminate the state’s management of the Saarde wind farm noise assessment, and ruled that officials should no longer rely solely on studies commissioned by the developer, ERR News reports.
The dispute was sparked by a complaint from a local resident who was concerned about the health impact of a wind farm built three years ago in Saarde, Pärnu County. The complainant questioned the Health Board’s decision to terminate the state’s management of the Saarde wind farm noise assessment, and argued that the management was not independent because it relied on measurements commissioned by the developer. The investigation and justification were insufficient, and the potential impact on residents’ health was not assessed.
The Tallinn Administrative Court upheld the complaint, overturned the Health Board’s decision, and ordered it to continue monitoring.
The court concluded that the Health Board had relied on studies commissioned and paid for by the wind farm developer, and thus an independent expert assessment had not been provided. The board had not sufficiently assessed the methodology and scope of the measurements, as well as the fact that the measurements included impulse noise, low-frequency sounds and vibrations. Reference to compliance with standards and
equipment calibration did not ensure the reliability of the measurements,
especially when it came to frequencies below 20 hertz.
The court also noted that the officials had concluded that the limit values had not been exceeded, while at the same time recommending mitigation measures.
According to the requirements of the new Public Health Act, monitoring and paid services must be separated, while the Health Board must ensure independent monitoring and, when necessary, provide explanations as to why additional measurements commissioned by the developer are not necessary. Given the Health Board’s responsibility to public health and the limited and clearly insufficient research on the impact of wind turbines on the health of local residents (which the board has implicitly acknowledged), it is clear that the public interest is served by studies commissioned by the state, not by companies with vested interests.
After the nine turbines at the Saarde wind farm had been operating for a little over a year, the developer commissioned a noise assessment following complaints from local residents. The Health Board conducted this in the fall of 2004, measuring both audible noise and infrasound. At the time, a Health Board spokesperson said that the permissible limits had not been exceeded.
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