LINGAN, N.S. – Sitting at their kitchen table, Bruce and Janet Fraser stare out the window to see five giant wind turbines just beyond their backyard, churning in a counter-clockwise direction.
Changing line with the wind speed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the large structures have become the couple’s nightmare.
"It’s in your face, you can’t escape it," Janet Fraser said during an interview in the kitchen of the couple’s nine-year-old custom-built, two-storey home.
"You can’t go outside to relax and you can’t stay inside to relax. There’s no enjoyment. There’s no peace."
The wind farm’s seven turbines have lined the shore facing the North Atlantic since 2006, producing 16 megawatts with a yearly output of about 55,000 megawatt hours – enough to power 6,000 homes.
The turbines were part of the Glace Bay-Lingan wind farm that had been operated by Cape Breton Power Ltd., before being sold to Confederation Power a couple of years ago.
The Frasers maintain the farm has invaded every aspect of their lives.
Janet said that in July and August, the huge 35-metre-long blades attached to 65-metre steel towers create a "strobe effect" as the turbines cast continuous shadows on the house in the early daylight hours.
"It’s like a flickering," she said, adding the shadows pass through the house 60 times per minute.
Bruce described it as a light switch being turned on and off repeatedly in their bedroom with no way to stop it.
"It almost feels like we’re in an experiment, like a mouse in a box," he said.
They said the constant swoosh of the blades makes sleeping difficult, especially on humid nights when the sound is more pronounced and keeps their two-year-old son awake.
They both worry about his development if he continues to have sleepless nights.
They said even the use of earplugs and face masks hasn’t helped.
"It sounds like a baby’s heart beat in an ultrasound," Bruce said in describing the sound. "It’s that whump, whump, whump, and it’s high, low, high, low."
Besides sleep deprivation, Janet said the family is also dealing with anxiety and their mental health is suffering.
The only solution to their problem is to sell, but real estate agents have said the home is worthless because of its proximity to the turbines.
The couple said they’ve remained quiet until now, trying to deal with their problem by writing to Premier Darrell Dexter, and their member of the legislature, deputy premier Frank Corbett. They’ve also complained to municipal officials.
On Tuesday, they presented their concerns to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s committee of the whole. They said the municipality erred when calculating the minimum setback of 175 metres for turbines to a maximum 76 metres in height.
The Frasers are nearly twice the minimum distance from the closest of the turbines, at 335 metres.
The committee agreed to have staff review the setbacks and include it in an issue paper at a future meeting.
Municipal planner Malcolm Gillis, who worked to include wind turbines into amendments in the municipal planning strategy and land-use bylaw in 2005, said the Frasers were aware they were building on a property in an area largely zoned industrial.
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