By Arundhati Parmar, Dolan Media Newswires
Belle Creek , Minn. — If Belle Creek Township residents were looking for conclusive assurances about the impact of 50 future wind turbines on their emergency response system, they didn’t get as much as they wanted from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Belle Creek, a township of 475 residents in Goodhue County, is at the epicenter of a proposed 78-megawatt wind turbine project developed by AWA Goodhue LLC and Minneapolis-based National Wind.

Most of the turbines in the 32,000-acre project will be located in Belle Creek. Residents of Belle Creek and surrounding townships oppose the project, claiming that wind turbines have negative health implications and can interfere with phone lines. AWA Goodhue has disputed those claims.

Another concern of residents is how the turbines would affect the emergency response system, which led the Belle Creek Township’s board to write the commissioner of public safety in late September.

DPS Commissioner Michael Campion wrote that “there have not been any reported incidents or evidence of adverse impact from the multitude of windmills dotting the state. ”

His Sept. 28 letter also says that while the DPS is concerned with the potential for interference, an extensive study has not been done to date. But he concludes that the “lack of contemporary discussion” appears to indicate that “windmill interference with radio frequency has not developed into a significant issue. ” Goodhue County is migrating to the so-called ARMER system – Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response.

According to the Statewide Radio Board’s website (www.srb.state.mn.us), the ARMER system is a “major element of Minnesota’s long term inter-operable communication planning. ” The statewide plan emerged when a regional inter-operable radio system was implemented in 2001 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Statewide Radio Board’s website also notes that as of May 2010, Goodhue County is one area migrating to the ARMER system.

Belle Creek Township Board Chairman Chad Ryan wrote Campion on Sept. 24, posing two questions:

Will the AWA Goodhue industrial wind project interfere with the ARMER communication system, specifically the communication between radio towers and emergency responders in their vehicles? Will the wind turbines create false radar targets?

“We have grave concerns given the proximity of the Prairie Island Nuclear reactors and the Koch/Flint Hills Resources petroleum refinery, which are considered high value targets,” Ryan wrote.

His letter closes with a request for “written assurances” that the “danger of ARMER communication interference and false radar targets will not pose an undue risk to citizens of Belle Creek Township. ”

While Campion’s written response suggests there’s nothing to fear, an attachment from the Statewide Radio Board website seems to suggest otherwise. “As a general rule, a permanent obstruction (tower) or intermittent obstruction (moving blades) … would render a microwave link unreliable,” according to the attachment.

On the false-radar issue, Campion’s response was conclusive.

“Radar systems operate in a different radio spectrum and the principals of operation for radar systems are very different [from] those of a public safety communication system,” Campion wrote.

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