Cape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 3 Minutes
Meeting held on Wednesday 6 November 2013

Minutes

CompanyPacific Hydro Pty Ltd
ACN 057 279 508

MeetingCape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 5

DateWednesday, 5 February 2014

Time6.00 -7.30pm

LocationBridgewater Surf Live Saving Club

AttendeesLane Crockett, GM, Pacific Hydro
Emily Wood, Communications Manager, Pacific Hydro
Dianne Thomson, Community Relations Coordinator, Pacific Hydro
Cath Smith, Futureye
Cape Bridgewater Residents

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Cape Bridgewater Community Consultative Committee Meeting No. 3 Minutes
Meeting held on Wednesday 6 November 2013

Welcome and Introductions

Futureye facilitator, [Cath Smith], introduced the meeting and went over the agenda. A small number of Cape Bridgewater residents were in attendance. Some discussion about the previous month’s minutes and the meeting.

  • Decision made by attendees to vote on December minutes next month.
  • Pacific Hydro to be proactive about following up with people who attended previous meeting but did not come to this one.
  • Pacific Hydro to follow up with Steven Cooper to get a copy of his presentation (and possibly some commentary on important slides)

Steven Cooper testing scope

Lane Crockett explains the process of Steven Cooper meeting with three families at their home in December 2013. Steven Cooper asked a number questions both inside and outside the home to understand the issues faced by each family. From these discussions a scope (testing proposal) was developed and sent to the three families. The document talks about the kind of testing that could be undertaken. It is quite a technical document. An alternative proposal has also been developed which Lane feels is likely to be less intrusive on the families.

The scope provided by Mr Cooper provides some options for testing. This will be discussed with the families for consideration.

The testing proposed includes

Both internal and external noise testing down to 20dBA.

Instrumentation will also record 1/3rd octave bands down to 1Hz (the document recognises the limitations of the relatively standard equipment).

A weather station will be set up outside the home 10m from the ground. This will record wind direction, speed etc. Mr Cooper will also get SCADA data directly from the wind farm.

A microphone set up outside and inside the house, in consultation with neighbours. Attended testing is proposed for inside the home. Internal testing needs to be done in a room not habituated. A computer would need to be set up in another room with cables connecting the two.

Triaxial accelerometers (vibration detectors) are proposed to be placed in a range of locations including at the turbine. (Lane mentions that we use these detectors already inside our turbines to check if vibration is happening inside the turbine. It shouldn’t be doing this. This leads to a discussion about gearbox failures. Resident mentions screeching noise and noise from substation – hum. Mention also of permanent noise monitoring trial)

Pressure sensor monitors also recommended along with micro barometer pressure detectors (infrasound detectors to overcome noise floor of microphones).

Noise logger proposed to be located 150m from base of turbine (as well as vibration detectors)

Pressure sensor monitoring. Micro barometer press ire detectors (infrasound detectors) to overcome noise of floor microphones.

Noise loggers would be placed 150m from the base of turbines as well as vibration sensors.

Noise testing proposed for a few days inside (attended monitoring) and outside (unattended).

  • Potential issue – being inside people’s homes and disrupting their lives
  • Could potentially overcome this by testing inside uninhabited home first. Then the other families could see the equipment used and also could see the data that comes from the testing. This could help in working out what is appropriate for the inhabited homes.

Further discussion about the testing proposal and how it might be carried out.

Comment regarding the outcome of the testing and informing the residents about what is going on.

Other comment about testing to re-compliance of wind farm. Lane talks about compliance testing. That an independent consultant was used to test this. The report was provided to government. Gov had it peer reviewed and have not raised any concerns.Comments that we do not see the value in retesting compliance when we can direct that money to targeted testing for the families reporting impacts.

Comment from attendee thatthere may be a point where this testing and compliance may match together. Response is that yes, it might.

Discussionfollows in regards to what happens to the report. Who gets it first? Response from Pacific Hydro that an agreement is needed about what happens so that residents are confident about the process.

Next steps: Steven plus one other at attended testing TBC. Legal agreement to be reached with Steven Cooper for testing.

Other issues

Questions around CFA following recent fire in the area.

How close can CFA personnel get to turbines if they catch fire? Case sighted from SA where WorkCover put in place an exclusion zone of 1km. Discussion follows about CFA and police response, and how they work together and with Pacific Hydro. That Worksafe only gets involved if someone gets injured. They do not inhibit the requirements of Police and CFA to protect property and people. An exclusion zone would only be put in place if it was safe to do so and if no houses were within that zone.

Query about water on site and signage. What are the requirements?

Further discussion about fires and CFA requirements.

Permanent noise monitoring update

Noise loggers have now all been deployed. There was a delay while residents were contacted for consent.

No data has been provided to Pacific Hydro yet but we expect to have something shortly and hope to discussion this with options for how it is presented at the next month’s meeting.

Comments from attendees:

-Wind from the east is of particular issue at the moment for one resident.

-Discussion about wind turbine numbers and the changes to design. History of project from community’s perspective discussed.

-Issue of responsiveness raised by a resident (citing lack of response)

Future Meeting agendas

-Marshall Day to come and discuss permanent noise monitoring trial

-Steven Cooper to present once everyone is comfortable with the testing scope

-Valuer – potentially come out to speak?

Actions –

-PH to bring full list of Sustainable Community Fund Recipients.

-Options for alternative locations for meetings

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