Amber Christenson of rural Strandburg and Linda and Timothy Lindgren of rural South Shore had filed a formal complaint on September 21, 2022, that Crowned Ridge Wind's turbines in the area were making more noise than allowed by the PUC's permit that was granted for the project in 2019 and alleging that Crowned Ridge failed to comply with a 2021 mitigation plan.
Christenson, who is representing herself, said in her response, “Crowned Ridge keeps telling you that I am just a lowly lay person. This lay person wants to hold their feet to the fire. This lay person wants you, the Commission, to remedy the noise problem here where we live. WIOM (winter ice operation mode) doesn’t solve it, and I don’t have to be an expert to read the spec sheet. I don’t have to be an expert to know that when turbines run at full power, they are louder than when they run at low power; not only is that common sense, that has been testified to you in hearings.”
Turbines at a wind-electricity production site in northeastern South Dakota are noisier than state permit conditions allow, according to a complaint that several landowners in the area filed more than a year ago.