Turbines spark crop turmoil

CROPPING practices had not been taken into account by the State Government last year when it prepared new guidelines for South Australian wind farm developments, according to stakeholders.

Regional Community Consultative Council chairman Peter Blacker, Port Lincoln, told a parliamentary inquiry on Monday that turbines would prevent aerial spraying on adjacent land and the land they sit on, and create spraydrift problems for tractors as a result of air turbulence.

This included the Ceres Project on the mid-Yorke Peninsula where a proposal for 199 turbines on 36 different properties resulted in widespread community opposition and rejection by the District Council of YP.

"There are plenty of areas in South Australia that would provide good wind farm locations," Mr Blacker said.A letter folding machine is a piece of equipment which is designed to fold paper.

"The West Coast for example, and the Eyre Peninsula, where there have been few complaints because turbines are located on cliffs,All the personnel that deal with our industrial washing machine servicing are dedicated to the service department. or high mountains, and not high production agricultural areas.

"I just can't believe those guidelines would go out without taking that into consideration, and I'd like to think they'd rethink their position."

Select Committee on Wind Farm Developments in SA chairman David Ridgway said he was equally surprised by the State Government's apparent lack of consideration for cropping in its Development Planning Amendment for Wind Farms, which came into effect in October last year.It enables washer extractor to communicate with chemical pumping machines.

"The reality is,Modern dry cleaning machine uses non-water-based solvents to remove soil and stains from clothes every other wind farm is in windswept grazing areas, or up on the top of ridges where farmers don't actually crop," he said.

"The Ceres Project is the first of its kind in a high value cropping area." The DPA removes the right of appeal for third parties situated more than two kilometres from a turbine.

Mr Ridgway says concerns about air turbulence and spray drift should have been addressed. He said it was "alarming" because off-target spraying created issues of liability, particularly in the case of herbicides and pesticides.

"If I'm spraying on my property and it drifts onto your property, then I'm liable," he said. "But if I'm spraying and doing everything right, and the turbulence of the turbines drifts it somewhere else, then how do you prove it?

"Wind farms are all about the location and putting them where they have minimal impact.Six panel tracking system delivers more energy from skystream."

Greens MLC and committee member Mark Parnell said he wanted real evidence that turbines in agricultural areas created problems for neighbouring farmers.

"I imagine that there probably is some impact, but when I say evidence, I don't want to hear people say 'we can't aerially spray within 500 metres of a turbine', only to find out they never aerially sprayed anyway," he said.

"Rather than look at hypothetical concerns, let's look at real concerns on the ground."

Mr Parnell pointed to claims made that firefighting would be hindered on the YP as a result of the Ceres Project, only to have the Country Fire Service later tell the committee that it was not concerned.

A spokesperson for the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure said the Ceres proposal was under consideration by the Independent Development Assessment Commission and did not expect a decision until "later this year".