March 9, 2011 | 12:21 PM | By

Extended Interview: ‘It Put Me Into Depression’

FILED UNDER: Mitigation, health, The Falmouth Experience, wind energy

In The Falmouth Experience: Sick From The Noise, Sean Corcoran spoke to Barry Funfar, a Falmouth resident who says a large wind turbine near his home has aggravated his PTSD and caused depression. Here’s more of their conversation.

Barry Funfar stands on his deck in Falmouth, with the town's wind turbines behind him. He says noise from the turbines has aggravated his PTSD.

Sean Corcoran/WGBH

Barry Funfar stands on his deck in Falmouth, with the town's wind turbines behind him. He says noise from the turbines has aggravated his PTSD.


“I’m Barry Funfar, We’re at my home, 27 Ridgeview Drive in Falmouth. We came to the Cape in 1979, we moved here on Labor Day, which was quite an experience with everyone else leaving. I thought it was like a nuclear evacuation or something and we were the only ones coming on. But we then proceeded to build this house, we had purchased a lot in 1978, we moved into this home in 1982.”
Barry Funfar taped his own poster to the sign near the energy plant where Wind One stands.

Courtesy Barry Funfar

Barry Funfar taped his own poster to the sign near the energy plant where Wind One stands.


On the arrival of Wind One:

“I was a little skeptical as far as the noise, which was my biggest concern. So I went to all the meetings the town energy committee hosted for that. And they hosted a bus tour up to Hull, Mass., to see the windmill facility up there. And I didn’t detect a single noise of that one, not a single sound, which put my fears to rest. Really. And after that I really had no qualms whatsoever about these being built.”

On the health effects of Wind One:

“We actually do not have a noise problem inside our home, unless we have a window open and are standing by that open window. For me it’s an outdoor problem. Wherefore, I have PTSD. And I have a disability from that, I’d been in Vietnam for 19 months. And then, since 2003, I’ve going twice a week to the VA for a counseling and various appointments to do with the PTSD. But I was doing extremely, extremely well. I had made so much progress that I really had a new life and was feeling very good about everything. And I have a couple of grand little grandkids and that can serve to make life very wonderful.

“But the sound so got to me that my doctor at the VA told me that I had to move. She said, ‘You cannot take that added stress and anxiety.’ Because it put me into depression. I had to leave my home for the month of August; I lived at my son’s place in Mashpee to come out of that depression.

“And I have a letter from another medical provider that what the windmill has done for me as far as the anxiety and depression, hoping the town would have some leniency on me, but that really hasn’t carry any weight with anything.

“But it has had, like, major effects on my health. Where I can say for my wife she hardly notices.”

More from this series: