BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Nearly a month before ruling there was insufficient evidence linking wind turbines with health concerns for residents in Glenmore, former Brown County Health Director Chua Xiong said visiting the area gave her migraines.
That’s contained in an email uncovered by the group Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy.
In the email dated November 21, 2015, Xiong writes to intern Carolyn Harvey: “Carolyn the times I have been out there by the Wind Turbines, I get such migraine headaches. I think I should take some preventative Tylenol before I head out there.”
“Even a person who came out and did not find a relationship between adverse health and the turbines herself was affected by the turbines,” says Steve Deslauriers with the group Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy. “I think this email exposes the truth of Shirley Wind more than her declaration of insufficient evidence.”
Deslauriers says the next health director needs to look at all the evidence objectively, something Xiong did not.
“I think the question will be whether the county chooses to appoint a person who can look at the evidence with an open mind,” Deslauriers said. “And take the action necessary to protect the health of southern Brown County residents.”
Xiong, who turned in her resignation to Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach on March 4, is already off the job. Debi Armbruster has been appointed interim health director, as the search for a permanent replacement begins.
WTAQ’s Jerry Bader is among those who’ve suggested that Xiong was pressured to make that decision, as a way to avoid having Brown County sued by North Carolina-based Duke Energy Renewables, who owns the Shirley Wind Farm.
“This idea suggesting that I had any involvement is ultimately false and inaccurate,” Streckenbach said, adding that Chua Xiong could only explain her rationale for the decision.
