Bill Durdan has farmed northeast of Grand Ridge for 43 years and often relied on crop dusters.

Now, however, he has been told his proximity to wind turbine towers will prevent him from receiving that service.

The cost to him could be lost crops and lost revenue, he told the La Salle County Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday evening.

The board was considering a special use application for the Top Crop wind farm proposed by Horizon Wind Energy for Allen Township.

Durdan lives in the already developed Grand Ridge wind farm area. He said was there to alert the board of the problem.

Durdan does not have Grand Ridge turbines on his land, but he does have seven of them on three sides of his property within a half mile. That nearness led the aerial sprayer he deals with to advise him he could no longer provide his services to Durdan, and that even if he could it would be at a 50 percent surcharge.

Sprayers charge more around wind farms because they have to take lighter loads and the spraying takes longer in order to negotiate the wind towers.

Durdan considers aerial spraying necessary to apply fungicides to increase crop production and in emergencies.

Two years ago, he said, he called in aerial sprayers after an aphid infestation and they responded in six hours.

He also is concerned about the availability of aerial sprayers if soybean rust makes its way to La Salle County. If it hits, he said, a fungicide spraying is necessary within 36 hours—otherwise a 50 to 60 percent crop loss could be expected.

He said ground sprayers could not respond quick enough.

Durdan is concerned about the financial losses and wanted to know who would make good on them, if they happen, and aerial spraying surcharges, if he could arrange for them.

He contacted Invenergy, the Grand Ridge wind farm operator.

"They said they had crossed all their t's and dotted all their i's and they didn't have to do anything—but they were willing to negotiate just to be a good neighbor."

Joel Link of Invenergy, who was sitting in on the zoning meeting, said the company would work with property owners.

"We understand it's an issue, but we have not decided what path to take."

He said the company probably would not agree out of hand to pay all the surcharges.

"We are looking at it and intend to deal with it."

Horizon officials said they were unaware of the towers being a problem at their other wind farms nationwide, including the 240-turbine Twin Groves wind farm in McLean County.

They said their experience is crop dusters will fly over, under and around turbine towers.

Bill Whitlock, the Horizon development director, said the concern was "a hot topic in Illinois" and that he met with crop duster pilots about turning turbines off while spraying was taking place.

"The takeaway from the meeting was the shutdowns were not necessary. When they actually have the turbines stop they actually rotate at very slow speed."

Other assistance was being made, he said, such as providing pilots with the global positioning system coordinates of the towers.

Kim Schertz of Hudson, who works in her husband's crop dusting business, said the problem is pilots simply can not safely pull up and make the necessary turns in a wind farm area.

"These guys are good, but they're not kamikazes."

Those willing to fly in wind farms typically were the "egotistical young bucks" with less insurance and willing to take greater risks with their flying.

Schertz said her husband told her he can feel turbine turbulence as far as two miles away.

"But the bigger issue is that if we're 100,000 acres behind, do you think we're going to screw around with trying to get your fields first if they're the most dangerous, most expensive and most difficult to do?"