Deadline set for residents to respond in Arkwright
ARKWRIGHT — Town residents will have until June 1 to review and raise questions about the supplemental draft environmental impact statement Horizon Wind Energy filed with the town board on its Arkwright Summit Wind project.
This supplement comes in addition to the draft environmental impact statement Horizon filed with the town board last August that drew a roomful of residents at a public hearing.
Following this hearing, the town council determined that a supplemental DEIS was needed to respond to the questions raised about the project.
At Monday’s meeting, representing Arkwright’s interests, Jill Yonkers an attorney with Hodgson Russ and Conestoga Rovers engineer consultant Robert Adams both said the SDEIS is ready for public review.
“It has everything it needs to have; it addresses all the impact the changes the project calls for,” Adams said.
Yonkers said the SEIS does not require another public hearing.
“It does not mean the project is ready to go nor does it mean that the town board is adopting the document,” she said.
She recommended that anyone who may have additional questions about the SDEIS to submit written comments to Supervisor Fred Norton.
“Horizon will be required to respond with detailed analysis to these questions,” she said.
Resident Elizabeth Booth said she believed the June 1 deadline did not provide enough time to review the SEIS and make comments to it.
She said she thought another public hearing would be better, particularly since the project’s design calls for a significant change in the transmission lines.
Resident Jill Casey suggested the town make an effort to inform the town’s residents about the SDEIS report and where it can be accessed.
“Not everyone gets the OBSERVER,” she said, when Norton reminded her that it was the official newspaper for the town.
Norton said a copy of the SDEIS would be available at the town clerk’s office and on-line at the Horizon website.
Horizon’s project manager Tom Stebbins said he would also have a copy available at the Barker Library in Fredonia and a Horizon’s Fredonia office.
Adams said the supplemental DEIS contains a significant improvement over the original document.
“It addresses ground water supply, noise levels and visual impacts. We want what is best for the town and the environment,” he said.
On his recommendation, the town board accepted the SDEIS and set June 1 as the deadline for submitting questions on it.
Stebbins said the proposed turbine locations are staying pretty much the same as the original project called for.
There is a new line configuration and new road configurations in the SDEIS, he said.
He said he hopes to have all the necessary permits in place to begin constructing the wind farm by spring 2010.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.
By Joan Josephson
14 April 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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