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A first-hand view of wind farm damage
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Hays residents traveling east on I-70 should make a quick stop in Lincoln County to see for themselves the environmental devastation caused by wind turbine constuction.
Cavernous excavations are surrounded by huge mounds of rock and earth.
Massive cranes and heavy equipment crush plants and compact soil on the virgin hillsides. Only a few foundations have been poured to date, but broad new access roads already scar miles of landscape. Traffic, dust, noise and pollution is everywhere.
Visitors to the site should note the mobile cement plant that requires more than a football field of land – and likely will be moved several times in the course of the project. They should note the trailer camp that allow work crews to avoid local motel bills. They should count out-of-state license plates on equipment and workers’ vehicles and see how long it takes them to find a Kansas tag. Virtually all equipment and cement work for this project was contracted out-of-state.
In a few months, even weeks, the local roads will be choked with oversize vehicles delivering turbine parts, at least six for each turbine, plus escorts. The first towers will begin to loom ominously over the formerly beautiful green hills east of Salina, churning the air incessantly and glinting menacingly in the sunlight. Eventually, an entire forest of monstrous turbines will clutter the landscape, distracting drivers with their whirling blades and dominating presence.
No one in their right mind can possibly consider this an environmentally beneficial development for a peaceful rural community.
Ugly industrial monstrosities contaminating vast tracts of land, erected at taxpayer expense to gratify image-seeking politicians and profit large foreign corporations – all to produce a pathetic dribble of unreliable power that cannot make a tiny dent in our gluttonous national power demand.
The next time you drive to Kansas City, have a good look for yourself. Do we really want our beautiful hills west of Hays to share this fate next year?
J.P. Michaud
1189 180th Ave.
1 September 2007
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