Out of the blue sky, a symbol of the S.O.S. fight emerges
By John B. Riggi | Lockport Union-Sun & Journal | June 10, 2015 | www.lockportjournal.com
By John B. Riggi | Lockport Union-Sun & Journal | June 10, 2015 | www.lockportjournal.com
I feel compelled to write about a small event with significant ramifications that occurred on May 29. As many may already know, the residents of Somerset and Yates are currently embroiled in a critical battle to preserve the health and welfare of our residents, wildlife and environment from the proposed Lighthouse Wind industrial wind turbine emplacement project. The project, as proposed by APEX Clean Energy, would plant 60 to 70, 600-foot tall turbines in the center of a fertile farming, wildlife and residential area in the two towns.
APEX is an out-of-state (Charlottesville, Va., based) firm that has no ties to this area or its people and has been surreptitiously wooing landowners for almost two years to sign 50-year leases to place industrial wind turbines on their land. The leases will allow APEX to erect these 60-story tall structures in a swath of over 12 miles in length, effectively splitting the whole of Somerset and half of Yates geographically down the middle.
Apparently, APEX believes this type of divide-and-conquer strategy to be acceptable. These structures, if erected, would be the tallest structures outside of New York City in all of New York state. We, the residents of Somerset and Yates, do not find any of this acceptable.
As a result of this activity on the part of APEX, the towns are now internally divided into leaseholders and everyone else. The leaseholders have been wooed by APEX (again for almost two years) and have given into the lure of money at the expense of all else that we hold important in these towns: caring neighbors, fertile farms, abundant wildlife and the balance of all of these that make this area such a desirable place to live.
Somerset and Yates are now on the brink of utter social destruction due to the proposed project by this out-of-state company. A company, by the way, that will not sign the New York State Wind Industry Code of Ethics. Is a firm that will not commit to ethical behavior, in fact, ethical? I think not.
As such, the multitudes of concerned residents have formed a non-profit, member-financed, citizen’s coalition, Save Ontario Shores Inc (SOS), to address health, safety and welfare concerns of Yates and Somerset taxpayers and residents regarding the issue of permitting APEX’s project. SOS will continue the fight until the APEX project is defeated at the local level (through the Somerset and Yates town boards and the Niagara and Orleans county legislatures) and at the state level (NYS Article 10).
As we are embroiled in this work to save the pristine area in which we live, there are successes and opportunities for improvement. And every once in awhile, small events of great import occur at the most interesting times. That event occurred on my property on the morning of May 29.
As is common knowledge, there are a great number of endangered and threatened species that reside, winter and nest in this part of New York state. In fact, the Department of Environmental Conservation has recently listed a number of these species in a communication on its website (http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7494.html).
The small event of great importance was the appearance of a juvenile Bald Eagle (DEC – threatened status) on our front lawn in Yates.
This is the symbol of our fight.
John B. Riggi of Lyndonville is the president of Save Ontario Shores, Inc.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/06/11/out-of-the-blue-sky-a-symbol-of-the-s-o-s-fight-emerges/