February 1, 2017
Kansas

Lawsuit seeks to stop Sumner County wind farm

Written by Chris Frank | KAKE | January 31, 2017 | www.kake.com

Sumner County residents are on opposite sides of a project to bring in another wind farm.

The company Invenergy received a conditional use permit and rezoning approval from the Sumner County Commission to put in their Argyle Creek Wind Project. But a lawsuit filed last week in Sumner County asks a District Court to strike the permit.

Nearly 60 Sumner County residents are named in the suit, which claims the project was ramrodded through without residents being properly notified of hearings.

Invenergy wants to erect 60 wind turbines, which would generate 150 megawatts of electricity once the wind farm is running by the end of 2018.

Duane Newell is not part of the lawsuit, but his wife is. Newell says he purposely kept his name off the suit because otherwise, he wouldn’t be allowed to speak before the Sumner County Commission on the matter.

“I don’t want them here,” Newell said. “I didn’t move out here to be around industrial stuff. I could find a lot of places to live and not commute to be around industrial stuff.”

Newell said the towers would be all around his property, a few miles south of Clearwater.

But many landowners welcome the rent payments they’ll receive from allowing the towers to be erected on their land.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/02/01/lawsuit-seeks-to-stop-sumner-county-wind-farm/