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Gorges: Speaking at Roundhouse hearing an intense experience 

Credit:  Barb Gorges | Wyoming Tribune Eagle | Jul 5, 2019 | www.wyomingnews.com ~~

The Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Society agrees clean energy is needed. However, wind energy is deadly for birds when they are struck by turbine blades.

Beginning last December, CHPAS discussed its concerns about the Roundhouse Wind Energy development with company, city and county officials. The 120-turbine wind farm will extend from Interstate 80 south to the Colorado state line and from I-25 west to Harriman Road.

The Wyoming Industrial Siting Council hearing for the approval of the Roundhouse Wind Energy’s application was held June 13 in a quasi-legal format.

Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Society filed as a party, preparing a pre-hearing statement. The other parties were the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Industrial Siting Division, Roundhouse and Laramie County, also acting on behalf of the city of Cheyenne.

We all presented our opening statements. Then the Roundhouse lawyer presented her expert witnesses, asking them leading questions. Then I, acting in the same capacity for CHPAS as the lawyer for Roundhouse, cross-examined her witnesses. One was a viewshed analysis expert from Los Angeles, the other a biologist from Western EcoSystems Technology, the Cheyenne consulting firm that does contract biological studies for wind energy companies across the country.

Then CHPAS presented our expert witness, Daly Edmunds, Audubon Rockies’ policy and outreach director. Wind farm issues are a big part of her work. She is also a wildlife biologist with a master’s degree from the University of Wyoming.

We were rushed getting our testimony in before the 5 p.m. cutoff for the first day because I was not available the next day. I asked permission to allow Mark Gorges to read our closing statement the next day, after the applicant had a chance to rebut all the conditions we asked for.

The seven council members chose not to debate our conditions. Some conditions were echoed by DEQ. But it was a hard sell, since the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had already signed off on the application.

Here are the conditions we asked for:

1) Some of the recommended wildlife studies will be one-and-a-half years away from completion when turbine-building starts in September. Complete the studies first to make better turbine placement decisions.

2) Do viewshed analysis from the south, and share it with adjacent Colorado open space and natural area agencies.

3) Get a “take permit” to avoid expensive trouble with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if dead eagles are found.

4) Use the Aircraft Detection Lighting System so tower lights, which can confuse night-migrating birds, will be turned on as little as possible. This was on DEQ’s list, as well.

5) Use weather radar to predict the best times to shut down turbines during bird migration.

6) Be transparent about the plans for and results of avian monitoring after the turbines start.

7) Relocate six of the southernmost turbine locations because of their impact on wildlife and the integrity of adjacent areas set aside for their conservation value.

The second half of the hearing dealt with county/city requests for economic impact funds from the state. The expected costs are from a couple hundred workers temporarily descending on Cheyenne, requiring health and emergency services.

At the June CHPAS board meeting, members approved staying involved in the Roundhouse issue. The Roundhouse folks have a little mitigation money we could direct toward a study to benefit birds at this and other wind farms. There is a Technical Advisory Committee we need to keep track of. And we need to lobby to give Game and Fish’s recommendations more legal standing so they can’t be ignored.

It’s too bad I don’t watch courtroom dramas. The hearing would have been easier to navigate. But everyone – DEQ employees, the Roundhouse team, council members, hearing examiner, court reporter – was very supportive of CHPAS’s participation. They rarely see the public as a party at these hearings. I just wish we could have had our conditions accepted on behalf of the birds.

Barb Gorges is the most recent past president of the Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Society, which represents Audubon members in Laramie, Goshen and Platte counties.

Source:  Barb Gorges | Wyoming Tribune Eagle | Jul 5, 2019 | www.wyomingnews.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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