August 21, 2020
Illinois, Letters

Letter to the editor: County has duty to protect people, land in wind project

Letter to the editor | Journal-Courier | August 20, 2020 | www.myjournalcourier.com

Morgan County’s Regional Planning Commission/Board of Appeals conducted a public hearing for comments on Apex Clean Energy’s 2,411-page draft siting approval permit for Wind Energy Conversion System dated Feb. 18 and updated May 5 as identified on the Morgan County website.

Draft does not mean final siting permit application.

I was unable to attend but sent my comments to Dusty Douglas, director of the Planning Commission/Board of Appeals. Does Morgan County have a transcript of this public hearing?

Patrick Engineering reported to the board of appeals after reviewing the massive 2,411-page document that there were 41 deficiencies that Apex needed to correct before the board could even consider approving the siting permit application. The public should know what these deficiencies are. In addition, there are comments from the public that the board should investigate before considering this siting permit application.

I feel very strongly that Apex needs to correct the deficiencies identified by Patrick Engineering as well as address other comments made during this meeting and then submit a final siting permit to Morgan County. This final siting permit application should be posted on Morgan County’s website and another public hearing on the final siting permit application should take place. This is the process that was used by FutureGen.

I also feel that no construction should take place by Apex until the building permit application (with public hearing?) has been approved by the county commissioners.

Morgan County commissioners have a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers of Morgan County and a responsibility to Morgan County residents as to everyone’s health, safety and welfare … to perform due diligence on Apex Clean Energy and its project to protect the residents of Morgan County and the agricultural farm land from misuse by Apex Clean Energy with their Lincoln Land Wind Project and conduct a second hearing after a final siting application is submitted.

Betty Niemann

Jacksonville


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/08/21/letter-to-the-editor-county-has-duty-to-protect-people-land-in-wind-project/