Wind turbines need attention
Letters to Editor | Bedford Gazette | Nov 18, 2020 | www.bedfordgazette.com
Letters to Editor | Bedford Gazette | Nov 18, 2020 | www.bedfordgazette.com
Bedford County residents may be interested in learning that a Maryland energy company is actively seeking to install 10 to 15 industrial wind turbines on Dunning/Evitts mountain. These turbines could be as high as 600 feet – taller than the statue of liberty, and almost as tall as the mountain itself.
The mountain’s ridge top will need to be removed and flattened to provide the broad level surface required to install each turbine.
The installation would span parts of Bedford, East St. Clair and South Woodbury Townships. Unfortunately, existing township wind ordinances are over ten years old and based on long-outdated wind technology and research on the accompanying hazards. Important issues such as property values, economic impact on our important tourism industry and safety measures must be evaluated and addressed. Updating the existing wind ordinances in each of the affected townships is of critical importance.
We need to call on our Township Supervisors to give urgent attention to drafting and approving new wind ordinances that will address these, and other, important issues.
As things now stand, Bedford County residents are left unprotected by the existing ordinances and thus vulnerable to the multiple threats unregulated industrial wind turbine installations would bring.
William Sweeney
Bedford
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/11/18/wind-turbines-need-attention/