National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Pros and cons deliberated at energy open house

Eureka Springs resident Doug Stowe talks to Nimbus Project Manager Dave Iadarola at last week’s public meeting on the wind facility proposal. Photo by Becky Gillette

Scout Clean Energy’s public information session on April 11 attracted protesters holding signs indicating concerns about the proposed Nimbus Wind Facility that Scout says will include 43 wind turbines more than 500 feet tall on hilltop areas along County Roads 905 and 920 near Green Forest. Supporters of the project included landowners who have leased to Scout for the proposed $300-million Nimbus Wind Facility that would produce 180-megawatts of energy.

Opponents complained that the meeting was not what they expected, and that they had no opportunity to make public comments. One resident of CR 905 said it was a red flag that this was not an open forum. “It was very sneaky,” she said.

The resident said she had allowed scientists associated with the project to set up nets on her property to study the bat population. She said she wouldn’t have given permission if she had known that purpose was for the information to be used for Scout’s purposes regarding estimating the negative impact the turbines would have on bats.

Scout representatives defended the meeting format that included tables set up around the Berryville Community Center meeting room with graphics and Scout representatives explaining the plans. Scout said this was a good arrangement to allow people to individually ask questions of Scout about different parts of the project, including economic benefits, the amount of green power that would be produced, and efforts being made to minimize negative impacts to birds and bats.

Citizen Glenda Allison spoke to County Judge David Writer at the meeting expressing her concerns about the restricted format of the meeting and asked Writer to ask that Scout hold a public meeting where people would be allowed to make comments. Writer agreed, and conveyed that request to Dave Iadarola, project manager for the Nimbus project.

Chad Thompson, public relations representative for Scout, said Scout considered the gathering an open, public meeting. The public was invited and had ample opportunity to ask questions. He said it doesn’t mean it was not a public meeting just because people didn’t have the opportunity to voice opinions to the group. Thompson said that Carroll County has no zoning or land use regulations that require any type of meeting and that the project isn’t required to get permission from the Arkansas Public Service Commission unless the electricity is sold to a utility in Arkansas. Currently Scout doesn’t have a contract signed with a customer, and Thompson said the project would not proceed until a customer was identified.

Thompson said he does not feel the Nimbus project can be likened to the SWEPCO high-voltage transmission line project that was stopped nine years ago after major public opposition. He said that project involved eminent domain of many private properties. Thompson said Scout is not using eminent domain, and instead purchasing leases from willing landowners. However, two people at the recent meeting said they had unknowingly purchased property with Scout easements on it although they are not in favor of wind turbines on their land.

Writer has been in the hot seat with opponents objecting to him meeting privately with Scout, Scout’s attorneys and a county attorney regarding a Road Use Agreement (RUA) for Scout to make improvements to the roads required to get wind turbine components, including blades that could be more than 200 feet long, transported on dirt roads that have a couple of 90-degree corners. Writer said the RUA under preparation would make sure that the roads were improved as necessary and repaired later, if necessary.

Writer said he was concerned with the weight of equipment and wanted to protect the county’s interests. Writer said he is hopeful that Scout is successful with the project producing large amounts of electric power while providing income for people who have leased to the project and tax revenues for the county. Scout has estimated the county would receive $25 million over the 30-year life of the facility, and landowners would receive $14 million in lease payments. Writer says he can do nothing to stop the project.

Richard Williams, a former Carroll County Judge who lives along 905 in the vicinity of proposed turbines, contends that if Writer did do nothing, if he didn’t sign a RUA, the project would dead end. Writer said if he refused to sign a RUA, he would open the county to lawsuits from the property owners who have leased to Scout.

“And Scout would still use the road anyhow,” Writer said. “It is a public road. And they have permission from landowners where there are 90-degree turns in the road to move back the fences and to widen the road. This way the road will be fixed under my direction to our specifications.”

Writer said Scout did very well with the public meeting. “It has been a really good night,” Writer said. “There are some for the project, and some against. I just hope the county can come together on this. We are all neighbors whether we agree or not.”

Writer said it was apparent most of the people attending were in opposition to the project, but said it is to be expected opponents would be more motivated to come out that people in favor of it.

Writer said he was not really comfortable with the small amount of government oversight on the project—the county doesn’t have zoning regulations–but that he wants the private landowners who have signed leases to prosper. He also said he was not certain about the technology being used—that is not his area of expertise. But he said benefits go beyond income to landowners and include a bigger tax base for the county and major purchases of materials such as gravel to improve the roads and make concrete for the turbine bases that would be purchased in Carroll County.

Williams said other concerns include having the brakes fail during heavy winds causing turbine blades to shatter. He said at other wind facilities, pieces of turbines as large as an automobile have broken loose and traveled up to four miles before landing. Scout said it selected the area as the site of what would be the first commercial wind facility in Arkansas because it has strong winds.

Williams said he was not seeing many people at the meeting in favor of the project. One opponent was Sharon Lawlor, who relocated to Holiday Island from California.

“I saw what they did to the beautiful countryside in California, and it did nothing to reduce the cost of electricity,” Lawlor said. “In fact, the cost of electricity tripled and there was not enough power to meet the needs between 3 to 10 p.m.”

Mike Shah, who lives near Eureka Springs, held a graphic showing the size of the wind towers compared to the height of a person. The sign was about four feet tall and was not drawn to scale. It would have had to have been a couple feet taller to represent the difference between the height of a six-foot-person at the bottom of the tower and the top of the tower. The person was about a quarter of an inch tall on the graphic.

“It is not fair to put a large project into this rural area without formal public notice,” Shah said. “I talked to a woman in another state who lived within 1,700 feet of a turbine. It was horribly noisy at 60 to 70 decibels, their house shook with vibrations, and they couldn’t sleep at night because of the shadow flickering, combined with noise and vibrations. They completely lost the value of their home.”