With just three of 40 audience members expressing strong opposition, Allen County Planning Commission members gave 6-0 support to an agreement that would permit construction of wind farms in the county.
The enabling document will be recommended to county commissioners for approval on Feb. 14, a major step in development of a wind farm by EDP Renewables in the area north of U.S. 54 in the east part of the county. The company recently completed and began operating a wind farm near Waverly, in Coffey County.
A representative of Next-Era, North Palm Beach, Fla., Sam Massey, also attended Thursday night’s session. He spoke a few times, but gave no indication that company is immediately interested in Allen County. Rorik Peterson, associate director of development for EDP, was on hand. He answered a number of questions and gave assurance EDP is eager to comply and cooperate with whatever Allen County would require.
He pointed out wind energy became a reality in California “in the late ’70s or early ’80s.” Wind turbines were erected in Kansas shortly after 2000.
Planners listened carefully to comments from opponents Beth and John Wall, Iola, and Patti Boyd, rural Moran, and questions from from others, many of which Peterson and Massey rose to answer.
Planners tweaked the agreement document, as they did at a meeting in November with the original offering from County Counselor Alan Weber. Points of significance were to embrace what Peterson called the industry standard of placing turbines no closer than 1.1 times their height (about 550 feet) from roads and property lines. Distance from an occupied dwelling on a leased property will be no less than 1,000 feet, from an occupied dwelling on non-leased land 1,400 feet.
Lon Hale, who mentioned he had years of experience in power industries, encouraged the greater distance for non-participants’ dwelling; “a good idea” planners chimed in.
They agreed to notification of property owners within a mile of a proposed wind farm for a public hearing, when — as is expected — when EDP makes application to construct its wind farm. A motion to make notification distance five miles was met with silence, and faded away.
BETH WALL handed out a sheaf of articles she obtained from seining the internet, all relating to negative aspects of wind farms. Among them: depressed land values, noise that is hurtful and affect auditory reception (the agreement limits noise to 50 decibels, similar to the sound made by a refrigerator), health problems, lower quality of life, stress, etc.
Peterson kindly refuted Wall’s concerns, including quotes from reports that claimed blades turning atop turbines “are very quiet” (made more so in recent years by technological advances, as well as setback requirements). Several studies within the medical community indicated no ill effects from living among or near turbines.
Hale interjected: “The noise problem for some may be plausible, but it’s not proven. Setbacks in the agreement are a good approach. The real economic advantage is for the larger (participating) landowners,” with “the biggest detriment for small landowners.” Hale said he made a point to stand near a turbine in the Waverly field; “it hummed but it wasn’t objectionable.”
Boyd, much as she did in a letter to the Register earlier this week, noted the Boyd farm northwest of Moran contained 900 acres and that been in the family for 120 years. She the overpowering sight of wind farm components would affect qualify of life, being unsightly, with its turbines towering and a distraction on the skyline in daylight and with pulsating clearance lights atop turbines at night.
“I don’t want them here,” Boyd said, with the authority of the former attorney she is. “ I want you to know some of us object.”
Carol Cation, Savonburg, asked pointed questions about wildlife, her concerns being whether the wind farm would be in flyways of migratory birds and fowl that congregate on and near a huge lake at the coal-fired LaCygne power plant. She also fears for bald eagles, one of which “I saw recently.”
Peterson didn’t discount Cation’s comments. A part of the permitting process contains extensive environmental and wildlife impact studies, he said. As well, surveys have shown turbines — literally hundreds of thousands operate daily in the U.S. — “are responsible for less than 1 percent of avian deaths caused by (non-hunting) human activity,” such as vehicles striking birds and others crashing into windows, mistaking the panes for a flight route.
