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Where there's Money....

The proposed industrial wind turbine installation in Highland County, Virginia has encountered intense opposition by residents and stewards of the environment. Although the project is moving ahead, under the banner of a smaller development organization, only 2-3 wind turbine sites have been cleared and some new roadwork is in place.

Recently, it is my understanding that attorney, Mary Ellen Goodlatte, has invited the Roanoke County planning staff, Planning Commission members and County supervisor, Ed Elswick, on a trip (expense paid?) to the site of the Beech Ridge Wind Farm. The project is a $300 million, 119-wind turbine installation under construction in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, on behalf of her client, Invenergy, PLC. This project consists of 1.5 Mw turbines. (the project proposed in Roanoke County will have 2.5 Mw turbines; 167% larger with greater environmental impact area). The purpose of this visit is to "educate" Roanoke County staff and planning commission members about the benefits of the installation of this technology in the Appalachian Mountains.

Currently, the Roanoke County Zoning Ordinance has no provisions for such an installation in Roanoke County. The county is expected to amend their ordinance this year and the invitees are only those who will be primarily responsible for preparing and recommending ordinance changes to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.

Unfortunately, we seem to all be blinded by the promise of big money and a silver bullet to conceal our ever growing consumption of energy.

The following link was published by Virginia Wind which is maintained by:
Dan Boone and Rick Webb of Highland County, VA:
http://www.vawind.org/Assets/Docs/Wishful-Thinking.pdf

Note: This post was edited on 06-01-10 to correct earlier misinformation regarding the site to be visited and deletion of references to Ms. Goodlatte's family.

Wind farm illness: Waubra Disease

An ominous video from New Zealand. Remember Invenergy's reference to "Truescape". They were the New Zealand consultants who prepared simulations of the proposed Poor Mountain Project.

Let me explain where I’m coming from.

(PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GENERATOR, AT THE HUB OF THE PROPELLER, IS NEARLY AS BIG AS MY HOUSE, LIKE A GIANT OVERSIZED AIRSTREAM TRAILER.)

To begin with, here are definitions from Wikipedia:



NIMBY (an acronym of Not In My BackYard or, much less frequently, Not In My Blue Yonder) describes the opposition of residents to the nearby location of something they consider undesirable, even if it is generally considered a benefit for many. Examples include: an incinerator, an ethanol plant, a nuclear-power plant, or a prison.



BANANA (an acronym of Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything or possibly Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) is a term most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain interest groups to land development.



CAVE People (an initialism for Citizens Against Virtually Everything) is a pejorative acronym for citizen activists who regularly oppose any changes within a community. The phenomenon is linked to the so-called NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) phenomenon in which residents oppose a development as being inappropriate for their local area.



Recently, ...yesterday, a friend and neighbor remarked, regarding the proposed Wind turbine project on Bent Mountain:

“Its clean, not a fossil fuel and not dependent on anyone.

If the windmills would work on my land I'd gladly give it for the betterment of the next generation.”

I was compelled to respond:

Clean energy? Images of pristine, sparkling white pinwheels on the distant horizon can be misleading. For those of us who have grown up enjoying the wonders of the natural environment, we have witnessed decades of intrusion on the natural environment on Poor Mountain by communications corporations along Honeysuckle Lane. No honeysuckle up there, probably never has been, just dump piles of old concrete and steel and tower parts and more and more towers, all providing greater access to more people, more construction, clear cutting, wildlife habitat removal. Clean, NO!!!

not a fossil fuel ? True. These behemoth super-industrial scale wind turbines rely on heavy metals in the form of massive batteries to keep the blades moving during periods of no wind. Physically, the energy consumption to provide the torque required to start these giants from stop negates too much of the energy they generate in optimal conditions.

and not dependent on anyone. Except the taxpayer. Federal grants, subsidies and incentives are in the trough for consumption by big corporations including manufacturers, installation developers, power companies, construction companies and a never ending string of monetary beneficiaries.

How Big will the Wind Turbines be?

Several of our neighbors have been asking to see more about the physical size of the Wind turbines proposed on Poor Mountain.

These images should help you visualize their size.

Time to Review

Silent Spring



The Book-of-the-Month Club edition, with included endorsement by William O. Douglas

Author Rachel Carson

Country United States

Subject(s) Environmentalism

Publisher Houghton Mifflin

Publication date September 1962

Many of us on Bent Mountain experienced the ominous feelings of a "silent spring" two years ago at the peak of the gypsy moth infestation. There were no songbirds, no deer, no squirrels, no life in the infested areas.
These giant wind turbines may well have the same effect, although permanent; wheras we now know, the gypsy moths will come and go on an approximately 7 year cycle.

From www.wind-watch.org/
about the effect of a wind facility on Backbone Mountain, West Virginia:

"I looked around me, to a place where months before had been prime country for deer, wild turkey, and yes, black bear, to see positively no sign of any of the animals about at all. This alarmed me, so I scouted in the woods that afternoon. All afternoon, I found no sign, sight, or peek of any animal about."

Going Green with Wind Power?

Wind Towers May Pose Light Pollution Threat

This graphic simulation of the Wind Turbine Generating Facilities on Poor Mountain looking to the SE toward Cahas Mountain (left background) describes a potential visual annoyance of great magnitude relative to the existing radio and tv towers on Poor Mountain. The existing radio and tv tower warning lights are somewhat annoying particularly on overcast nights and evenings. As currently proposed, the wind turbine locations spread out more toward the Bent Mountain plateau and will be more than twice as high as the radio & tv towers reach into the clouds thereby spreading the range of randomly flashing red light. 

Graphic Depiction of Acoustic Impact

Shows segment of Poor Mountain Road
(Double-click on photo to increase image size)

Notes from Invenergy Meeting 05-10-10

On Thursday, May 6, 2010, David Hill of Hill Studio called me to request that I meet with he and Don Giecek of Invenergy and himself on Monday, May 10, 2010 at my home. the stated purpose of the meeting was to discuss the visual simulations of the Wind Turbine Energy Production Facilities that is being proposed for placement on Poor Mountain.
On short notice, I asked John Nicol, a close neighbor who expressed interest in being on the planning committee and Karen Scott who co-authored the letter regarding health impacts to the Board of Supervisors with her husband Jim to attend the meeting as well.

Following are short notes of our discussions during the meetings:

1. The role of Hill Studio as paid consultants to Invenergy is provide assistance for describing visual impact to the community & Blue Ridge Parkway and to serve as a community liaison for Invenergy. Their focus will be to provide additional long range, hi-resolution, fixed, photographic images of the wind turbines from 3 or 4 vantage points produced by Truescape of New Zealand.

2. Don Giecek stated that Invenergy would agree to provide us with the exact coordinates for the locations of each of the proposed 15 wind turbines for the purpose of providing us with data to conduct an independent visual, health, and environmental impact study of their proposed project. He stated that he hadn't provided them to this date because they decided to adjust a few locations after in-field observations. For this reason, Invenergy's engineering consutants were currently revising the application to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval. He added that they intended to file that application before pursuing a Special Use Permit from Roanoke County. (I'm guessing here, but with my years of service on the BZA, the shortest legal timeframe with Roanoke County would be at least 90 days from their SUP application submission)

3. Karen Scott asked if Invenergy was conducting any specific studies regarding the human health impacts of low frequency (ELF, ULF, VLF) sound production in mountainous regions.

4. Don G. responded that Invenergy hadn't done these specific studies for this project. He added that Invenergy may retain a sound consultant to address these concerns.

5. John Nicol reported that he had visited wind farms in Scotland but didn't think they were placed as close to homes as they are being proposed here.

6. Much discussion took place regarding the size of the proposed turbines (2.5 Megawatt, 443 tall from ground to top of propeller blade) compared to past studies being done on 1.5 Mw, 300' tall turbines. Don G. said that he did not know of any installation in the United States with the new, larger 2.5 Mw turbines.

7. Eldon Karr passed along the "undocumented" rumor that Invenergy (and/or production team) would be the recipient of a Federal Grant reimbursing the company (or companies) 164% of the in place cost of the installation.  Following this, Mr Giecek was asked How much taxpayers' money was being invested in this project.

8. Don G responded that he had never heard of grants being offered in the form of a percentage of construction cost. Further, he was not aware at the current time of what incentives might be offered by the Federal Government, so, it would be difficult to respond to the question.

9. Eldon expressed to Don his concern that regardless of the position the community takes regarding their proposal, Invenergy should obligate itself to financially reinvest in the Bent Mountain community in any proposal submitted to Roanoke County for a Special Use Permit.

Don and David left saying that they would get the new turbine coordinates to us as soon as available. Don also said he would be back in touch with more information about retaining a sound consultant to address those concerns.

To those who attended:

Please review and contact me with any additions, changes or corrections.

Bent Mountain Civic League

Update from 4-28-2010 Civic League Meeting:
Following is a list of the members of our comunity/family who attended:

Note: Although I have the email addresses and phone numbers of most who attended, I'm not publiching those in this blog for security.

The following are not intended to be meeting minutes which will be prepared by our re-elected secretary Karen Scott.

Election of Officers (for a 1-year term):

Eldon L. Karr - President
Kay Moore -     Vice President
Karen Scott -     Secretary
Carson King -    Treasurer

Board of Directors (according to by-laws):
Eldon L Karr, President
Ed Elswick, Past President
Annie Krochalis, Past President
Bruce Coffey, Past President
Ed Frost, for Frank Terry, Past President

Attendees:

Annie Krochalis
Bob Johnson
Kay Moore
Paula Bittinger
Joanie & Ed Kinser
Karen Scott
Sherwin Little
Ellen & Bob Rummel
John Nicol
Kasie & David McClamma
Mary Beth & Bruce Coffey
Mary & Jerry Gross
George & Sherry Penney
Joan & Dick Carver
Ann M. Kovats
Kathy E. Chandler
Bradley R. Foro
Ed Elswick
Frank Wilkins, SR
Genesis Chapman
Peter & Jenny Chapman
Helen Lamb
Hunter Smith
Eldon Karr
Drew Barrineau

Those who wish to be on the Planning Committee:
 
Eldon Karr ad hoc
Paula Bittinger
John Nicol
Mary Beth Coffey
Sherry Penney
Joan Carver
Ann M. Kovats
Kathy E. Chandler
Ed Elswick
Jenny Chapman
Helen Lamb
Annie Krochalis

Please comment with any changes, suggestions or additions to this form of communication.
 
Love you all like brothers & sisters,
Eldon