Electric blowing in the wind?

Representatives from BP Wind Energy attended the Hegins Township Supervisors meeting Monday evening to field questions from the public regarding the proposed wind farm.
According to Mike McCoy of BP, wind resource studies that have been conducted to date seem to be pretty favorable, but before the project will begin, BP needs at least two years worth of data and they are not quite at the point.
McCoy said a number of studies have been completed with a PJM, a company that studies the regulations and controls the electric grid transmissions. McCoy claims the company is prepared to move forward with the interconnection if the project gets to that point.
Environmental and
permit issues
According to Hank Seltzer, BP Environmental Specialist, who also attended the meeting, there has been two years worth of avian and bat studies completed in the area where the wind turbines are planned to be erected.
“We need to get an idea of what types of birds are using the area, such as habitation, migration and reproduction of the birds,” said Seltzer. “We are also doing studies concerning the Allegheny Wood Rats and this summer we plan to do a study specifically on Indiana bats. This will help us to determine what types of permits and clearances we will need to obtain.”
McCoy said permits will not be applied for before all the studies are complete. He said he is anticipating late summer or fall.
Health and Safety issues
Terry Wolfgang, who works for DEP Mine Safety asked McCoy and Seltzer if they are aware of all the mining that has been done at the south end of the ridge.
“The ridge looks annihilated, there has been 1,000 acres timbered already,” said Wolfgang. “The wildlife habitat is going down real fast.”
Wolfgang asked the BP representatives if they are aware that Robert Rifkin, the landowner, has leased the same land to three or four different entities already.
McCoy says he is aware of that and they have asked that the timbering be stopped, but admitted that they are not sure if that has taken place or not. McCoy says Rifkin has a master timbering plan for the land and he says the timbering that is being completed now may be included in that master plan.
“There are many issues that you people need to think about concerning that land,” said Wolfgang. “I believe they are using this wind project to rape the rest of the land. There has been biosolids applied to that land, there has been a lot of mining on that land including mine holes, etc.”
McCoy said BP has had a performance engineer from Big Stone, VA, who has been doing mining engineering for 30 years, studying the land and making evaluations.
“What does that man from Virginia know about our straight vein anthracite mining,” said Wolfgang.
Hegins resident Ken Graham also expressed some safety concerns. He says there are issues with Homeland Security, the Joe Zerbe Airport, Indiantown Gap, EMS and Medivac Helicopters.
“This is going to affect radar signals and communications are already sketchy in this area,” said Graham.
Cathy Hopstetter posed a question regarding strobe lights on the turbines. According to McCoy there will not be strobe lights on the units. He says there will be a red pulsing light on every second or third one, just to alert planes.
A questions was raised by another resident concerning the noise the turbines will generate. According to McCoy, the noise will be 45 decibels per 1000 feet. He said it will be no louder than your kitchen refrigerator.
“That is bull,” said Ralph Lucht, who is in the hearing aid business. “You plan to erect 50-60 windmills and you’re saying we won’t here noise? You will hear noise, it will destroy the animals and will destroy this valley for big bucks. We will get nothing out of this and the landowner will be laughing in his Florida condo because he doesn’t have a wind farm in his backyard and you two from BP will be laughing too because you don’t have one either and if you did you would move. This valley will be ruined because of money. Wake up people and do something about this.”
“You people think we just fell off the turnip truck,” said Graham. “You do a big study about rats and bats, but the hell with the safety of the people. There will be no jobs created and we will not be getting the electricity. This is a joke. This will be like a sci-fi movie and I don’t want it in my backyard. The landowner is in Florida and he doesn’t care about us.”
Where will the
power go
“The power market is a bit off right now,” said McCoy. “There are no purchase arrangements made for the electricity. Some will most likely stay in PA and some could go anywhere in the Middle North Atlantic region. There will be a power-purchase agreement, but there isn’t one in place yet.”
“I bet when these things are in place and we get a storm and lose power, Philadelphia will have power but our valley won’t,” said Ralph Lucht. “We are getting a screwing with this deal. We are going to have to form a committee and raise money to build an amusement park and call it ‘Whirly Gig Town’ because this is what’s coming. Frank Clear-Cut Krammes is taking every tree of the Donaldson Mountain and it will be destroyed. The place will look like a whirly gig town.”
What can be done to stop the project
“We haven’t given out any permits to this company,” said Supervisor Vicki Harman. “Although our SEO Randy Young said he was conducting soil tests for another wind farm and while he was still doing the tests, the turbines were already being erected.”
The supervisors authorized township solicitor David Rattigan to investigate the possibility of an ordinance that would deter the project from happening. Rattigan said he has drafted a public safety wind ordinance. The ordinance will be advertised and will be adopted at a future meeting.
The audience applauded when Sue Ann Brocanero made a closing comment.
“The mountains are these people’s lives, their food, their subsidence. If you take these mountains away then this isn’t Hegins. This is personal - really personal. For these people, hunting, farming and fishing is their lives. You don’t get it unless you live here. Krammes does live here and he flattens the trees and doesn’t care,” said Brocanero.
More information concerning other township business will appear in next week’s edition of The Citizen-Standard.

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