Madison Planning Board Draws a Crowd for Windmill Discussion

RFH 2010, Featured Articles, News

Thu, Feb 16, 2012

MADISON -- Members of the Town of Madison Planning Board tonight commented how they normally do their work with few, if any, spectators looking on.

Thursday night, they had a full house. About 80 people -- including some very vocal and very unhappy ones -- attended the meeting at which the board took some fairly routine action to declare itself the lead agency for reviewing a proposed windfarm. At times, it seemed as though members of the audience was running the meeting -- moved from the village hall to fire department -- the and not the board.

In the end, the board voted to be the lead agency to review the specifics of the $110 million project that calls for erecting 36 500-foot-tall wind turbines on 7,500 acres from south of Route 20 to near Hubbardsville. They also took action that now requires Horizon Wind Energy, part of EDP Renweables North America of Houston, the company developing the project, to prepare a detailed draft environmental impact statement.

Horizon -- whose parent company is headquartered in Spain -- is the third largest developer of wind energy projects in the U.S. and the world. The company co-developed the Maple Ridge wind project near Lowville and 26 others.

Planning Board Chairman Roger Williams set aside parliamentary procedure and allowed members of the audience to ask questions and make comments. There will be other meetings and mandatory public hearings for more opportunities.

Most vocal Thursday night was Jane Welsh (in photo), a lawyer who lives on McCormick Road. She said she reviewed a draft of a draft of an environmental assessment prepared by the company and asked numerous questions, and called on the board to be open and transparent in its deliberations. She also:

questioned the maps that Horizon submitted;
said the list of landowners near the project was incomplete;
challenged the description of the project site as mostly agricultural land with some recreational homes;
wants the company to address any issues that may affect telecommunications, such as cell phone and radio reception;
and asked the board to require Horizon to test all drinking water wells near the project site before and after construction to ensure water quality is not affected.

Welsh also asked that all town officials disclose if they will benefit in any way by the development of the project.

Between questions and comments, the board reviewed a list of environmental issues raised by the project, which would begin construction in 2015, These ranged:

from its impact on public health and safety to any affect on recreation;
from issues of noise to whether it would affect local traffic;
from its impact on ground water to whether it would affect air quality;
from issues of affecting wetlands to its impact on endangered or threatened species.

The board's answers to these and other question required it have Horizon submit a complete environmental impact statement. This will be reviewed by the planning board, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and other involved agencies -- and the public and any adjustments made.

In the end the planning board will have to recommend to the town board whether to issue the required special use permit necessary for the project.

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