First Wind files formal application for turbines

First Wind submitted its official application for a wind farm for 40 turbines to the county planning department last week.

Planner Alan Thomson said the submittal kicks off a long period of review and permitting for the Boston-based company, which has established an operating office in Oakesdale.

“A minimum of four to five months,” Thomson said Monday. “It could go longer.”

More than 4,900 acres of land owned by 14 property owners is classified as part of the project under the firm’s application. Much of that land would be used to site electric transmission lines for the output of the turbines.

Although the company is asking for permission for as many as 55 turbines, a map submitted with the application shows 40 potential tower sites slated for placement on Naff Ridge and Granite Butte which extents to the southeast of Naff Ridge.

Turbines would stand a maximum of 426 feet from ground to top of blade rotation circle and be placed on pads that would be 40-feet in diameter.

Aim of the turbine farm is to produce a total of 100 megawatts electricity.

First Wind in its application states each turbine would permanently occupy 1.2 acres.

Acres for the entire wind farm was set at just shy of 79 acres, not quite 21 of those would be access roads.

The company estimates 245 acres would be disturbed during construction, with access roads on 61 acres.

Power from the wind farm will be transmitted to Avista’s high-tension line that runs north-south about four miles west of the wind farm site on the west side of Highway 195.

First Wind has offered to have CH2M Hill prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement to meet the State Environmental Policy Act. The statement would be a more detailed analysis than would come through the State Environmental Policy Act checklist.

The county now has to determine if the First Wind application is complete and issue a SEPA ruling on the need for an environmental impact statement.

Thomson Monday said the public will be asked to comment on the company’s proposal throughout the EIS process.