Turbine plan revision: Critics contend impact study for Steam Shovel Hill lacking

A study of the environmental impacts from First Wind’s expanded wind farm proposal are incomplete, according to comments submitted to Whitman County’s planning office.

Eleven people submitted comments on the firm’s plan to add 10 turbines on Steam Shovel Hill west of Oakesdale to its Palouse Wind project. The Steam Shovel addition and the original Naff Ridge application could put as many as 65 turbines on 9,000 acres of ground.

Deadline for submitting comments on the amended plan was Monday.

Deadline for comments on the initial plan was Dec. 20.

Most of the people who commented said the environmental impact study did not have enough data on wildlife population and activities within the project boundaries.

The wind farm proposal is situated east of Highway 195 and is bordered by Oakesdale Road on the south and Blank Road on the north.

Officials with First Wind said additional studies will be done as the company narrows down exact turbine locations, a process known as micro-siting.

“Before we start construction, we will have to re-survey the same micro-siting corridors to confirm the presence or absence of a species again,” said Ben Fairbanks, First Wind’s director of Northwest business development.

The environmental impact statement was prepared by the engineering firm CH2MHill.

County planning officials will determine if the comments must be addressed in the environmental study. The study is a requirement of First Wind’s application for a conditional use permit.

Critics, including one identified only as Karl and Associates, said the firm’s studies of birds that live in the proposed area were “grossly inadequate.”

“The incompleteness of the avian survey becomes obvious when not one owl species has been noted during the survey,” wrote Thomas Weber, president of the Palouse Audobon Society.

Only two days of study on “special status wildlife” were documented, noted Weber, Karl and Associates, David Hall, president of the Palouse Prairie Foundation, Carolyn Kiesz of Thornton, Bill Vogel of Olympia and David Skinner of Moscow.

Some also criticized the study for failing to protect the 250 acres of Palouse Prairie remnants in the proposed project area.

Skinner, Karl, Hall and Weber all noted proximity of turbines to prairie pockets. They doubted the ability to plant compensatory land for prairie lost to the development.

“Damaged Prairies cannot simply be repaired by ‘seeding native grasses’ as is suggested in the (environmental impact statement,)” wrote Skinner.

Hall also urged the county require First Wind to state whether it will pull water from the Grand Ronde aquifer or if it will use water from shallower wells and surface water. The project is expected to use some 13 million gallons of water for dust suppression and concrete mixing during construction.

Kiesz and Roger Whitten of Oakesdale repeated their concerns that low frequency sound waves off the turbine blades would damage the health of neighboring residents.

Pullman city councilman Barney Waldrop requested a requirement that turbines that do not generate power for a six-month period be decommissioned and removed at the company’s cost.

Marlena Shahan Gregory, a Whitman County native now living in Klamath Falls, Ore., wrote in opposition to the Steam Shovel addition, calling turbines “unsightly to say the least.”

Photographer Andy Keatts of Clarkston said that, as a photographer, he thinks the turbines will have a positive aesthetic impact on the county.

Johnson Meminick of the Yakama Indian Nation reminded the county to consult with area tribes on cultural surveys before allowing construction.

County Planner Alan Thomson said the comments will be reviewed, and he hopes to have the environmental impact statement finalized by the end of this month.

The public will then have two weeks to file an appeal of the finalized statement. An appeal would be heard before a hearings examiner along with the conditional use permit hearing.