Planner okays final draft of wind farm impact study

The final version of the study of the environmental impacts of a proposed wind farm in north Whitman County was released last week.

In the final study, CH2M Hill, the engineering firm hired by First Wind of Boston to do the study, lays out the specific details of the project and answers comments submitted over the past three months by residents, wildlife organizations and public agencies.

First Wind is asking the county’s permission to install a wind farm consisting of as many as 65 turbines on 9,000 acres of ground on Naff Ridge and Steam Shovel Hill. The proposed site is located east of Highway 195 with the north end bordered by Blank Road south of Rosalia. The project area runs southeast toward Oakesdale.

County Planner Alan Thomson gave final approval to CH2M Hill’s environmental impact statement (EIS). His approval is required because Thomson deemed the wind farm would indeed significantly impact the environment under terms of the State Environmental Policy Act.

Several critics of the EIS said studies regarding bird and wildlife usage of the area were lacking.

CH2M Hill answered those critics, which included the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Palouse Audobon Society and several local citizens, by saying more detailed studies will be performed as the permit process progresses.

CH2M Hill said closer wildlife studies will be performed during a “micrositing process” if the project advances to the point where First Wind will designate the actual sites of the turbines. The micrositing will be presented if the project advances to the building permit stage.

The engineering firm also said First Wind will consult with the county and Palouse Prairie Foundation if its plans include disturbance of patches of rare Palouse Prairie at the site.

Comments filed in the impact study process have noted native prairie is considered a habitat for the giant Palouse Earthworm. Local conservation groups have petitioned to have the worm listed as an endangered species.

CH2M Hill did not perform field surveys in search of the worm.

“Field surveys for the GPE (worm) were not conducted, in part, because methods used to survey for the species can cause injury or mortality to the species,” the firm wrote in a comment response.

CH2M Hill noted it had not marked native plants of cultural significance to the Palus Indian tribe, now part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indians.

The firm responded to the Nez Perce tribe’s request to list Steptoe Butte’s significance to their tribe’s heritage, though the EIS noted Steptoe Butte is south of the project and was not included in the EIS.

In response to a number of comments made on the harmful health effects of low frequency noise from the turbines, CH2M Hill wrote the prime, scientifically-verified impact from that sound is annoyance. Many of the studies showing harmful health effects, the study said, were based on old turbines. Technology advancements have limited sound produced by turbines, they said.

Calls by citizens for a low-frequency sound scale to measure turbine noise at houses should be taken up through state or county lawmaking process, not in a conditional use application, said CH2M Hill.

Next step in the process is a public hearing for a conditional use permit. Thomson said that hearing is now scheduled May 9 in the county’s CETC building at Colfax.

Wenatchee attorney Andrew Kottkamp will act as a hearings examiner to decide whether or not the county should issue the permit. A conditional use permit is required to install the turbines in the ag zone.

Thomson said Kottkamp presided over the conditional use permit hearings for Puget Sound Energy’s Lower Snake River Wind project in Garfield and Columbia counties.

The final EIS can be appealed through the county planning office until April 14. However, any appeal of the EIS would be heard concurrently with the conditional use permit hearing.

The entire EIS can be viewed on Whitman County’s web site: http://www.whitmancounty.org.