Public Hearing for Whitney Hill Wind Farm draws questions and comments

 

[March 11, 2019] 

On Thursday, March 7, the Zoning Board of Appeals held a public hearing on the Whitney Hill Wind Farm project planned near Mount Pulaski to consider whether to recommend approval of the conditional use permit and two variance requests.

This project is the second phase of the HillTopper wind project currently in operation.

Matt Birchby of Swift Current Energy and Kyle Barry, attorney for the project, shared basic information about the plans. Birchby has been working with the HillTopper project since it started, and Barry has been the attorney for both projects.

Barry said the ZBA would be voting on three separate items, the conditional use permit and two variance requests. One request is for sound variance from a landowner who signed an easement waiver allowing the company to exceed sound thresholds on that tower. The other is an agricultural zone variance because the portion where the wind turbine will be located is in an area zoned special district.

The Regional Planning Commission heard about the plans last month and unanimously recommended approval of the conditional use permit.

Birchby said the HillTopper project cost $350 million and brought in economic benefits to the county that included $787,888 in building permit fees. Payments to participating landowners will add up to $26.2 M over the 30-year project life.

For non-participating landowners, payments will add up to $5.7 M with those within 3,000 feet of a turbine receiving $1,000 a year.

Birchby said from the HillTopper project, they have learned what they can do better in terms of construction and roads. He is already talking to the Logan County Highway Department and other road authorities about plans for Whitney Hill.

Birchby said the Whitney Hill project will be 1.5 miles from Mount Pulaski near Lake Fork and at the eastern end of HillTopper towards 2000th Avenue. It will cover about 4,000 acres.

Whitney Hill will use the same switchyard as HillTopper because it allows up to 350 megawatts to be connected.

This project will be capped at 26 turbines and 65 megawatts. The turbines will be a GE model newer than what is at HillTopper and will be up to 499 feet at tip height and have a 2.82-megawatt capacity. Three turbines will be about 455 feet tall.

There will also be underground collection lines, a project substation, and access roads.

An Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement was executed January 2019.

Birchby said they will use HillTopper’s Operation and Management Building in the former Bo-Jac office. Construction is anticipated to begin May 2019.

Birchby said the Whitney Hill Project is a $100 M project and would bring in between $236,939 and $256, 913 in permit fees to the county and $400,000 per year in property taxes.

Participating landowners would receive $16 M in payments over the 30-year course of the project and $2.2 M would be paid to non-participating landowners. Birchby said non-participating landowners within 3,000 feet of a turbine would receive $1,000 a year and there are about 45 homes within 300 feet.

The company is hoping to have an aircraft detection lighting system that detects whether there are any aircraft in the vicinity of the project installed for both Whitney Hill and HillTopper wind turbines. If there are no aircraft nearby at night, it will turn FAA lights off for at least 98 percent of nighttime hours. Birchby said they are working to get it approved by the FAA.

The Logan County Ordinance establishes a 1,000-foot minimum setback from any structure and Birchby said average setbacks from homes will be 1,800 feet. Additional setbacks from other structures are 1.1 times the height of the wind turbine when sited by public roads, transmission lines, communication towers, pipelines and pipeline utilities, property lines of non-participating landowners. If a 499 foot tall turbine is used, the required setback would be 549 feet.

Birchby said they will follow Illinois Pollution Control Board standards, except in the case of the sound variance, which would be less than two decibels above the range.

After Birchby’s presentation, Barry had witnesses share results of a sound study, wildlife studies, property value studies, and decommissioning plans.

Jeff Long, who has worked for AWS Truepower for eleven years, has done over a dozen project sound studies. Long did a projection of sound levels using UL’s open wind software, looking at turbine and receptor locations and site-specific variables like temperature and humidity. Long said he concluded the layout would be compliant with IPCB sound rules for both night and day hours as all turbines will be lower than 41 decibels, aside from the one requesting a sound variance.

Barry asked Long to explain the noise reduction operation.

Long said Noise Reduction Operation means the rotor speed of the turbine is reduced to reduce sound output if needed.

Rebecca Schmitt, who has been doing wildlife risk and impact studies for over 25 years, has done studies for over 15 proposed projects. Schmitt said West, the company she works for, did surveys of the risks to birds, bats, and other sensitive species, an avian use survey of endangered birds like bald eagles, eagle nest survey, and surveys of bat activity in the spring and fall. They expect low risks for all the species.

In a wetland study, Schmitt said there were no high-quality wetland observed. There are couple waterways, but less than 0.1 acres of stream and wetland impacts. Schmitt consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Illinois Department of Natural Resources for each study and both concurred with her findings.

Pete Polletti, a township assessor in Collinsville and designated appraiser, did a real estate impact study. Poletti’s real estate study looked at operational wind projects and sales data along with the assumption of impact.

Polletti did property value studies in Wind Groves and Mendota Hills to look at the impact of their wind farms on property values. He checks a target area of homes near wind farms and a control area with similar land and looks at home sales in both, then averages sales numbers.

Poletti said he found no statistical difference between homes near a wind farm and those a distance from it, and has concluded there is no considerable impact on sales. He does not feel there will be an impact on homes near the project.

Jay Whetmore, who has done 13 decommissioning plans and cost estimates, talked about the decommissioning plans. Whetmore did the plan for the Whitney Hill project and said the total costs would be $4,009,675, which includes costs to disassemble towers, remove concrete foundations and aggregate from the substation and payments for crop loss.

Whetmore said the structural steel from the turbine can be salvaged for almost $2.8 M and the aluminum for about $129,657.

Whetmore said this plan conforms to HillTopper’s Logan County approved decommissioning plan and methodology. The plan will be reviewed after ten years.

With their presentation Barry asked that the ZBA make a recommendation for approval to the county board.

Next, members of the ZBA asked some questions.

ZBA member John Fulton asked if the tower that does not meet the noise criteria was in reduced noise operating mode?

Long said it is a combination of sound from five turbines.

ZBA member Cheryl Baker how much the sound missed the criteria?

Birchby said it was missed by less than two decibels at nighttime. It would be a challenge to resolve it by just noise reduction mode.

ZBA chairman Doug Thompson asked if a house on a hill not far from a tower would hear a higher decibel level?

Long said in elevated areas, sound is not usually higher.

ZBA member Scott Noltensmeier asked about broken tiles, what they would do for the landowners, and how long they have to fix it?

Daniel Sheehan of Swift Current Energy said with HillTopper, they compensated one landowner for crop damage and fixed the tile. Sheehan said they schedule repairs as quickly as possible and have 48 hours to get the repair done if water is flowing in the tile and weather conditions permit it.

Birchby said the company is responsible for fixing the tile.

Thompson asked who fixes the tile if broken during decommissioning.

Birchy said the decommissioning security is responsible, though decommissioning is less invasive.

Noltensmeier asked why Primm Road was in bad shape at the start of the HillTopper project construction and how they would avoid something like that for this project?

Birchby said the strength of the road was a problem and studies they need from labs on the necessary cement stabilization were delayed for weeks, which caused the road to fall into greater disrepair than it should have. The company has now learned to do more lab tests and studies and have more interaction with road engineers in advance of the project to have proper strengthening mix. Whitney Hill also does not have the bottleneck Primm Road does.

The floor was then opened for public comments and several community members expressed their concerns about health issues, noise levels, road damage, and property damage.

Richard Camp said he has vertigo, headaches, and tinnitus and asserts that doctors have told him what he has is consistent with living within 2,500 feet of wind turbines. Camp asked about making setbacks 2,500 feet or more from homes to help alleviate this problem. Camp said he is going to have to move, but another home he owns is near turbines too, so he cannot move to his other home. Camp asked the ZBA to consider the health and welfare of the community and deny the zoning.

Ronald Ellis lives within 1,800 feet of towers and said he hears a lot of noise from the turbines. He asked about whether they have done any post construction sound studies?

Long said they have not had to reassess energy output.

Birchby said they will do more sound studies.

When asked by Noltensmeier what would happen if a turbine failed a sound test, Birchby said if a turbine is not sound compliant, a landowner should reach out to the operations manager and ask that it be checked. If the turbine is not sound compliant, the company will have to make it compliant and put the turbine in noise reduction mode.

Lori Batchelder lives close to the wind farm and said she was initially open minded. She said her road is in horrible shape and has a huge dip and wants to know when it will be fixed. Batchelder asked the ZBA to consider the road issues and noise.

Sheehan said the roads are scheduled to be fixed later this month by regrading and putting oil and chip on them. He said gravel will be added to fix the pothole.

Kelby Ford said he was told roads would be fixed last fall and not this spring and feels some information has been misrepresented.

Birchby said if construction and weather had allowed, the plan was to fix them sooner.

Sandra Ellis said she is not getting advanced notice of power outages and when email and phones are down, it affects her home business. She said there is also devastation to property that needs to be repaired and asked the ZBA to consider the negative impacts to properties and to their quality of life.

After the public comments ended, Thompson said due to the lateness of the hour, they would reconvene next week to consider the requests and make their decision.

The next ZBA public hearing will be held Wednesday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the American Legion in Mount Pulaski.

[Angela Reiners]