Windmills on Ice Mountain - Gamesa Wind Turbines

[salaman]

Wind farm contaminates well.



Transformer Blast: DEC says tests show just one residential water supply affected by spill at wind farm

A mineral oil spill caused by an Independence Day transformer explosion at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm has apparently contaminated a residential well.
However, it doesn’t appear to have affected neighboring wells according to state Department of Environmental Conservation officials.

The July 4 explosion at the wind farm substation up the hill from the hamlet on Rector Road – which caused a temporary shutdown of the facility – led to 491 gallons of oil leaking from the damaged transformer said DEC spokesman Steven W. Litwhiler.

“They reported the spill and they were quick-acting at commencing the cleanup” Mr. Litwhiler said.

However, a West Martinsburg resident in late November reported the presence of oil in his well water and tests ultimately determined that contaminant had the characteristics of oil used in the electrical transformers, he said. Wind farm officials have been notified of the findings which suggest the contaminants are remnants of the July 4 spill.

Neighboring wells were also tested for contaminants, with negative results, Mr. Litwhiler said.

We tested about 15 different homeowners’ wells in the area,” he said. “That was the only one that had a confirmed presence of oil.

Future testing is planned, he said.

DEC provided all residents with bottled water until confirming their wells were not contaminated, Mr. Litwhiler said. Agency officials are also working with the state Department of Health to determine potential long-term solutions like installation of a filtering system for the affected home he said.

DEC has taken no action against the wind farm, but the file on the spill hasn’t yet been closed. Wind farm officials have been cooperating thus far, Mr. Litwhiler said.

Tod W. Nash, the wind farm’s operations manager was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.

Wind farm officials were planning soon to change the transformer that malfunctioned and had a replacement part on hand, PPM Atlantic Renewable’s William M. Moore who developed the 195-turbine wind farm in the towns of Martinsburg and Lowville said in July.

The transformers’ insulation system consists of insulating oil and cellulous materials and that mixture generates small amounts of combustible and non-combustible gases under normal use, Mr. Nash said last month in an e-mail.

According to Mr. Nash, wind farm officials – as part of their routine maintenance schedule – in August and September took oil samples from randomly selected transformers and found that some had higher-than-normal levels of gases and subsequently tested the rest of them. Less than one-third were identified as having above-normal levels.

While the July 4 explosion was caused by equipment failure, not gas build-up, wind farm officials still decided to implement a 17-day around-the-clock “de-gassing effort” to avoid any potential incidents, Mr. Nash said. Two tractor trailers were used to filter gases from oil in the targeted transformers.

Wind farm staff are “working with the transformer manufacturer and several consultants specializing in transformer construction testing and operation to determine the cause of the gases being generated,” Mr. Nash wrote. “Based on their results, all transformers are tested rather than portion to provide the earliest possible detection of any abnormal condition.”




Web link: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/

[SoccerMom]

"But Kerns and other researchers returned last year and now estimate the 2004 death toll at between 1,500 and 4,000 bats. Nearby, another group of researchers, working at the 20-turbine wind farm in Pennsylvania, which came online a year ago, found a raft of bat carcasses as well."

This is unacceptable, in my opinion. So, with bat mortality at these high rate comes increases in pest populations feeding on our crops and feeding on us! What to do then but increase pesticide applications, which in the air exacerbates breathing conditions such as asthma, and on our food and in our ground water, potentially causing cancer and other health problems. Where are the ecological savings here???

[My2Cents]

Guess by now you know we made the front page of the Tyrone Harold once more. Very nice write up and it helped in clearing up one thing that I have been hearing over and over.... so many folks think that their electric bill will be lowered because of the wind farm... finally, it is made public and in print that it is pre-bought and will not lower electric bills. Hopefully this will clear up this fact to folks who believe otherwise. Thanks to articles like this, posted in our paper, in turn, drawing more and more attention and more and more understanding of the facts. :thumb:
Other things mentioned is the comment about "Gamesa proposes 25 windmills to generate 50 megawatts of clean electricity, enough to power about 15,000 homes." The general public, reading this statement will think 15,000 homes in this area and will not understand that the 50 megawatts is generated only if the wind is blowing. These facts along with so many others that Gamesa has stated are so misleading to the general public. Also, in the article is the money business... some folks will stop right there when they see that figure, think it's wonderful, and not consider all the implications.
I can see a vote postponement ONLY if it is needed to assure the public is fully aware of all the things at stake here.
One thing that stands out the most in the article is the fact that our council vows to take the necessary time to make the right decision for the borough and its residents. Personally, I feel very confident they will do this. Keep the faith folks, keep the faith.

[sandstone]

Statewide process should guide proposals

by the Harrisburg Patriot News editorial staff 12/16

It's good to see companies like Norfolk Southern looking for ways to incorporate alternative forms of energy into their operations. It's inescapable that they and the rest of us have to wean ourselves off our heavy dependence on fossil fuels.

This necessary transition would likely be far more robust and less worrisome about negative environmental impacts if it were guided by a broad set of rules based on sound science to protect both the environment and the public interest.

Spokesman Rudy Husband says Norfolk Southern is merely considering and has not yet decided whether to build a 200- to 225-foot wind turbine at its Enola freight yard, which borders the Susquehanna River, to power a new wastewater treatment facility.

While we have warned often against turning Pennsylvania's signature and still largely green ridge tops into wind farms, windmills appear to be well-suited to be built in a number of situations. These would include railroad yards, industrial parks, open farmlands, tall buildings in cities, brown-field sites and abandoned surface mining areas. In our view, wind power is part of the energy solution, if appropriately sited.

News of the Enola windmill, which would be the first of such size in the midstate, promptly generated concerns that it might have negative consequences for Pennsylvania's only colony of great egrets on nearby Wade Island. Black-crowned night herons and cormorants also call the island home. It isn't known whether a windmill at the freight yard would pose a danger to these birds.

If Pennsylvania had a scientifically sound and open windmill-siting process, possible conflicts such as this would be independently researched and decided. Without a legal framework to properly evaluate and make a determination, no one is well served -- not the public, not the wind industry, not those who want to take advantage of this technology, and certainly not the environment.

We need a sound windmill-siting process in Pennsylvania -- and need it soon -- both to advance this energy technology and to protect the environment.

Web link: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/patriotnews/ind...

[sandstone]

Wind power: There's a place for it, but not at the expense of environment

September 8, 2007 in the Harrisburg Patriot News - editorial staff

With new fears that the world is building new coal- fired electric generation plants at a pace that can only exacerbate global warming, the need to invest more heavily in alternative forms of environmentally friendly energy becomes ever more acute.

Wind needs to be part of that solution. But a critical question is this: How far do you go in trying to save the planet by destroying it?

Plastering Pennsylvania's ridgetops with massive wind turbines, to the possible decimation of bats, raptors and migrating songbirds, coupled with the visual impairment inflicted on these green mountains, erosion of thin mountain soils and the loss of public access, suggest to us that we need to find more suitable sites for wind and invest in less environmentally problematic solutions to climate change.

A plan to put windmills atop city-owned land on Peters Mountain, within sight of the Appalachian Trial and near the largest roadless area in eastern Pennsylvania, was a bad idea when Mayor Stephen R. Reed proposed it. And now that it has been determined, according to a city-financed study, that it would be uneconomic for the financially troubled city to undertake such a project at an estimated cost of $45 million, it be comes no better of an idea to lease the land to a private energy developer to put in windmills, as Reed said the city would be willing to do.

Everyone should take a good look at what is going on here -- and we concede that good people have conflicting views about the right and wrong of this -- and consider the forces that are unleashed in desperate situations.

In this case, the driving factors have less to do with the environment or an energy crisis than they do with the city's desperate need to generate money, as the Harrisburg Incinerator burns up $1 million a month while the various parties fight over how to stem the losses.

But this is just a microcosm of what potentially awaits us all in the years ahead on a planetary scale.

One would have to be a hermit to have missed the continuous warnings about the need to reduce carbon emissions significantly -- perhaps as much as 80 percent by 2050 -- to avoid reaching a tipping point in the planetary balance that has made the advancement of the human condition possible during the course of 10,000 years of a relatively mild climate. Yet, instead of moving to reduce carbon emissions, most of the world's countries, including the United States, continue to increase them.

This cannot continue without an eventual time of reckoning, which may already be upon us.

We appreciate the urgency, but ravaging the planet in the name of saving it doesn't constitute an alternative-energy strategy as much as an alternative environmental calamity.

There are many places where windmills would work fine without impact, but the entire effort is wasting valuable time trying to develop the optimum wind sites at the expense of every other consideration. That's an impediment to rigorously confronting climate change, not a solution.


Web link: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/patriotnews/ind...

[sandstone]

"But Kerns and other researchers returned last year and now estimate the 2004 death toll at between 1,500 and 4,000 bats. Nearby, another group of researchers, working at the 20-turbine wind farm in Pennsylvania, which came online a year ago, found a raft of bat carcasses as well."

This is unacceptable, in my opinion. So, with bat mortality at these high rate comes increases in pest populations feeding on our crops and feeding on us! What to do then but increase pesticide applications, which in the air exacerbates breathing conditions such as asthma, and on our food and in our ground water, potentially causing cancer and other health problems. Where are the ecological savings here???

Industrial wind turbines on forested ridges in the eastern US kill bats at a rate of 50-100 bats per turbine per year. If 4000 such turbines are planned to provide 10% of PA's electricity, then we can expect 200,000-400,000 bats to be killed by industrial-scale turbines annually in PA.

This kill rate is not sustainable.

[sandstone]

I can just see someone suggesting to put off the vote with the excuse of needing to gather up more information on the bats, and bird migrations, wind velocities, mortalities, carcasses, etc. Thinking that maybe all the "emotions" and the "passions" ( which is the excuse term being used here) will settle down and go away for a while, and we can look at things with an "open mind." (another throw in). Those terms that have been used over and over again have nothing to do with this.... this subject is very serious business and has nothing to do with wimpyness !!

Like it or not, emotions and passions play a very important role in life. Is it rational for the Marine to risk his life by running a gauntlet of enemy machine gun fire to rescue a wounded comrade? Love of country and love of family are values that most people praise. Many in Blair County have a love for our natural heritage. That emotion came out loud and clear during public meetings associated with the Blair County Comprehensive Plan update several years ago. At these meetings, people made it very clear that Blair County's natural heritage and wildlife were very important to them. This sentiment is reflected in the language of the Areawide Comprehensive Plan for Blair County that was approved by the County Commissioners last spring:

“The ridge tops in Blair County are one of its defining characteristics. As one looks in any direction, the mountain ridges dominate the landscape. They demonstrate the power and constancy of the natural forces that shaped them. Development along ridge tops should be discouraged so that their imposing beauty is preserved. Ridge lines that should be conserved are the Allegheny Front and Dunning, Short, Loop, Lock, Brush, Bald Eagle, Canoe, and Tussey Mountains.”

[My2Cents]

sandstone.... you are so very, very right !!! I must say, I can't speak for all, however, we are so very greatful to you for sharing your knowledge and expertise, along with all the facts and outstanding information that you have taken time to contribute to this board. You have most definitely been giving it your all and I'm quite sure you still have much more to contribute. You deserve a medal...our community should be very proud and grateful for all your help. Thank you sandstone !!!

[My2Cents]

Maybe it's me, but, I couldn't bring up the pennlive.com website submitted above.

[My2Cents]

I must add, I didn't mean to single out just sandstone in the above post... many of you, and you know who you are, have gone above and beyond... for that, we are grateful.

[jayestewart]

Here in Florida we operate several nuclear power plants. Here's what we have found happens with Nuclear power.

http://photobucket.com/mediadetail/?med ... geOffset=2

[jayestewart]

After looking at all of this mind boggling material I thought maybe some humor was in order. I would be surprised if this gets the nod from the council. I can see the main struggle is $$$$ vs Environmental Impact. Obviously this would help reduce the need to raise taxes which could be a huge selling point. How much is to be gained by putting this in place on borough owned property?

[sandstone]

After looking at all of this mind boggling material I thought maybe some humor was in order. I would be surprised if this gets the nod from the council. I can see the main struggle is $$$$ vs Environmental Impact. Obviously this would help reduce the need to raise taxes which could be a huge selling point. How much is to be gained by putting this in place on borough owned property?

$60,000 - 90,000 annually.

[sandstone]

sandstone.... you are so very, very right !!! I must say, I can't speak for all, however, we are so very greatful to you for sharing your knowledge and expertise, along with all the facts and outstanding information that you have taken time to contribute to this board. You have most definitely been giving it your all and I'm quite sure you still have much more to contribute. You deserve a medal...our community should be very proud and grateful for all your help. Thank you sandstone !!!

Thanks for the compliments. Big thanks need to go out to all those borough residents who've contacted Borough Council members to give them their opinion regarding the windplant and to those working on getting signatures for the petition!

[jayestewart]

Hmm...that's a considerable chunk of change. That might be a determining factor unless that kind of funding could be generated elsewhere. It is a shame but the reality is that it takes money to run a city government. How many signatures are there on the petititon thus far?