County wants teeth in wind farm contracts
Staff writer
After years of fielding public complaints about wind farm noise, faulty lights, and broadcast interference, county officials bluntly pressed commissioners Monday to decide what to do about it.
“These issues just keep coming up week after week after week after week,” planning and zoning director Sharon Omstead said. “We just need to know what your board wants to do about it.”
Saying the county has “never stopped and really pressed a bit” for how aggressively it wants to act, county counselor Brad Jantz bluntly framed the discussion, which went on for over an hour.
The county needs to decide whether it wants “potentially concrete action — up to and including litigation in certain instances — to try to find a level of compliance that’s acceptable to this board,” Jantz said.
Olmstead, Jantz, and county administrator Tina Spencer walked commissioners through a range of unresolved complaints, potential contract violations, and possible county responses.
Noise complaints have mounted over time, but no sound studies have shown turbine noise exceeding 55 decibels, Olmstead said.
Commissioner Clarke Dirks asked Olmstead to provide sound testing data over time to see noise levels had increased.
The sharpest frustration among commissioners centered on the Aircraft Detection Lighting System, a technology that was supposed to eliminate constant red-light blinking across the wind farm by activating turbine lights only when aircraft approach.
The Aircraft Detection Lighting System, or ADLS — a technology that was supposed to elim-inate constant red-light blinking by activating turbine lights only when aircraft were overhead. Orsted, the wind farm owner, has repeatedly told the county it was working on the problem with no apparent fix.
An exchange between commissioner Dave Crofoot and Dirks illustrated the divide over how seriously to enforce the wind farm’s contract.
Crofoot said wind farms provide “a good income tax base, and the lights don’t hurt anybody.”
Dirks replied: “I didn’t move out to rural Marion County to look at 14 red lights blinking on the horizon every night. You probably can’t see them. So, you have nothing to say about it.”
In the end, commissioners decided to have Jantz draft a formal notice of violation, listing possible fines or litigation, for review at their next meeting.
Commissioner Kent Becker set the tone.
“I think we could be civil with a letter that has enough teeth in it that we’ll know if they’re going to do anything or not,” he said.
Jantz accepted the task but issued his own condition.
“I have no desire to make that threat if we’re not going to follow through on it,” he said.