Wind farm hearing gauges interest

WOODSTOCK — An informal poll at Tuesday night's public hearing on a wind farm project for Spruce Mountain showed 18 in favor, nine against and nine uncertain.

Patriot Renewables of Quincy, Mass., is proposing to install nine to 11 wind turbines with a total of 18 to 20 megawatts of output. Last week, the Planning Board found the application for a permit was complete. It called Tuesday's public hearing on the project.

Andy Novey, project director with the company, said a service road would be constructed to access the site. A distribution line would also be strung to a Central Maine Power line along Cushman Road before being fed into the power grid via a Woodstock transformer.

Eric Kalapinski and Rob Mitchell, consultants with Tetra Tech of Portland, spoke about the potential noise and wildlife impacts of the project. Kalapinski said a study was done taking into consideration the maximum operation of the turbines at full speed and found that the noise would only exceed 50 decibels close to the top of the mountain. The nearest residential property is 2,200 feet away from the proposed site of the turbines.

Mitchell said a study also determined that the farm would also not affect the migration of birds or bats because the majority of the patterns would be flying higher than the height of the blades. He also said the study, conducted in the spring and fall, observed a low number of such flights in the area.

Some residents questioned whether noise would remain an issue. One camp owner said he would probably still be able to hear the turbines, because he is able to hear loons on Shagg Pond. Resident Ingrid Erikson said the vibrations caused by the spinning blades would cause problems.

Erikson said she was originally in favor of wind turbine projects, but believes they will drive down property values. She said  they will not lead to a beneficial environmental impact because backup power sources are needed when wind is not activating the turbines.

"When I listen to these answers I think they're only partial truths," she said.

Novey said a 7 to 8 mph wind is needed to run the turbines. He said that wind energy is a way of feeding cheap energy into the electricity grid, and that it will reduce the use of more expensive fuels in the grid.

"This is about the smallest size project that's being permitted in Maine right now," he said.

Jesper Kruse of Greenwood said he used to live in the country of Denmark and never experienced any problems with the numerous wind turbines set up there.

"I kind of appreciate looking up at them and knowing it's clean energy coming out of it," he said.

Novey said there would also be post-construction monitoring to remedy any potential issues with noise and bird migration. He said the company must also prove to the Department of Environmental Protection and Federal Aviation Administration that the wind farm will not interfere with microwave signals.

Thomas Hartford, chairman of the Planning Board, called for a straw poll to see how the residents at the hearing felt about the project. Eighteen were in favor, nine were against, and nine were uncertain.

Novey said that the project must pass numerous checks from federal and state agencies, including a Natural Resources Protection Act permit and FAA determination of no hazard from the turbine heights.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com