CANTON — The Board of Environmental Protection will consider a Carthage woman’s appeal of the Canton Mountain Wind Project at its meeting Thursday, Nov. 20.
The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. at the Elks Lodge at 397 Civic Center Drive in Augusta.
Alice McKay Barnett, a wind power opponent, and representatives of Canton Mountain Wind LLC will address the board.
The meeting is not a public hearing, but members of the public are welcome to attend and observe, Cindy Bertocci, the board’s executive analyst, said Friday in an email.
In May, the Department of Environmental Protection approved the nearly $50 million, eight-turbine wind project on Canton Mountain, issuing a permit to Canton Mountain Wind, which is owned by Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass.
On July 17, Barnett submitted seven documents of supplemental evidence that mostly concern turbine noise adversely affecting health.
In her petition for review of final agency action against the DEP and Canton Mountain Wind, Barnett wrote that she objected to a ruling that the wind developer establish a toll-free complaint hotline designated to allow concerned residents to call in noise-related complaints 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Barnett said she believes a complaint hotline like that should be in the hands of health officials instead of a wind developer. She said Patriot Renewables “is not responsible to collect data of complaints.”
Barnett cited and included several examples of that, such as complaints from residents adversely affected by turbine noise from Patriots’ Spruce Mountain Wind farm in Woodstock and the developer’s control of noise by purchasing noise easements or making sound agreements with property owners.
On behalf of Canton Mountain Wind, Matthew Manahan, a lawyer with Pierce Atwood of Portland, filed comments on Aug. 21 on the admissibility of Barnett’s proposed supplemental evidence.
Canton Mountain Wind argued that Barnett’s attachments didn’t meet the criteria for admission and asked that they be stricken from the record.
Robert A. Foley, chairman of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection in Augusta, agreed, rejecting all seven attachments by not admitting them into the record.
The applicant also argued that Barnett’s inclusion of references in her appeal to the concerns of other individuals who didn’t appeal the licensing decision should be stricken from the appeal. Foley disagreed.
He said that information was submitted by Barnett during the application review process via emails to department staff dated March 25 and 28. Foley said that while the listed individuals aren’t appellants, Barnett’s statement is in the record and can be cited.
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