CCCC is challenging approvals for this project proposal by the town board and planning board in court. Copies of the court papers are posted here. Basic background is provided here.
On Monday, May 16, 2011, the Allegany Planning Board voted 3-2 to approve local permits for the wind farm. On August 29 by a 4-1 vote the Town Board approved rezoning the project area to allow the project. However, Everpower still needs a building permit from the Town, and it continues to negotiate with the Town of Carrollton for a road use agreement since the City of Olean has refused to allow substantially overweight trucks (at least 8,500 trips) through the downtown area.
On May 14, 2012 Everpower told the Planning Board it would not use Chipmonk Road to transport large wind turbine parts, but would haul gravel up Chipmonk Road. Everpower plans to transport turbine parts from Pennsylvania to the project area through Nichols Run Road. The Planning Board decidd to postpone a decision untiul its June 11, 2012 meeting.
Comments to the Town Board summarizing outstanding issues were submitted on August 25, 2011. These and other CCCC comments to the Town are posted here, incliuding comments on Everpower's request to extend its permit beyond the initial 12 months approved.
The application and impact study is available here, as well as the Allegany Public Library and Town Hall. The Planning Board's responses to previous public comments on a draft impact study are found in FEIS Appendix N.
The impact study is written in plain language, so area residents can readily see whether the study accurately and fully addresses effects on local resources, including decline in property values, degradation of skyline, intrusive truck traffic (thousands of trips through Olean and Allegany would be required), bird and bat kills, and whether wind power provides permanent local jobs and other public benefits, such as reliable electricity.
THE BASICS
Everpower proposes to install 29 industrial wind turbines each about 500 feet high at the upper reach of the blade tip, or 200 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty, with blade spans over 300 feet that would reach about 160 mph at the tip. Each turbine would generate about 107 decibels.
About 60 parcels are leased from private property owners to make up the project site. A list of property owners leasing to Everpower is available here. (2.5 MB)
Everpower says blasting is not planned. However, if utimately necessary blasting would occur in close proximity to about 100 inactive and active oil and gas wells within the project area. An aerial photo showing these wells is available here. (53 MB)
As proposed, wind turbines will be visible from virtually every unobstructed view in the City of Olean, Village of Allegany, St. Bonaventure University (including the view of Merton's Heart), Knapps Creek, Rock City and the Allegeny River. Especially at night, the pulsating noise of industrial turbines is likely to be heard a mile or more away.
The Allegany zoning code restricts noise from wind turbines to no more than three decibels above the nighttime ambient sound level within 2,500 of the turbine site, or at other sensitive receptors identified by the Planning Board. However, the Planning Board and the Town Board decided that those living just outside the 2500 perimeter are protected by no limits, so the Planning Board imposed a 40 decibel limit for those homes.
For purposes of meeting the requirement, decibels are "A-weighted" (dbA), to reflect sound frequencies most easily heard by people. Measuring sound in A-weighted decibels underestimates low-frequency "rumbling" and "thumping" noises.
The local law also provides different protections for "participants" in the Everpower project compared to "non-participants." Those who sign agreements with Everpower are participants and waive setbacks, noise limits and other protections but agre not to disclose the terms of the agreement. In addition, the local law requires such agreements to be recorded with the county clerk, making the terms binding all subsequent owners. A purchaser will not get the benefit of minimum noise limits imposed on the project. Everpower is seeking participants well outside the project area because noise exceeding 40 decibels would travel some distance.
Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, to understand decibel increases it is important to know every 10 decibels represents a doubling of the sound level, and DEC guidelines state that increases of 20 decibels have a "very objectionable to intolerable" impact. Thus, an increase from 60 to 70 decibels doubles the noise, but so does an increase from 18 to 28. An increase from 18 to 40 exceeds what DEC considers intolerable.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR
Written comments on an early draft of the Everpower proposal were accepted by the Allegany Planning Board up to May 3, 2010. CCCC submitted written comments on the Everpower proposal in February and December, 2009, February 23 and May 3, 2010, January 7, May 11 and May 26, 2011. These comments focused primarily on noise effects of the project. Subsequently, the board directed its environmental consultant Conestoga-Rovers Associates (CRA) to conduct a study of background sound levels at four residential locations outside the project area. That study was submitted on September 27, 2010 and shows sound levels as low as 18 dBA at night.
Both CRA and the special legal counsel the Town retained to guide its environmental review of the project work for wind companies.
DEC commented on the noise the project would make, (pp. 10-11), noting that noise sources operating at night should be evaluated more conservatively than Everpower has done, sources that make pulsating noise like wind turbines should add 5 decibels to what is modeled, and sources that operate at night should add another 10 decibels. If DEC's recommendations were followed (Everpower rejected them), 10 decibels would be added to Everpower's model, making the 50 dBA contour line on the company's noise map a more accurate predictor of who will get 40 decibels at night.
We consider 40 decibels to be unacceptable. Even during the day, when background sound can be about 40 decibels, people will hear wind turbines because the noise they make is unlike natural background sounds. It often includes low-frequency thumping noises, beating in time with the spin of the blades. Measuring noise impacts by decibel levels alone does not take this into account.
CCCC's position is that Everpower's methods and conclusions depart from ANSI and other established professional standards in acoustics and are designed to achieve a result that just barely complies with Allegany's rules. As has happened at several operating wind projects, Everpower's approach seriously underpredicts noise impacts at the risk of the ability to sleep undisturbed for the people in the neighboring valleys, and their long term health. In other communities where towns have received several complaints about wind turbine noise, no turbines have been relocated or shut down at night.
On August 28, 2007 the Allegany Town Board enacted a local law regulating industrial wind farms and non-commercial small wind turbines. The local law seeks to achieve “a minimal impact on adjacent properties and to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents of the Town.” On February 24, 2011, the board modified the local law to require Everpower's noise assessment comply with "ANSI standards or comparable procedures."
According to NYSDEC guidelines, 6 db(A) above ambient is enough to cause complaints, and as noted above, a 10 dB(A) increase is perceived as a doubling of the sound level, while a 20 db(A) increase is perceived as "very noticeable to intolerable." Ambient sound levels at night in out-the-way rural areas are commonly about 25 db(A).
As both CCCC and DEC noted in their comments on the draft environmental impact study, it is common especially night for ground-level air to be calm or still while elevated air at turbine height is strong enough to operate the turbines. Under those conditions, a very quiet ground-level environment is disturbed by pulsating noisy wind turbines.
On March 8, 2010, the Planning Board denied a petition submitted by CCCC to remove the reference to 2500 feet in the local law. This would have given everyone in town the benefit of the town's decision to preserve the existing quiet environment, by prohibiting sound level increases more than 3 dBA. However, the local law provides this protection only to those living within 2500 feet of a wind turbine.
A copy of the local law is available here.
