Industrial wind energy development in Virginia

Industrial wind energy development in Virginia

By Anne Adams • Staff Writer

HARRISONBURG - A group of scientists studying the potential effects of wind development in Virginia rolled out a "land classification map" last Thursday during a Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative seminar. In Highland County, the classification for the proposed site of the state's first industrial wind facility meets the criteria for designation as unsuitable, and unmapped, under the categories of the new system. The Allegheny Mountain property owned by H.T. "Mac" McBride of Harrisonburg, owner of Highland New Wind Development, LLC, falls into this category due to the presence of the northern flying squirrel, a federally listed endangered species.

The environmental working group's mission was to identify areas that should be considered unsuitable for industrial wind projects, and sensitive environmental areas. The group highlighted the need for effective environmental review and assessment before wind projects are developed.

Looking at a variety of land types, the group used five categories to classify lands: Unsuitable (mapped or unmapped); undetermined; flagged for potential use conflict; and unclassified.

Unsuitable, mapped lands refer to areas like the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, Shenandoah National Park, certain U.S. Forest Service areas, wildlife refuges, and preserves of The Nature Conservancy. These areas are unsuitable, the group concludes, because of their conflict with regulations already in place for these sites.

Unsuitable, unmapped lands include areas like significant bird and bat migratory routes, and federal or state lands listed with threatened or endangered species. Most such areas would be unsuitable due to environmental conflicts.

"Undetermined" lands include all the national forest property that had not been classified as unsuitable, mapped or unmapped. According to the group's documentation, this category "acknowledges that the question of suitability of remaining national forest lands for utility-scale wind energy development is an area of significant disagreement among reviewers."

Areas that were "flagged" by the study included state heritage sites, wildlife management areas and state forests, also due to environmental conflicts. They are lands known to support sensitive biological or recreation resources, and include cold water streams that provide habitat for brook and rainbow trout. Because the streams are primarily in the mountains, where the greatest wind potential is, they are flagged. Forest clearing, road construction and developing transmission corridors, the group concluded, may contribute to altering the stream habitats.

McBride's Allegheny Mountain property is also considered flagged because it falls within a Nature Conservancy "eco-regional portfolio site," an area TNC identifies as necessary to protect in order to maintain native biodiversity.

"Unclassified" lands were those where it was unknown as to whether utility-scale wind development would be suitable. This category includes areas with Class 2 or lower winds or for which there is not enough data to assess suitability. "It should not be assumed that areas included in this category are suitable for utility-scale wind energy development," the document states. "The VWEC Environmental Working Group holds the opinion that environmental assessment should be required prior to any utility-scale wind energy development."

The group concluded that its classification system should be considered a work in progress, and made recommendations for avoiding the pitfalls resulting from improper siting of wind facilities.

Research to close information gaps needs to be completed, and independent, site-specific environmental assessments should be conducted. The group recommends pre-permitting and post-construction monitoring of wildlife use and impacts.

In addition, the group recommends a thorough cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the adverse impacts of fossil-fuel energy and renewable energy production.

The environmental working group has launched a web site containing all its information, and copies of its maps (www.vawind.org).

The working group consisted of Daniel Boone, professional wildlife ecologist and natural resources policy analyst; Judy Dunscomb, senior conservation scientist for The Nature Conservancy in Virginia; Rick Webb, research scientist with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia; and Christina Wulf, member of the steering committee of Virginia Forest Watch, a grassroots conservation coalition.

Don Giecek, a member of the Virginia Wilderness Committee, also made a presentation at VWEC's seminar for industry "stakeholders," presenting an earlier draft of the group's research.

Environmental professionals were originally urged to work with VWEC by the governor's office, and formed its working group from there. However, according to Webb, there is apparently a effort under way by some members of VWEC to now disassociate itself from the report of the working group. There is material and research included in the group's presentation that not all VWEC members agreed with, he said.

VWEC representatives did not return calls from The Recorder this week.