Bath to test wind energy site scoring

Commercial wind projects in the Appalachian region are typically built in strings of about seven turbines per mile along ridge crests. This map shows the potential for 88 miles of turbine strings on Bath County ridges. Possible development sites occur within Wind Power Class 3 through 7, and were derived from resource maps obtained from the National Renewable Energy Lab. Of the possible turbine sites in Bath County, 52 percent are located on national forest land and 12 percent are located on The Nature Conservancy's Warm Springs Mountain Preserve; 25 percent of the total possible turbine sites are presumably offlimits, including all of those in TNC's preserve and about one-third of those on national forest. The identification of national forest lands as "suitable" or "unsuitable" is based on the draft management plan for the George Washington National Forest. (Map courtesy www.VaWind. com) WARM SPRINGS — Are the winds of change about to blow through Bath County? While Bath has not been involved in prospective wind energy to the same extent as neighboring Highland County, the board of supervisors has agreed to have the county become the test location for a system that scores parcels of land for their suitability for wind development.

At this point, no requests for wind facility permits have been received in Bath. In Highland, meanwhile, Highland New Wind Development is seeking investors for a proposed commercial wind utility project involving 18-20 towers standing 400 feet above the ridgeline.

The Bath board voted at its July meeting to enter into a memorandum of understanding with James Madison University for a field test of the Virginia Renewables Siting Scoring System, called VRS3. The test will use a scoring book to evaluate factors related to siting wind energy facilities in various parts of the county.

Bath County planner Sherry Ryder said the county is hoping to find out if there are suitable places for wind development and if so, to avoid adverse environmental impacts. Ryder said information obtained would be used to prepare an ordinance related to industrial wind energy.

Ryder said it is "way too early in the process" to say what recommendation she intends to make to the board, and also too early to say what exactly might be in such an ordinance.

"So much has to be put in an ordinance. It has to deal with the environment, viewsheds, endangered species, streams and wildlife. If we allow wind turbines, it has to say what the setbacks will be. You can put six turbines on one linear mile, so that's a large amount of ridge top if you put them up there. There are also potential height limitation regulations," Ryder said.

Whatever ordinance ends up being passed, Ryder said any wind utility would require a conditional use permit. She said most turbines are around 400 feet tall. Currently, turbines can be placed in agricultural zoning districts if they are less than 60 feet tall.

"Some localities have placed a freeze on anything more than 100 feet tall. That has not been officially discussed here," Ryder said.

Ryder said while no private developers have asked about wind development in Bath, Dominion Virginia Power has asked for tax maps of its property around the pumped storage station on Back Creek. Ryder said if Dominion were to develop any type of wind facility, it would be on federal property.

There is not enough room on Dominion property, and the pumped storage station is surrounded by federal land, Ryder said.

Since slightly more than half of Bath County is made up of federal property, mainly national forest, that could be a point of contention if that is considered for wind development. Ryder said the county has no jurisdiction over federal property.

"They will ask for our opinion, but whether they give it any weight or not, who knows," she said.

Ryder said she is not sure what would happen if the government decides it wants wind towers on federal land, but the county opposes it. "I don't know that we could fight the federal government unless it jeopardizes the health of our citizens. I do know it would be a very expensive process," she said.

Ryder said it will take about six months to test the scoring system, and then an ordinance would be drafted. She said she expects to have an one written by spring 2009.

A private company has requested to put a wind plant on federal property in Shenandoah County, Ryder said. "If that goes through, well, there is a lot of federal land in our county and in the neighboring counties also," she said.

At the July meeting of the Bath County Planning Commission, chairman Mike Grist also talked about federal property. "That's 51 percent of the county that we can't control. There are some pretty good winds in those areas," he said.

Maria Papadakis, a professor of integrated science and technology at JMU, is one of the principals listed on the memorandum of understanding. She called VRS3 "a pre-screening tool to help county land use planners evaluate wind resources."

"Bath County is assisting us with test driving the methodology and the workbook. Bath County is going through the process to see if they can understand it. This is a practice run for JMU. Bath County will do the scoring," she said. "This is a way for land use planners to understand what wind they have, whether it is on public or private land, and whether it is in areas they want to protect from development or it is compatible with development plans."

Bath County, Papadakis said, asked JMU to work on this project through the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission. "After this is done, we will modify, edit and improve the scoring tools and make VRS3 available throughout the state," she said.

Grist said believes the test will give Bath a better understanding of the type and location of its wind resources. "It can show the advantages and disadvantages of certain locations and highlight areas of community sensitivity," he said.

He also said it will give Bath more information on potential impacts to nature, historic resources, economically disadvantaged areas and compatibility with land use plans. "It is a tool communities can use to evaluate wind and solar in their areas," Grist said.

Bath County supervisor Stuart Hall said he believes it will benefit the county to see what wind resources are here. "I don't know the answer, but maybe it is something we can look at to see if there is anything we can do with it," he said.

Hall said he has not developed a personal opinion yet concerning wind power. "If we can be a part of anything that can solve the energy crisis and help our economy, then we should see if we can play a part," he said.

"Any time we can participate in a study for the purpose of gathering empirical data and to aid a research project, there will be benefits," added supervisor Carol Hardbarger. "It will allow Bath County to be perceived as a cooperative community. We need to make certain we don't jump to any assumptions about the project, just that Bath County participating shows our willingness to cooperate in a research project."

She said on a recent trip to Montana, she saw hundreds of large wind towers clustered in small areas of Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. "It was interesting to look at them in that setting. There was farm land in production around them, and it didn't appear ugly or inappropriate," she said.

However, Hardbarger said an area like Bath, whose primary source of income is, and will continue to be, tourism, wind facilities have to be looked at in a different light.

"I would like to see us as a county engage in non-emotional, rational discussions about energy. We need to have education about conservation. I don't believe wind power is appropriate for the county because of our tourism revenue. In the context in which we live, it is not something I believe should be in our long-range planning," she said.

Highland County supervisor Robin Sullenberger served on the committee that helped develop the VRS3. "First and foremost, it gives guidelines that have had input from a variety of sources that will give a locality something to go by if they are considering anything relating to wind," he said.

Sullenberger said part of the problem Highland officials had when considering the HNWD project was a lack of substantive guidelines to follow. Thus, they had to do extensive research, much of what is being done through the VRS3.

He said Highland may not have done anything necessarily different had the VRS3 been available, but believes it could have helped. "I believe the entire process could have been much less painful and contentious and we could have made decisions much easier and quicker. We would have had a lot more information to consult and would have understood the process better," Sullenberger said.

"The key thing is that input for this came from a variety of stakeholders. There were literally proponents, opponents and middle of the road people, and all were entirely engaged. This is an educational tool, not a promotional tool," he continued.

Sullenberger said he is supportive of Bath's interest in the VRS3. "Any guidelines you have to help make a decision, there has got to be a benefit," he said.

Bath supervisor Percy Nowlin said he hopes the VRS3 will give the county enough information as it can get as early as it can get it. "Hopefully we can avoid wind energy," he said. "We certainly are not promoting wind. We are trying to get as much information as we can. The more we know about it and the earlier we find out, the better."

Nowlin also expressed concern that if national forest land were considered for wind, the county would not be able to do anything about it.

Supervisor Richard Byrd said he believes the purpose of participating in the test is for Bath to see where wind energy may be feasible in the county and where it may not. "This will help us to see whether we should look towards having them (wind facilities) or look towards not having them. This process will help us see if it fits or doesn't fit," he said.

"I want to see what we can come up with. 9

It is a free thing now, and we will be able to see if they will fit on some of these ridges or not. Our knowledge is so vague right now, and if we don't do it we will have to do it later and pay for it," Byrd said.

Byrd said he has yet to form an opinion on wind energy in the county and is open to discussion.

Rick Webb, co-manager of the web site VaWind.org and an opponent of wind energy development in the Allegheny Highlands, said he is concerned about the VRS3.

"I don't think it is a waste of time, but I am skeptical. Some of the people involved, including Jonathan Miles of JMU (listed as one of the partners in the memorandum of understanding) are ardent wind advocates," Webb said. "He has been an outspoken proponent of the Highland New Wind project."

Webb said he doubts the HNWD project site would score well under the VRS3 system.

Webb said the site scoring project is the result of language in the Virginia Energy Plan and is paid for by the state. "The initial version of the bill included language that made the system law and would have allowed it to override local land use decision making. The Virginia Association of Counties got wind of that and it was removed from the bill," he said.

Webb said he is concerned the system might eventually be used to override the decisions of localities. "Given the national climate and the push for renewables based on wishful thinking of people in urban areas, I believe we will ultimately see something like that in place."

It appears the presentation of the VRS3, Webb said, is designed to downplay public concerns about the development threat of wind facilities on mountain ridges. The first step toward that is the filtering out of public land and not evaluating it, he said.

"Bath County is at least 50 percent na tional forest and public land. A study focused only on private land gives the citizens no say on the national forest. The national forest people are not required to comply with local ordinances, but they seek to have a good working relationship with local communities and I feel they will likely take their opinions into account," Webb said.

Webb said the draft plan for national forests notes areas that are suitable and unsuitable for wind development.

He also takes issue with maps from the JMU group that only show potential development in areas with class four winds and above. "There are wind projects being built in the central Appalachians where there are only class three winds," he said. "Some of the Highland New Wind area is class three, and some projects in West Virginia and Pennsylvania have class three winds. This is a misrepresentation," Webb said.

The footprint of turbines is underestimated as well, according to Webb. The impact of roads, transmission lines, eminent domain to main lines and forest fragmentation is not considered enough, he said. "You are talking about industrializing mountain ridges," he said.

The viewshed issue is also not adequately addressed by the VRS3, he said. "This issue is only dealt with based on local determination of special locations and viewscapes such as overlooks or particular destinations. I think ridgelines in general are perhaps not considered. JMU suggests they are not part of the issue and that the viewshed issue is strictly limited to special locations," Webb said.

Another aspect of the system relies on state wildlife agencies to identify areas that are off limits, Webb said, He believes they will not say no to wind development, they will say wind development only with certain conditions, and the system doesn't deal with approval qualified by conditions.

"To reach a determination that a location is suitable always requires a site-specific study, and I believe this system will tend to push things away from that," he said.

Webb feels another major shortcoming of the VRS3 is that it doesn't address the fact that county governments can adopt height requirements, ridgeline protection measures or other ordinances to outright prevent commercial-scale wind projects.

"Patrick County passed an ordinance prohibiting turbines by prohibiting tall structures after the county surveyed citizens on the wind turbine issue. Albemarle County has a height restriction ordinance and North Carolina has a statewide ridgeline protection ordinance," Webb said. "The VRS3 should address this option and the various ways it has and might be pursued. I believe a survey of citizen opinion is the most democratic and appropriate approach."

"I am convinced that the only way counties can protect themselves from dramatic transformation of their mountain landscape by out of county, out of state and foreign corporate interests is to simply prohibit commercial-scale wind energy projects. There will certainly be efforts to override local control, but that will be a fight for another day," Webb continued.

Webb said he does believe the VRS3 will provide the opportunity for citizens to become engaged in the issue and become informed. "We need to make sure the full range of issues is addressed before we confront any particular project," he said.

Papadakis made a presentation on VRS3 at a Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative workshop in June, and Webb believes one part of that presentation is significant.

"She said wind energy will supplement existing sources, not replace them. I feel that is a significant acknowledgement," he said. "At best, wind will provide a supplement, and that will be fairly trivial."

Webb said less than 10 percent of wind resources in Virginia are located on shore. The offshore wind resource is much larger, he said, but more expensive to use.

"People in our counties have to become informed themselves rather than let experts from JMU or elsewhere come in and interpret information. They have to take responsibility and deal with these issues themselves," he said.

The only way counties can protect themselves against the national push for renewable energy is to pass ordinances prohibiting commercial wind development on ridgelines, Webb said. "Generally speaking, this area doesn't have much clout in Richmond, so we must collectively take the position that we don't want utilities pushing development here," he said.

The memorandum of understanding lists potential benefits for JMU, the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission and Bath County.

JMU, it reads, and the state will benefit because the test will function as a usability test for the VRS3. The results and insights gained from the test will be used to clarify and improve the VRS3 and this, in turn, will make the VRS3 a more helpful product to communities and land use planners.

The CSPDC will benefit, according to the memorandum, by gaining a greater understanding of the VRS3 wind scoring and analysis process.

Bath County, the memorandum reads, will gain a better understanding of its wind resources, what the potential for wind energy development in the county is and where wind energy development is (or is not) suitable.

Ryder said any requests for wind development permits in Bath County would currently fall under county zoning. She noted that by the time it takes to file all the necessarily federal and state permits and have action taken by the State Corporation Commission, a county ordinance would be in place to govern such projects.