SCC rules in favor of Highland Wind

RICHMOND — Highland New Wind Development has prevailed in defending itself against a complaint by the state Department of Historic Resources.

DHR complained in August 2009 that the company, which hopes to erect Virginia’s first industrial wind generating utility, was not meeting a condition of its state permit. The permit was issued Dec. 20, 2007 by the State Corporation Commission.

After months of negotiation, DHR and HNWD agreed on all issues but one — whether HNWD had properly considered the 400-foot towers’ impact on Camp Allegheny, a Civil War battlefield near the project site in Pocahontas County, W.Va.

Commissioners, in a Feb. 26 order, concluded HNWD was not required to work further with DHR on viewshed impacts, and was complying with its permit.

One condition in the permit said HNWD was to coordinate with DHR for guidance about the potential need for archaeological and architectural surveys to evaluate the towers’ impacts to historic resources. After HNWD submitted more studies, DHR agreed it had done everything except mitigate the visual impact on the battlefield. The commission ruled that it had not imposed any condition regarding viewshed because Highland County officials had already considered viewshed when they granted HNWD a conditional use permit.

“We find that Highland Wind has complied with the plain language” of the condition, the commission ruled.

DHR had also argued in a brief that HNWD failed to meet a sunset provision attached to its state permit, which said the permit would expire in two years if construction on the project had not begun in that time.

SCC commissioners disagreed, saying they did not “reach DHR’s assertion.”