Battlefield endangered due to wind project, Trust says

MONTEREY — There’s been a modernday battle brewing over Camp Allegheny, and a recent report has raised the stakes.

The Civil War Preservation Trust, a wellrespected organization focused on saving Civil War sites, placed Camp Allegheny on its list this year of “Most Endangered Battlefields.” The reason? Because Highland New Wind Development plans to erect 400-foot wind turbine towers within view, changing a 150-year-old historic landscape.

Standing more than 4,000 feet on Allegheny Mountain, the battlefield has long been considered one of the most intact, pristine Civil War sites in the nation. It lies entirely in Pocahontas County, W.Va., but residents there, and in Highland County, where the wind project will be built, have been up in arms about how the towers will change the viewshed.

Over the course of more than two years, state officials in Virginia and West Virginia debated the site’s significance. Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources complained HNWD was not doing what it should to mitigate the towers’ impact on the battlefield. The agency had the support of West Virginia’s State Historic Preservation Office, and U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall, who represents Pocahontas. HNWD argued it had followed the conditions outlined in its state permit, and Virginia’s State Corporation Commission agreed.

“History Under Siege,” the CWPT’s annual report on endangered battlefields, was released this month.

“Although many battlefields are in danger of being lost forever, CWPT is making significant progress toward ensuring their protection,” the group states in its introduction. “In 2009, CWPT rescued 2,777 acres of hallowed ground at 20 sites in five states … Since CWPT was created more than two decades ago, we have protected more than 29,000 acres of battlefield land in 20 states. Despite such success, our work is far from done. We hope this report energizes both longtime supporters and new allies to continue the fight to protect and preserve these priceless treasures.”

The report has two sections — one listing the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States; the other listing another 15 considered at risk.

“The list is the result of a lengthy and difficult selection process,” CWPT explains. “Sites are nominated by our members, and final decisions are made – with the assistance of historians, other preservation groups and CWPT’s board of trustees – based on geographic location, military significance and preservation status.

“To analyze each site, CWPT consults a landmark 1993 study by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission that prioritized sites according to their historical significance and state of preservation … Battlefields are ranked Priority I (sites considered the most threatened) to Priority IV (sites considered all but lost). CWSAC also ranks battlefields from A (the most historically significant sites) to D (sites of local importance).”

CWSAC classifies Camp Allegheny as a Priority III, Class C battlefield.

It was there, in 1861, that blood was shed during the Civil War as Northern and Southern military strategies focused on western Virginia. Confederate soldiers led by Col. Edward Johnson stayed there during the winter that year, trying to keep the Stauntonto Parkersburg Turnpike (now U.S. 250) out of Federal hands, CWPT explains.

Dec. 13, 1861, Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy marched his Union troops to the summit, and attacked the Southern forces. After the battle, the Confederates had won the day, and Milroy retreated. This was just before the May 1862 Battle of McDowell, a few miles east in Highland County, which was the first in Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign.

The CWPT report explains why the group considers Camp Allegheny endangered: “The lush nature of this unique battlefield along the Virginia-West Virginia border stands to be compromised by a field of 19 massive wind turbines along a nearby ridgeline. Each unit would stand 40 stories high – 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty – and have a footprint stretching the length of a football field. Although the battlefield is located in Pocahontas County, W.Va., the Highland New Wind Development project would be built in Highland County, Virginia, giving that state jurisdiction over its approval and construction. For more than six years, the public has called for consideration of the battlefield’s rustic character during the permitting and approval process. Unfortunately, in late February the Virginia State Corporation Commission cleared the way for construction of the turbines to begin without taking such issues into account.”

Pocahontas residents opposed to the wind towers have been often frustrated by what they see as a jurisdictional nightmare — Virginia’s SCC believes it cannot dictate the developer consider the West Virginia landmark, even though the DHR believes there should be a cooperative discussion of mitigation plans with officials in West Virginia.

The SCC was not persuaded, and though HNWD has not started building its 38-megawatt facility, its arguments prevailed and the case was closed.

Is there hope for historic sites?

Because this utility is the first of its kind proposed in Virginia, the political and legal battles about its effects have been long and arduous, going back some eight years. Highland officials had no experience making decisions on a project of this kind. Neither did the SCC, the agency responsible for considering HNWD’s application to build it. Highland approved a conditional use permit in 2005. The SCC approved a certificate in 2007. But in 2009, legislation passed that put the approval authority for small renewable energy projects in the hands of the Department of Environmental Quality.

The idea behind the change was to make it easier, and faster, for projects like this to get permits. The proposed regulations mandate that DEQ process applications in 90 days or less, to help companies get financial backing.

DEQ has since been working on a “permit by rule” regulation for wind projects with a rated capacity of less than 100 megawatts.

The “RAP,” or regulatory advisory panel, developing the regulations, consists of representatives from environmental groups, the wind industry, local governments, and state agencies, among others. In its recent report, the group said its members agreed on all but a few issues related to wind power development.

One of the things required under the new law is mitigating impacts to historic resources when those are likely to be significantly adverse. Applicants are to analyze historic resources before construction. “The analysis shall be conducted by a qualified professional meeting the professional qualification standards of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Archaeology and Historic Preservation in the appropriate discipline,” the law says.

RAP members agreed this was adequate for identifying potential impacts. “Although impacts on historic resources tend to be, by their very nature, more qualitative then quantitative, RAP members were comfortable with the well-established protocols utilized by DHR and the U.S. Department of the Interior. DHR’s regulations will be incorporated into DEQ’s guidance documents to explain how the applicant should carry out the specified analysis,” the panel said.

An applicant is to compile a list of historic resources within a “disturbance zone” of a project and within five miles of the zone boundary, and then present the information on a map to put them in context. “The general approach,” RAP states, “is for the applicant to perform desktop studies of the project area. If the desktop models indicate the presence of historic resources, then the applicant will proceed to perform field studies.”

The analysis is also to include a survey of architectural resources, including cultural landscapes 50 years old or older within the zone, and within 1.5 miles of the zone boundary. A study of scenic resources is required, too — a viewshed study within five miles of the zone boundary on federal or state resources like national parks, national forests, preserves, and scenic trails, roads, and rivers.

RAP noted ongoing issues related to historic resources are typically viewshed impacts. “The applicant can sometimes move the location of turbines within the site to minimize these impacts, or he can construct plant screening materials so that the turbines cannot be as fully viewed from the historic resource. If he cannot practicably screen the turbines from view so that the impact is no longer a significant diminishment of the historic resource’s integrity, then the applicant must develop an offset. An offset might be protecting the viewshed of another historic resources, placing a conservation easement on a historic resource, etc.,” RAP explained.

The state law requires mitigation plans only for impacts to wildlife and historic resources — and only, as RAP notes, if DEQ “determines that significant adverse impacts to wildlife or historic resources are likely.”

Camp Allegheny, unfortunately, is going to be affected by HNWD’s facility, and the company will not offset or mitigate those impacts to the viewshed. This, centrally, is why the CWPT considers it one of the most endangered Civil War sites in the U.S.

Critics are not likely to feel much better about new regulations, if they are similar to what’s been proposed by DEQ’s panel. They will question how the “disturbance zone” is defined, for example. And they will wonder how DEQ will handle mitigation efforts for projects that impact other states, as HNWD’s does.

Many hope that can be addressed, especially since Highland County could see another wind project on its borders — one built in Pendleton County, W.Va. — before too long. U.S. Wind Force LLC has planned a project for years there, one that would stretch up to the Highland border.

There are other utilities in the works that affect other states as well. For example, Synergics plans a 50-megawatt utility in western Maryland. Equipment is set to be installed in August, and the towers on order are about 100 feet taller than those proposed by HNWD — information at the Federal Aviation Administration indicates the towers could be 492 feet tall. The project is near West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It will be Maryland’s first wind facility, and if the towers are that tall, they could impact the other states.

DEQ’s proposed regulations are under review at the governor’s office; at some point, a public hearing will be held before a finalized “permit by rule” is adopted. In the meantime, the new regulations aren’t going to make a difference for Camp Allegheny.