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Attorneys question turbine report

Marshall Gorby/About 50 area residents toured a small wind farm in Bowling Green on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The tour was organized for the Champaign County Farm Bureau.

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By Matt Sanctis, Staff Writer Updated 9:55 PM Friday, November 20, 2009

COLUMBUS — A state employee was questioned Friday, Nov. 20, about a report he prepared for the Buckeye Wind Project.

Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio and Gil Weithman, city of Urbana law director, asked Nick Doss about methods he used to develop sections of a staff report concerning aviation and decommissioning of the Buckeye Wind Project.

The report includes recommendations that the state power siting board will use to evaluate the project.

Everpower Renewables, based in New York, is proposing to install about 70 wind turbines throughout the county.

Selvaggio and Weithman also questioned Doss, an environmental specialist with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, about his knowledge of the area before he filed his section of the staff report. Doss responded that he had toured the project area and visited proposed turbine sites with GPS equipment.

Additionally, he did a windshield tour of Grimes and Weller fields, which included driving by the air fields for about five minutes, Doss said.

He said he had not talked to the airport manger or local pilots before filing his recommendations.

However, Doss talked with a state aviation official and evaluated charts and maps of the area that gave him enough information to make his recommendation, he said.

Noting this is the first large-scale wind project in Ohio, Selvaggio questioned whether Doss and other staff members had considered additional sources of information when compiling the report, or whether they relied on information in Everpower’s application to the state.

Doss said some sections of the staff report could be reviewed, although he noted PUCO staff members were not necessarily obligated to do so.

John Holland, program aviation manager for Careflight Air and Mobile, also testified Friday that if installed, the turbines could increase flight time and therefore also slow patient care.

He said the turbines would be an obstacle, and in some cases Careflight pilots would need to perform additional planning to avoid the turbines.

Attorneys representing the Buckeye Wind Project questioned whether equipment such as night vision goggles and search lights could help avoid obstacles, as well as whether pilots would be able to fly over the turbines to avoid them in some situations.

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