Somerset drafts windmill legislation

by Dave Panzarella
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, March 25, 2006

The windmill legislation committee commissioned by the Town Board of Somerset has recently drafted legislation on commercial and residential windmills that is awaiting approval from the town planning board and town board.

The legislation is in response to a proposed commercial windmill farm by AES Corporation, an international power company.

The Somerset Town Board passed a six-month moratorium in May and appointed a committee to draft windmill legislation that would weigh issues related to commercial and residential windmills including placement and other safety concerns. They invited two representatives of AES onto the windmill legislation committee in hopes of avoiding any conflict.

The board is cautious in their dealings with AES Somerset, the local division of the company, because of problems in the past. In 1999, AES agreed to construct a landfill for ammoniated sludge waste produced at the Somerset Generating Station that, according to a document published by the town of Somerset, has been not yet constructed. The document also says the current landfill is not up to state code and could allow pollutants into the groundwater.

“It has been difficult for the town to conduct transactions with AES, as evidenced by the landfill situation,” said town spokesman Paul McAfee, who declined to comment further on the issue and said it is still in litigation.

“The management of this landfill and the coal combustion products are in a secure on-site landfill and it’s in compliance with all federal and state legislation. The town’s allegations are completely false,” said Jon Reimann, a representative of AES.

The windmill proposal itself has also been a point of contention for the town board because late last year, AES decided to concentrate its resources on other projects upstate that they said were more supportive to their efforts

“At some point late last year, AES told the town it was no longer interested in building windmills.” said McAfee.

“AES has not cancelled its plan to build a commercial wind energy system in Niagara County,” said Reimann. Rather than imposing moratoria, AES said other towns in the state drafted ordinances more quickly than Somerset has. AES said the Somerset was using these moratoriums to stall them.

“The town of Somerset passed several moratoriums banning the development of wind energy systems and have delayed our development effort by several years,” said Reimann.

The town says it has also a lack of information about the plan referring to the number and size of windmills AES plans to build, which Reimann said is contingent on weather data the company has yet to process. In 2005, AES invited elected officials from the town to an open house to their Barker facility to discuss the plan in detail.

The town board is eager to have their legislation in place so AES will be able to begin constructing a proposed wind farm by this summer.

“Their goal is to have a law in place to allow AES to build windmills by no later than July, if not earlier,” said McAfee.