A group of town residents and state environmentalists has lost a legal challenge against the Hoosac Wind Project, a 30-megawatt turbine venture planned for Bakke Mountain in Florida and Crum Hill in Monroe. Their case - which hinged on permitting - attempted to reverse the state Department of Environmental Protection's June 2007 decision to grant a wetlands permit for the estimated $45 million project. Eleanor Tillinghast, president of Green Berkshires, a plaintiff in the case, said an appeal is being considered.

A state arbitration panel has dealt a setback to the Hoosac Wind project by rejecting a state-issued wetlands permit that would be needed to access the site....... The Division of Administrative Law Appeals yesterday ruled that the developer's evaluation of the impact on wildlife habitat was insufficient and certain parts of the project didn't comply with the Wetlands Protection Act.

Town meeting voters Monday shot down a proposal to study the feasibility of creating a town-owned wind farm. Although wind power is an environmentally-friendly energy source and could potentially generate considerable revenue for the town, voters decided that putting a wind farm on the land near the Almeida Farm on Interstate 195 could pose a danger to the wetlands on the 22-acre parcel. John Ferreira, who donated the land to the town for conservation use, spoke against the proposed wind farm.

"On Friday, June 23, we issued a unilateral order regarding the failure of their erosion controls and that it was a violation of the permits we issued," Tor said. "We ordered them to correct the control failures and submit a plan for addressing the problem areas."