Decommission agreement gets approval 'pending'

One big "if" stands in the way of completing conditions that would allow the construction of the first wind turbines in Logan County.

In August, Union Ridge Wind, opponents of the Railsplitter Wind Farm, did file a court appeal on the conditional use of agriculture-zoned land for the construction of a wind farm. The Logan County Board granted the conditional use to Railsplitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy in July.

The appeal would need to be dropped before the county would sign one of the agreements necessary for meeting the conditions set forth by the Logan County Zoning Board of Appeals and accepted by the county board in July.
The company is working on a few other fragments as well, but it is looking hopeful, according to Bill Whitlock, development director for Horizon Wind Energy.

Prior to the county board granting approval for conditional use of agriculture-zoned land for the wind farm, some residents organized as Union Ridge Wind and heavily opposed it. Some members of the group said that they would follow the next course of action open to them and file an appeal in Logan County Circuit Court.

Whitlock said that Horizon had been talking to the residents for months now. "I believe we have an agreement in principal in place, and part of that agreement is that the appeal is withdrawn," he said.

In response to board member Gloria Luster's inquiry, he said that he hoped it might be completed next week

"We're close to negotiating neighbor agreements with every one of them," he said later. He emphasized that they have not had hard feelings toward those who have been in opposition. "We're not treating the objectors any different than the supporters," he said.

The recommendation by the appeals board included that the builders would meet various common agreements, obtain permits and satisfy an additional list of 18 conditions.

A decommissioning agreement was one of the required agreements. The measure would assure that funding would be set aside to pay for the removal of the wind turbines, cleanup and restoration to farm acreage, should the farm fail financially or when the turbines age out of use.

During last week's board meeting, Whitlock said, "We're anxious to begin construction in Logan County as soon as we satisfy every one of these conditions, and this is one of the very last conditions we have to meet."

Whitlock explained their current position: "The transmission lines where we're tapping in with Ameren only have two scheduled outages every year. There is a winter outage and a fall outage. If we don't get construction complete in Logan County in time to tap in for the winter outage, we'll lose six months of revenue from all the turbines in Logan County."

He said they had an agreement that included costs that engineers gathered from industry standards. It defines that a surety bond would be set up for $1 million during years 1-5, increasing to $1,352,932 in the sixth year; and after that it adds to the previous amount either 2 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is greater.

Both Railsplitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy would sign the agreement.

Various members of the board had some questions about the agreement, and there were apprehensions whether the state's attorney's office had actually given final approval.

Finance chairman Chuck Ruben pointed out: "The chairman signs all contracts. In all cases the board votes first before the chairman can sign." So the board decided that it would be best to call a special adjourned meeting this week.

On Monday evening Logan County zoning officer Will D'Andrea, Jonathan Wright from the state's attorney's office, Horizon representatives and their lawyer met to review the agreement.

Thursday night D'Andrea said he had two things that he would recommend to the board from that meeting:

There were some revisions to the agreement, and he would like to have confirmation of the final revised agreement from the state's attorney's office.

He advised that the court appeal against the wind farm would need to be withdrawn before the chairman would sign the agreement. He said that even with the changes made this week, the decommissioning agreement would not cover if there were towers already built and approval of the project was overturned in the court.

The board agreed with D'Andrea's recommendations and voted to approve the chairman signing the agreement pending all conditions met and when the court appeal has been withdrawn.

Following the meeting, D'Andrea said he was certain that as soon as all the conditions have been met, the agreements and permits secured, and the appeal has been withdrawn, Horizon representatives would be in for their building permits. He hoped that it would be soon, and he would gladly sign them.

Soon, the real work of building the first wind turbines in Logan County may begin.