Although the DEC has cleared the use of slag on wind farm access roads, the state Department of Agriculture and Markets has concerns. In a Sept. 8 letter to Invenergy regarding the High Sheldon Wind Farm, Agriculture Specialist Michael J. Saviola said ...the Department does not support the use of any adulterated industrial byproduct material (such as steel slag) as road base on, or adjacent to, structural lands used for the production of food and/or forage crops," Saviola wrote.

Spanish multi-national Iberdrola unveiled a slimmer version of the Jordanville Wind Project before a packed town-hall meeting Monday, Nov. 10. It was unclear, though, if anyone has changed his or her mind on an issue that divided the townspeople of Warren and Stark, where the wind project is planned, and Herkimer from Otsego counties; the northern county gets the benefits, and two counties share the impacts.

"We had been all over the world looking for some place to live and we left our heart here in the Finger Lakes and this is where we came back to. We absolutely loved it here...until...we knew about the wind project," Judi Hall said. The back and forth over First Wind's bid to build wind turbines ended with the company's success. Champions of the project like Tom Casey, who sits on the town/village planning board, say the project puts Cohocton on the cutting edge of new energy and helps the economy.

The local debates over wind power are driven in a part by a vacuum at the state level. There is no state law governing where wind turbines can be built or how big they can be. That leaves it up to town officials, working part time and on advice from outside lawyers, some of whom may have conflicts of their own. Two Franklin County towns, Brandon and Malone, have passed laws banning the wind turbines. But the issue remains unresolved in Burke, population 1,451, where two Town Board members recused themselves from the issue this year because they had leases with wind companies, leaving the board deadlocked.

"Listen," John Yancey says, leaning against his truck in a field outside his home. The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long propeller blades rotate in formation, like some otherworldly dance of spindly-armed aliens swaying across the land. Yancey stares at them, his face contorted in anger and pain. He knows the futuristic towers are pumping clean electricity into the grid, knows they have been largely embraced by his community. But Yancey hates them.

For decades dairy farmers have wrested a living from the Tug -- accepting lives of wind-swept hardship with little prospect of much change. Then, a few years ago, change roared onto Tug Hill. Overnight it seemed, caravans of trucks trundled onto the plateau and for a couple of years the village was ablaze with activity. Today, 195 turbines soar above Tug Hill, 122 metres high, their 40-metre-long blades spinning at 14 revolutions per minute. The $400-million Maple Ridge wind project, the largest in New York state, brought money and jobs and a wondrous sense of prosperity. But the windmills also came with a price -- and not just the visual impact.

A longtime landowner and farmer reproached the town board Monday for its apparent opposition to commercial wind tower construction. ...Orleans County Legislator and environmentalist Gary Kent respectfully rebuked Dudley's comments, as did a a handful of local and county residents. The price of hosting wind turbines will be diminished property values, Kent said. He cited his recent visit to Naples, N.Y., where a real estate agent told him that homes are selling for tens of thousands of dollars below their assessed value since the wind farms started going up. If turbines go up in Orleans County, he bets the same will happen here, too.

Various people with various opinions, all wishing to find out more information and ask questions about the 142-megawatt, 95-turbine wind project planned for the agricultural areas of Cape Vincent. BP Alternative Energy held an open house Wednesday to inform people of the potential project. The company detailed where they would build roads, place transmission lines and most importantly, put up turbines. ...This project is in the middle of a SEQR process. Environmental, visual and sound studies could be done as early as October.

Several residents in the town's wind district are worried that construction of massive windmills will cause contamination of their wells. The wind district sits on limestone bedrock, under which lies an underground aquifer that supplies the water. ...The state Department of Environmental Conservation made comments on the groundwater issue during the state environmental quality review comment period for Iberdrola's Horse Creek Wind Farm. "Because water enters the carbonate rocks rapidly through sinkholes and other large openings, any contaminants in the water can rapidly enter and spread through the aquifers," it said.

Tourists have long treked to the region to see the Niagara River plunge as far as 188 feet over the Horseshoe and American falls. But what if windmills taller than the falls is deep soared above the city's skyline? A company founded by Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano has approached city leaders about building wind turbines on old industrial sites in the city. While the company sees economic opportunity, the prospect exists for millions of tourists to see windmills on the horizon of Niagara Falls. "The issue for us is one more of aesthetics than anything else," said Thomas J. DeSantis, senior planner for the city. "Is it OK to put a 600-foot wind generating station at Falls and First streets? Probably not. "I think because we're Niagara Falls, and because we have certain scenic and national resources that are important to us, that we'll want to try to protect them in some small way, we'll want to look at those issues."

Blades have started spinning here, as wind turbines are being placed on line. Allison Finley, public affairs manager for Noble Environmental Power, said seven wind turbines were running this week, all in the Ellenburg Windpark. "Right now, they are working to energize and commission the wind parks," she said. "More will come online in the following days." Each of the 121 turbines in Ellenburg and Clinton must be synced with the grid, and electrical-collection systems need to be energized before startup. ..."If I had known they'd do all this, I never would have put so much into this place," [resident Al Barcombe] said, as blades from six turbines sliced through the air behind his barn. "I don't think I'll stay." Barcombe refused to sign any leases with Noble. The closest turbine is about 500 feet from his property line. "They look closer than they really are," he said, walking toward them. "I don't see nothing beautiful about 'em."

Not there, please. The Town Council added its voice to the discussion on the path of transmission lines from the Galloo Island Wind Project. The proposed path for the transmission line calls for it to make landfall in Henderson and run south through Ellisburg on its way to a bigger line in Parish. At its meeting Thursday night, the council voted 4-0 for a resolution opposing the path through the town's prime agricultural lands, but supporting any efforts to find a suitable site either east or west of the proposed path.

Two Adirondack-based environmental groups have come out against the installation of windmills atop Gore Mountain. The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the Adirondack Council say their reasons for opposing the windmills range from aesthetic concerns to setting a poor precedent. ...David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, and John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said they are waiting for the Barton Group to submit a complete application to the Adirondack Park Agency before making more specific comments on the project. The Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks is also waiting to see specifics before taking a position, said Michael Washburn, the North Creek-based organization's executive director.

Plans to run power from a wind turbine project in Lake Ontario through Oswego County are meeting surprise and resistance. "It'll ruin my property value," said Kathleen Schneider, who with her husband owns 55 acres on Castor Road in Albion. The Schneiders received a letter last month from Upstate NY Power Corp. telling them they would be contacted about selling a right of way on their land. They threw it out. Later they learned that Upstate NY Power has applied to install 77 wind turbines on Galloo Island, 12 miles off the shore of Lake Ontario. ...Oswego County Legislature Chairman Barry Leemann, R-Altmar, was upset that no one involved in the project told the county. "They haven't bothered to contact us," he said.

While some North Country communities are fighting over whether to allow wind power on their land, one Jefferson County town not only wants a wind farm, it's also fighting with the state over who should be in charge of the environmental review of the project. The Hounsfield Town Planning Board wants to make sure the Galloo Island Wind Project moves ahead quickly since it will mean big money for the town. As a result, the town wants to be the lead agency for the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review Process). However, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation wants to be in charge of the of the process, which town officials believe will delay the project and the revenue that it will generate.

The Preservation League of New York State has jumped into a wind-project controversy in Jordanville, naming the Holy Trinity Monastery to the group's annual list of New York's most-threatened historic resources: ``Seven to Save.'' The nonprofit group says tranquility at the monastery, which sits on 750 acres in southern Herkimer County, would be ruined if a proposal to site about 50 wind turbines in the area ever moves forward. ``The Holy Trinity Monastery is of extraordinary historic, religious and cultural significance, but it is currently threatened by an industrial-scale wind energy project,'' Jay DiLorenzo, the nonprofit organization's president, said Friday. Panoramic views and contemplative quiet will disappear from the surrounding countryside if wind tubines are erected as proposed by Iberdrola, DiLorenzo said.

Residents who support the Jordanville Wind Project in the towns of Warren and Stark were faced with another obstacle last week in the building of a wind farm. The New York State Preservation League has announced that the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville is being placed on the "Seven To Save" list. ...Being placed on this list means the windmills will not be able to be built without review of the negative impact they could have on the monastery and an agreement between the two parties.

The sky above this rolling Mohawk Valley farmland is a battleground between golden onion-shaped domes of the nation's largest Russian Orthodox monastery and sweeping wind turbine towers intended to harvest clean power. On Friday, a statewide historic preservation group sided with Holy Trinity Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, where monks fear a proposed wind farm a mile away will disturb contemplative religious life. "The monastery is of extraordinary historic, religious and cultural significance, but it is currently threatened," said Jay DiLorenzo, President of the Preservation League of New York State. The group named the monastery as one of its seven historic sites statewide in need of protection.

Photos simulating turbine blades that soar above the treetops and church steeples here are giving residents an uneasy feeling. PPM Atlanta Renewable is proposing the 62-turbine Horse Creek Wind Farm in the towns of Clayton and Orleans, and is distributing photos depicting what the turbines will look ... Patricia Booras-Miller, vice president of Environmentally Concerned Citizens Organization of Jefferson County ...argued that the pictures were "made aesthetically pleasing" and that, when comparing the simulated towers to the trees, silos and utility poles, it's apparent the turbines' true height is not represented accurately. Though the 407-foot turbines are actually "10 times the height of a utility pole," they appear in the photos "to be only slightly higher," Mrs. Booras-Miller wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "The views do not appear to be to scale and therefore not realistic.

As Cohocton wind turbines are being built skyward, local projects are still on the road to final approval. The Steuben County Industrial Development Agency will discuss projects in Cohocton and Howard at its next board meeting, Dec. 20, according to Executive Director Jim Sherron. The board will mull over the final project resolution on the 51-turbine Cohocton and Dutch Hill projects at the meeting, and Sherron believes the board will put it to a vote. ...One project that has been quiet lately is the proposed Airtricity project in Hartsville and Hornellsville. According to Sherron and Airtricity Project Manager Bob Sherwin, the project is currently stalled.