How will new wind rules affect Kittitas Valley?

ELLENSBURG -- At 70 feet in the air, Marilyn Carr's private wind-power turbine on her Fourth Parallel Road property southeast of Ellensburg sometimes attracts attention. Carr, a retired Kittitas Valley family physician, gets a phone call once in a while from someone wanting to come to her Badger Pocket home to take a look at the tallest, private small-wind generator in Kittitas County.

The 70-footer is also believed to be the first private wind unit to go up in the county.

That was in October 2005.

"This is an effort to do what I could. It was my part in helping the environment," said Carr earlier this week about her bladed turbine and solar units. "It's not polluting, it's not hurting birds. I really don't see any down side to using them."

Yet what about having one or two industrial-sized, three-bladed wind turbines stretching 350 feet or more from tip of a blade to the ground on your neighboring farmer's land?

That would be possible through a proposed community wind energy system ordinance that will come before Kittitas County commissioners at a Tuesday public hearing in Ellensburg.

If the ordinance passes, it would require environmental reviews, community comment periods on possible impacts to the environment, public hearings and other studies before the Kittitas County Board of Adjustment makes a decision on an individual wind tower project.

Project approval isn't automatic, and the Adjustment Board can put additional conditions and restrictions on a project beyond what the ordinance requires.

The ordinance's provisions are attracting proponents and opponents, with some saying more study and caution is needed.

The future

Carr acknowledged there likely will be negative impacts associated with huge wind turbines scattered in groups across the county's rural landscape.

Site-by-site evaluations will no doubt be done and concerns about loss of views and the effect on property values will likely be part of the public review process, she said.

"You also have to weigh those risks with the benefits," Carr said. "In the long run, I think having them will balance out to providing a lot more benefits and advantages than problems."

She said wind-generated electricity can help reduce air pollution and decrease the dependence on foreign oil and reduce the use of petroleum- and coal-based power generation.

"If my neighbor put one in, that's something I could live with," Carr said, noting she has farms around her property. "It wouldn't bother me."

There's another factor in her mind: the future.

"I have four lovely grandchildren. I want to do what I can to leave them an environment that's a good place to live," she said.

Neighbors' concerns

Longtime real estate broker Mary Morgan is concerned about the future, too.

She's worried the county's ordinance could allow huge wind towers to dot locations around the valley and destroy its scenic, rural character for years to come for residents, those thinking of moving here and tourists.

"When I talk to someone wanting to retire here and buy some country land, I'll have to tell them there's the possibility the landowner or farmer next to them could put up a few 400-foot wind turbines," Morgan said. "That would end the deal. They would walk away."

She's had past deals fall through when potential buyers learned a wind farm was planned nearby.

Morgan is concerned about people who already own rural land and want to build a home in the future.

"They bought it with the understanding that, yes, there are farm operations around it, yet they really like that and the view and wide open skies are just beautiful," Morgan said. "There wasn't the possibility then there could be big wind towers."

It's not just about business in Morgan's mind, it's about "opening up the entire rural area of the county to industrialization," she said.

"It's my future and the future of everyone who lives in this wonderful place," she said.

Some day she wants to sell her home in Ellensburg and live on her 20 acres of rural property west of Ellensburg.

"I want an unobstructed view without a turbine outside my back door," she said. "I'm sure there's many people who didn't come to live in the country here just to have a great view of an industrial turbine."

Morgan realizes the proposed ordinance isn't about wind farms spread all over and blanketing the land, but it's about a few towers at selected locations that set back the required distances from occupied houses and property lines.

Individual projects would be a minimum one mile apart.

"I think the impact will still be devastating," Morgan said. "You will end up with a lot of property that will be very hard to sell."

Keeping farms running

Timothy hay grower Mel Dyk disagrees.

Dyk said putting up one or two commercial-sized turbines on his less-productive farm ground on the west side of the Yakima River near Thorp would increase the value of his land.

It also could keep him farming.

"Having some income from a community turbine system can help a farmer or rancher stay working on his land," Dyk said. "That money can help when he's getting less for what he produces or the lack of irrigation water reduces his crops. I'm for it."

It can help neighbors and the wider community economically, he said, adding more property taxes for local governments.

Dyk, who farms in a family operation, worked with county staff, a community wind company representative and others to draw up the draft ordinance in a series of meetings since January.

"The land owner should have the right to do this if he can meet all the rules and restrictions," Dyk said. "It's not going to be easy to meet all those setbacks.

"And it's expensive; you need investors, and the availability of close-by three-phase power lines to take wind turbine power."

Three-phase power lines are not everywhere in the valley, and he estimated that to pay for a line extension is about $100,000 a mile.

"And we're talking about $2 million or more for a one-megawatt tower," Dyk said. "It's definitely not going to happen everywhere in the county, only in real limited places. You're not going to see one after another surrounding someone's house; you just won't see that."

From one turbine, the required setback distance is a minimum four times the tip height of the tower to an occupied home; from a property line where there's no structures it's one and a half times the tip height.

These setbacks are for residents and property owners who are not participating in the community wind project.

Dyk can't say how the views of one or two turbines at that distance will affect someone not participating in a project and said he's not sure if it would cause someone to not buy land.

"What I've been saying is that we are in a rural, agricultural area," Dyk said. It's zoned primarily for farming, not for housing developments all over the place.

"These turbines won't hurt. They won't cost county government anything. They have the potential of helping a whole lot of people."