Wind ordinance under scrutiny

The Madison County Board of Supervisors discussed the proposed MidAmerican Energy settlement agreement and a new wind ordinance on Tuesday morning. 

During the public comment section of the meeting, several concerned citizens stepped forward to share their opinions with the board.

“The first thing I noticed about the settlement agreement in reading it is that MidAmerican in this agreement treats Macksburg as the same as Arbor Hill, and Macksburg is constructed. It’s operating – and there’s not one shovel of dirt that has been turned over at Arbor Hill. This settlement agreement for 30 turbines is arbitrarily picking winners and losers. It’s selecting that some people will get turbines and some people are going to be exposed to them, and you all know that there are  lot of people that are going to [be] exposed against their consent, to the potential risk of harm. …It is a moral law [sic], and a travesty of of justice to use one’s property for financial gain while in so doing cause infringement of the property rights of our neighbors to enjoy their land without being exposed to nuisances and causes of harm without their consent,” said one citizen.

Other citizens echoed similar concerns, and stated they do not believe that the agreement will succeed in making MidAmerican go away for good.”

Another citizen raised concerns relating to perceived conflicts o interest for both Supervisor Diane Fitch and Supervisor Phil Clifton, who this citizen saw as being able to profit off of the agreement.

Later in the meeting, the board reviewed a draft of the settlement agreement and discussed various concerns they have with it.

Several concerns about the settlement agreement, raised by Supervisor Heather Stancil, were that the height and power allowed for the turbines in the agreement does not appear to match the size previously agreed on, and that the settlement might allow MidAmerican more time in which to build turbines than is allowed under current building ordinances.

Upon reviewing the wind ordinance, Stancil stated that the time allowed under the “discontinued use” section of the ordinance before a turbine is torn down was too long and should be shortened to six months.

“They should not be able to be still for a year and rusting and leaking oil before they are taken down,” Stancil stated. “If it’s not being used for six months, it should be considered no longer in production.”

Stancil also stated that MidAmerican Energy should not be allowed a two-year variance for Arbor Hill. Supervisor Fitch spoke up in agreement. 

“When I worked for the state, it something is approved, we had a started and stop date. And it we weren’t done, it was pulled. …You don’t get variances or amendments to keep it going forever and ever. That’s just unfair. Your get it done, or move on.”

The supervisors also stated that it would be beneficial for the ordinance to include a requirement for wind turbines to have lights that only turn on when there’s airplane flying overhead, also admitting that this would be “very expensive.”

“I would like that in there to at least mitigate the constant red light district that’s been there around Earlham,” stated Stancil.

The supervisors then moved to discussing potential signal interference, which Stancil stated is a concern from a safety standpoint. Stancil stated that it is important to make sure that there will be no signal interference with radar, which could interfere with detecting tornadoes.

Additional changes that supervisors wanted to see made included lowering the allowed noise level for the turbines back to 60 DBA, and striking a section that would allow the noise level of turbines to be raised if the ambient sound of the neighborhood raised.