Feb 8 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Kecia Bal The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.

 

When developers switched on Pennsylvania's first industrial windmills in Garrett nearly six years ago, spectators celebrated with hot dogs and balloons.

Now, the state has at least 150 windmills, and the eight 200-foot turbines in Garrett that awed bystanders are the smallest in Pennsylvania.

"It's like a gold rush now," said D. Daniel Boone, an ecologist and policy analyst from Bowie, Md.

The wind industry wrapped up its most productive year in 2005, with a 35 percent increase in new equipment, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

"And Somerset County has only seen the tip of the iceberg," added Boone, who has worked as a consultant for national environmental groups, the Nature Conservancy and the Wilderness Society.

The county's windy ridges make it a distinct state leader in the world's growing wind-energy industry, with the possibility for a total of more than 200 turbines in the next five years or perhaps even sooner. That includes the 34 turbines already erected.

Developers have submitted paperwork for two projects totaling more than 60 turbines to Somerset County Planning Commission.

"Sometimes, we're the last to know," commission Director Brad Zearfoss said.

Developers must submit a plan to the office to ensure it falls within the county's toughened windmill regulations, passed nearly two years ago.

The ordinance requires that the distance to the nearest structure off turbine property be at least five times the tower's height.

Companies are planning a possible 184 additional turbines for the county, according to information from the region's power-grid operator, PJM Interconnection.

"It's hard to keep your finger on the ones planned," Zearfoss said. "It's like a moving target. It changes so quickly." Minimal windfall With such potential for additional windmills, direct benefits to county residents seem minimal, especially when tax breaks are considered. The power goes to a regional grid, which supplies electricity to several states.

Landowners usually can earn about $3,000 a year per turbine for leasing land, according to the wind-energy association.

"It has some good sides, but then you talk about the downside," said Jeff Payne, a veterinarian who lives near Berlin.

"It's flabbergasting that people don't see the problems." Tax benefits are a fraction of what a municipality would garner from a similarly priced investment: $1 million to $2 million per turbine.

The Garrett windmills in Summit Township offer about $650 in taxes a year for each of the eight turbines.

About $170 will go to the county, $50 to the township and $405 to Meyersdale Area School District.

A handful of jobs arise from the wind farms, but construction jobs often are contracted to companies outside the state and occasionally outside the country. The same goes for maintenance work.

At the forefront is a concern about regulations.

Pennsylvania, unlike nearby states, has no official commission or permitting process designated for wind farms.

The state's Department of Environmental Protection only monitors soil and erosion effects connected with a turbine's construction, department spokesman Kurt Knauss said.

"The actual siting is really dependent on local zoning," Knauss said, adding that the state plans to work with municipalities to develop model ordinances.

"We come in after the site is located," Knauss said.

Even federal regulations don't adequately monitor the industry, a Government Accountability Office report published in September found.

Payne compared the lack of wind-development regulation to the region's coal-mining history.

That industry operated unfettered by regulations until 1977.

"I just wish that, this time, we could implement some planning before it's too late," he said.

Payne said he wants the county commissioners to implement zoning restrictions.

But Commissioner Brad Cober said the move is unlikely after the commissioners' experience when they formed an ad hoc committee.

"We understand the concerns," he said. "That's why we've done subdivision revision to protect individual homeowners." The county's ordinance, part of a subdivision revision, mostly focuses on required distance between a turbine and nearby homes.

Cober said the commissioners came under fire from every angle when they authorized those changes.

"We figure we're done with it," Cober said.

Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes said county officials can do little to prompt regulatory changes for wind development.

"That really would have to come from the state," she said.

"Pennsylvania is forward-looking in its recommendations to use alternative energy, but I think they needed a little more due diligence in planning." The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is working on a policy on wind-farm siting.

Other agencies involved are the Fish and Boat Commission, the Game Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Environmental Protection.

But studies alone are to take another year, officials say.

"It's already too late," Tokar-Ickes said. "For us, here in Somerset County, the ad hoc committee recommended that you can't select one industry, single it out and place heavy regulations on it." She also said zoning should fall to individual municipalities.

"In the state of Pennsylvania, land use really falls on municipal planning," Tokar-Ickes said.

Either way, Payne said, someone needs to protect residents' interests.

"To have them come into this county and not benefit us -- and when you think about how much we are going to lose -- it's wrong," Payne said, adding that the county's No. 2 industry, tourism, could suffer.

For him, there's no near end to the turbine-spreading plans.

"We're talking about hundreds of windmills, maybe 1,000," Payne said.

"They are eyeing virtually the entire ridge from Meyersdale to Berlin." Payne said he isn't against windmills, just against erecting them in certain places, such as forested ridges that migratory birds follow.

Already, there is evidence of a significant wildlife impact.

About 2,000 bats were killed during a six-week study at 64 turbines in Meyersdale and Mountaineer, W.Va., the Government Accountability Office revealed.

Some county residents, like Len Lichvar of Stoystown, are happy to be part of clean-energy trends, but say they want responsible placement.

"Anybody who studies wind power would think it's a positive piece to solve the energy puzzle we're in," said Lichvar, an environmentalist who was nominated for a seat on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

"The question is: Where should they be sited? That's the question that will be debated, especially in our region." Lichvar said he worries about the county's scenic vistas.

"I don't know that I'd like to see a significant number of ridges in Somerset County covered. Other areas that have them have hundreds, but in limited spaces," he said. "It all boils down to siting, and siting is nothing but planning, and planning is nothing but zoning."