Only about half the number of people showed up to the evening meeting at NPC College in Snowflake as did on Monday, Aug. 31, but it was still a good turnout, according to Greg Loper, county planning director.
     Loper said the county now has a "hot" link (quicklink) with information regarding the NZ Legacy project up and running on the county homepage at www.navajocountyaz.gov.
     "It will take you to information regarding whatever the application is that we have at that time, it will have information regarding maps and any public meetings or hearings that are going forward, and again the idea is we want to keep people informed as well as possible," said Loper.
     He said the purpose of the meetings on Monday and Wednesday were to address five key areas of concern as voiced "by the public at large" and asked that questions be confined to subjects not covered at the Monday meeting.
     Those five key areas included property values, transmission use, health effects, lighting and decommissioning.
     Robert M. Worsley, property owner for the proposed project and chairman and CEO of Renegy Holdings Inc., spoke to the audience first and introduced Duane S. Black, president of NZ Legacy, before going into why he feels the project would be a good thing, not only for the immediate community, but the state and nation at large.
     He said NZ Legacy has a history of being "sensitive" rural builders and have worked in St. George, Utah, Prescott and Santa Fe, N.M.
     Christopher Moore, COO of Nature Energies of Rochester, Minn., also shared his views on some of the technical issues surrounding the proposal.
     Worsley said he started buying land and "coming" to Navajo County (his primary residence is in Mesa) working as a junior auditor for the Snowflake paper mill in 1980. He said he has "been very involved" with projects in the area since about 2000.
     He said he immediately "saw the potential" with the untapped free wind and solar resources around Snowflake, which is why he first proposed the idea of building a wind farm to the Department of Energy in 2003.
     He said the recent economic rescue package by the Feds has given new momentum to the idea and that is the reason there is such a push now to get it started. The federal money comes with specific requirements such as meeting completion deadlines.
     "Some of these projects have to be done by the end of 2012 to get the stimulus money. And, in addition, the solar projects must be completed by the end of 2016," he said. "We believe this is a responsible use of our land that ultimately will benefit the existing citizens of Navajo County as well as us as land owners."
     "There are other things that could be done with land, there could be houses and lots of people, lots of subdivisions, you could add a lot of population to this area on 70,000 acres, and the impact of that would be fairly dramatic to schools, fire departments, police. (The wind/solar farm) ends up being a potentially much better use of the land," Worsley said.
     As selling points for the approximate 120 turbine green energy project, Worsley said it would bring in "several thousand" short-term construction jobs (about six months in duration) as well as permanent high-paying jobs and "significant and material increases in Navajo County property taxes" to benefit the county and its residents.
     "In addition, there is a secondary benefit from the money flowing through the economy; they say there is about three or four jobs for every new job created in any new city," he said.
     He added that since there is already a large power structure because of the numerous power plants in the region, hooking up to the power grid will be much easier and less expensive than projects that have to put it all in themselves.
     He said that $105,000 million has been approved by the federal government for a renewable energy project, meaning the tap is potentially now open for ARRA money for this project.
     He said the "vision" for the wind turbine farm is not to just put up a "bunch of turbines" without concern for the aesthetics, but to do it in such a manner that it will be acceptable to the greatest number of residents.
     One of the first concerns posed by a member of the audience focused on the issue of property values.
     A resident said she had statistics from studies showing that in some locations near wind turbine farms in the United States, property values have declined.
     Moore replied by saying he understands property owners' concerns, citing research he has seen indicates the opposite is also true.
     "Study after study has been done indicating that there is no negative impact on property values," he said. "Now there are quite few people who have testified that they believe that there will be an impact and it will be negative and those studies have always been done before the project is built, at least according to my knowledge, but studies were also done after the projects were built and those studies indicate there was no negative impact to property values," Moore said.
     Worsley said another concern from residents was potential noise from the turbines, as well as low level noise which some said can cause annoying vibrations.
     Research by some studies indicate noise above 45 decibels (an empty bedroom is typically about 25 decibels) can interfere with sleep and other human activity (even having potential health consequences, according to some research) and even more so with individuals who might be more sensitive to noise than the average person.
     "Apparently, as the turbine blades come down by the tower, it makes a swooshing noise," Worsley said. "Setbacks are what developers have used to abate that noise, that sound."
     He said they originally proposed a 500-foot setback in the application and after learning from the county that a lot of complaints had been received about the proposed 500-foot distance they went to 1,000 feet and then 1,500 feet, which he said would come in at less than 50 decibels of noise for those properties at the 1,500-foot mark.
     According to the EnvironmentAL Protection Agency, 55 decibels is an acceptable guideline for safety in a typical outdoor area.
     Moore noted that while he does not doubt there are some individuals who may be sensitive to transmission noise, "by and large" studies he has seen indicate that the majority of the population is not affected.
     In the same vein as noise and vibrations, residents asked about assurances that towers would not be blown over in high winds.
     Moore said no one has a desire to install a $6 million tower only to have it felled by high winds, adding that geologic studies will be conducted to be as sure as possible that they will remain standing even in high winds, but no one can be 100 percent certain of such things.
     Another issue raised was pollution of the Coconino aquifer by solar tower cooling systems. Worsley said he is also worried about that potential, but did not offer any assurances along those lines.
     Other concerns residents had included issues with the construction process like dust being raised by equipment and grading around the bases of the locations yet to be looked at for the turbines and worries about potential dangers associated with the blades of the turbines.
     One woman said the 1,500-foot safety zones between private property lines and the turbines being considered for the project is not enough, citing overseas studies on the subject indicating safe distances may be as large as a couple of miles from existing private property lines. She asked that distances greater than 1,500 feet be required.
     As for the construction process, Worsley said the construction company (Nature Energies) would be responsible for replacing any asphalt torn up in the process or construction access roads and basically leaving the surrounding terrain and landscape in the same condition as prior to building.
     Residents asked about whether lights would be on the tops of the towers, be they solar or wind, to which came the reply from Moore that, per FAA regulations, any tower 200 feet tall or higher will be fitted with a light, but not necessarily all towers.
     That was met with the response from one woman that she and her husband, regardless of the number of lights on towers, did not want to look at a night sky full or them.
     Finally Moore spoke to the issue of decommissioning, saying that even if the owner of a wind farm were to just walk away from it, the salvage potential of such facilities will pay for taking down any machines or equipment. He added that typically counties require bonds be posted for each turbine and that would also be available to offset any costs of decommissioning.
     According to Loper, Moore and Worsley, there are still a lot of hoops to jump through, including county and federal permits, environmental and other studies which have to be performed and completed before any soil is turned.
     They said they are open to public input on the issue throughout the process and will continue scheduling meetings to keep the public informed about the progress of the proposal.

*Reach the reporter at mleiby@wmicentral.com