Public Hearing ~ on Cape Vincent's Proposed St. Lawrence Wind Project

8/9/2019 Public Hearing ~ on Cape Vincent's Proposed St. Lawrence Wind Project

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PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED

ST. LAWRENCE WIND ENERGY PROJECT

Held on May 16, 2009, at 10:00 AM, at the Cape Vincent

Recreation Center, South James Street, Cape Vincent,

New York, before Town of Cape Vincent Planning Board Members

Richard Edsall, Chairman, Tom Ingersoll, and George Mingle.

Also Present were Todd Mathes, Esq., and Kris Dimmick, PE.

Court Reporter was Sally B. Maiorano, Registered Merit

Reporter, Certified Realtime Reporter, Certified CARTProvider, Certified Shorthand Reporter, and Notary Public in

and for the State of New York.

PROFESSIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC.315-436-7775

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1 MR. MATHES: Good morning. I'd like to

2 introduce myself. My name is Todd Mathes, I'm an

3 attorney from a law firm --

4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can't hear you.

5 MR. MATHES: If we can quiet down so we can

6 use the three hours we have today.

7 My name is Todd Mathes, I'm an attorney from a

8 law firm at Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna in Albany. We

9 were engaged by the town about a year ago to assist the

10 town with the administration of their responsibilities

11 under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

12 The Planning Board today -- Rich Edsall is the

13 chairman, he's here, we have Tom Ingersoll and George

14 Mingle, the town's engineer is here, Kris Dimmick, we

15 have a stenographer here today -- has asked me to

16 administer today's public hearing. I wanted to set a

17 few ground rules really quickly so everyone has

18 expectations in terms of how this can run.

19 As of right now I only have 37 people signed

20 up, so I think that given the three hours, we can allot

21 for five minutes of time to speak. I would ask that no

22 one delegate their time to another person, but certainly

23 if you yourself would like to speak in excess of the

24 five-minute period, to the extent everyone has an

25 opportunity to speak before 1:00 and we have additional


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1 remaining time, you can certainly go again.Page 2


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2 Just in terms of the purpose of today's

3 hearing, today's hearing is a discretionary public

4 hearing, which the Planning Board decided to hold as the

5 State Environmental Quality Review Act lead agency for

6 this project.

7 The purpose of the hearing is to gather

8 substantive comment on the Supplemental Draft

9 Environmental Impact Statement, which was prepared by

10 St. Lawrence Wind Power, the project applicant for the

11 wind project, and submitted to the Planning Board in

12 which the Planning Board deemed complete at a March 2009

13 Planning Board meeting.

14 Publication and notice of the hearing was

15 posted in the environmental notice bulletin online on

16 DEC's website; it was also posted in the newspaper.

17 I'll just add, you know, in sort of further

18 elaboration of the purpose of the hearing, what happens

19 in this process is during the public hearing and during

20 the public comment period, the public comment period is21 going to end May 30th, so if you want to submit

22 written comments you can up until that date. Your

23 comments today, your verbal comments, which will be

24 transcribed, and your written comments will be responded

25 to in a final Environmental Impact Statement, to the


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1 extent they pertain to substantive matter in the SDEIS.

2 To the extent they don't pertain to actual

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051609pubhrg-2.txt3 environmental impacts, the physical project site, the

4 potential impacts of the project, the characterization

5 of those impacts based on your review of the SDEIS or

6 the mitigation measures proposed in the SDEIS, they may

7 not be responded to. There's no obligation under the

8 SEQRA regulations to respond to non-substantive comments

9 on actual visual and environmental impacts to project.

10 So to the extent that you have comment to make

11 about that, those are very helpful. There's plenty of

12 municipalities throughout New York, and they've been at

13 it for about 30 years under SEQRA and have engaged in

14 this process, and it's a very productive process to the

15 extent you have something to offer, because certainly

16 you as the public have knowledge about the physical

17 project site and things which consultants and planners

18 just can't know.

19 So that's the purpose of incorporating your

20 comments, and we hope that you will offer those

21 substantive comments.

22 With that said, there's some representatives

23 from St. Lawrence Wind Power, they have a couple of

24 maps, and they're going to make a very brief

25 presentation of the project for those of you who are


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1 unfamiliar with it. And I'd ask them to come up now and

2 make that brief presentation.

3 MR. ERIC SCHNEIDER: So thank you very much.

4 My name is Eric Schneider. I'm director ofPage 4


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5 communications for Acciona Energy North America. And I

6 want to thank you all very much for coming out today and

7 for giving us the opportunity to introduce this project

8 to you in a little bit greater detail. I'm very honored

9 to be here and honored to have the chance to talk about

10 a company that I'm very proud to work for.

11 Acciona is a 100-year-old global company. We

12 have more than 35,000 employees. We operate on five

13 continents and in 30 countries. And a pioneering in

14 global energy solutions for 20 years.

15 In 2008 Acciona produced almost 9,000 gigawatt

16 hours of electricity from renewable energy sources,

17 which avoided nearly 5.5 million tons of CO2 emissions

18 from conventional power plants.

19 We're the second largest developer of wind

20 farms in the world. And we're the second largest

21 producer of renewable energy. We're well diversified in

22 renewable energies with experience and presence in eight

23 renewable energy technologies, but we don't currently24 have any operations in fossil fuel technologies.

25 For wind Acciona has more than 6,000 megawatts


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1 installed as of January 2009, which amounts to about 5%

2 of the world's total capacity. Those 6,000 megawatts

3 are spread across 208 wind farms located in 14 countries

4 that we've built over the past 20 years.

5 And in North America Acciona has ownership in

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051609pubhrg-2.txt6 seven wind farms -- seven operational wind farms

7 totaling 525 megawatts, including two wind farms which

8 are opening this summer in Illinois and Oklahoma.

9 To add more information on the St. Lawrence

10 project I'm going to turn it over to Pete Zedick, who's

11 the project developer.

12 MR. ZEDICK: Hi. As Eric said, I'm Pete

13 Zedick, the developer for this project. Just to give a

14 little background on the project, it's a 79.5-megawatt

15 wind power project consisting of 53 wind turbines. The

16 wind turbines we're going it use thorough this project

17 are Acciona turbines rated at 1.5 megawatts.

18 The project also includes a collection

19 substation, which will have a 115 kV transmission line

20 that runs from the collection substation on Wilson Road

21 to Route 179 in the town of Lyme.

22 Just for background on a little bit more of

23 what Todd said, is the project submitted a site plan

24 application to the town of Cape Vincent Planning Board

25 back in November 2006, that was followed with a Draft


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1 Environmental Impact Statement in January 2007. And

2 there was a public hearing held on that draft in March

3 of 2007.

4 January 14th, 2009, the project submitted

5 its Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement,

6 and that was accepted as complete by the town of Cape

7 Vincent Planning Board on March 25th, 2009, where aPage 6


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8 hearing was scheduled for today.

9 So those are the project details. I would

10 just like to say we appreciate you coming out today, and

11 we look forward to all the comment, public input. And

12 thank you all very much.

13 MR. MATHES: Thanks. The thing I neglected to

14 say is if you've written down your comments today, you

15 can do one of two things: If you've just jotted down

16 your comments and you want to submit them to the

17 stenographer today, she'll take those, and they'll

18 certainly assist her in preparation of the transcript.

19 To the extent you've written out comments

20 which you want to make as a formal written submission,

21 you can hand those to me today; you can also mail those

22 to the town supervisor. So certainly if you just have,

23 you know, handwritten comments or whatever, and you want

24 to give those to the stenographer, please do, they're

25 helpful to her, and we'll bundle those separately and


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1 just treat those as actual verbal comments.

2 The first person who signed up today is Cindy

3 Grant. If Cindy could come up.

4 MS. GRANT: I have read the DEIS for the

5 St. Lawrence Wind Energy Project, and I have some

6 serious concerns for the health and the safety of the

7 residents who live within a two-mile area of this

8 project.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt9 I am for green energy. And in fact, at my

10 house we recycle everything; we don't burn. But this is

11 going to hurt people here. But these industrial wind

12 turbines must be placed in a responsible and regulated

13 manner so that the people that live there right now will

14 not be hurt and made to suffer. The area in question is

15 very populated, and I believe the residents will be

16 harmed by low frequency noise, or infrasound, that this

17 project will produce.

18 The submitted DEIS does not mention low

19 frequency noise, that's dBC, it's a weighting, which is

20 an injustice. All noise is vibration, and the audible

21 sound you hear coming from my lips right now, this is

22 high frequency, or dBA, which was what St. Lawrence Wind

23 chose to use here.

24 If you do your research, you'll find out that

25 noise for this project should be measured using dBA and

PROFESSIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC.315-436-7775 9

1 dBC to accurately see what the proposed noise and health

2 effects will be to the people that live here.

3 Even the independent acoustical report

4 requested about your town, the Tocci report, said that

5 you must also -- that you also must use dBC to measure

6 for low frequency noise.

7 To understand low frequency noise, consider

8 what happens when a young person pulls up next to you at

9 a traffic light and they have their music up loud in

10 their car. You can feel the boom, boom, boom of theirPage 8


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11 music vibrate right through their car windows right into

12 your car. If you have a pen sitting on your dashboard,

13 it even vibrates, and that vibration doesn't stop there,

14 that vibration continues on through your body.

15 The vibration or rumble and the boom, boom,

16 boom effect is low frequency noise, or infrasound. The

17 metal and the glass of your car blocked out a lot of the

18 high frequency noise, but it did not block out the low

19 frequency noise. And low frequency noise can easily

20 travel through the walls and the roof of neighbors'

21 homes in this project. It is why there must be proper

22 measurements taken using a combination of dBC and dBA to

23 find out what the true impacts to the citizens here will

24 be.

25 This project area is highly populated. If you


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1 look at other wind projects around the world and around

2 the U.S., industrial wind turbines are placed away from

3 people, far enough away so people aren't harmed.

4 Typically industrial wind turbines cause the

5 most disturbance at night, when the winds at ground

6 level are still but the wind up at the hub height are

7 still blowing, and the noise from the turbine will be

8 very noticeable in the home.

9 Noise studies done at an industrial wind

10 project sites after they have been up and running often

11 show that they are making much more noise than the

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051609pubhrg-2.txt12 developers said they would, but by then it's too late.

13 Low frequency noise, or infrasound, can be

14 especially dangerous to children whose bodies are still

15 developing, but it can also cause severe problems for

16 anyone living too close.

17 I also believe that the residents will be

18 harmed by the shadow flicker effect, especially people

19 who already suffer from migraines, epilepsy and vertigo.

20 Over 20 years ago the Exxon Valdez ran aground

21 in Alaska -- and I'm not talking about the oil here,

22 okay, I know this is an energy giant, and Exxon Valdez

23 is an energy giant, I'm talking about what happens when

24 you try to do business with a giant energy company. We

25 have no recourse. But over 20 years ago the Exxon


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1 Valdez ran aground in Alaska, but the citizens there

2 have never received just compensation. Even the U.S.

3 Federal Government went after the energy giant Exxon.

4 They couldn't get their money.

5 There is also no way that the town of Cape

6 Vincent residents will ever be able force this developer

7 to make right any violations against the innocent

8 residents that live near this project unless proper

9 regulations are put into effect now. Before this

10 project is allowed, please put more safeguards in place

11 now to protect your citizens because you cannot do it

12 afterwards. The health and the safety of your citizens

13 should be the number one concern.Page 10


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14 And please, if you go online at Wind Watch,

15 any of you, I know you might not believe what I'm

16 saying.

17 MR. MATHES: Cindy.

18 MS. GRANT: Go online and -- sorry -- and

19 you'll see Wind Watch.

20 MR. MATHES: Gerry Smith. The one other thing

21 I neglected to say --

22 [Applause]

23 MR. MATHES: -- we tried to orient the table

24 today -- two things: If we applaud you won't make it

25 through the hearing. So yea or nay, wherever you stand,


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1 if you could just refrain from applauding.

2 The other thing is we tried orient the table3 so that you can address the board but so that everyone

4 else will also be able to see and hear you. If you can

5 address the board, that's helpful.

6 MR. SMITH: Thank you. I don't think I

7 usually need a microphone, so --

8 MR. MATHES: Mr. Smith, if you could. Thank

9 you.

10 MR. SMITH: I'm Gerry Smith. I'm an avian

11 ecologist. You all on the Planning Board have heard

12 from me before. And our concern -- my concern is

13 related to wildlife, et cetera.

14 Basically, my comments on the DEIS previously

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051609pubhrg-2.txt15 submitted remain valid. The SDEIS was an opportunity to

16 upgrade a very important DEIS, and frankly, the

17 consultants failed miserably.

18 The SDIS is in no way adequate. This part of

19 the world is an extremely important raptor area for much

20 of the year, ranging between August and well into June.

21 These issues are barely addressed, and they are not

22 addressed significantly. Let's put it this way: One

23 has to question the level of effort and competence on

24 the part of the field teams that were out looking at

25 these birds and bats.


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1 Let's put it this way: During the winter of

2 2006-2007 I had dozens of short-eared owls, a state

3 endangered species, within the Acciona wind footprint.

4 The consultants for the company, by their own admission,

5 failed to define a single short-eared owl and apparently

6 have not seen one since, even though they've been here

7 each of the last three winters.

8 That strongly suggests to me that there is a

9 problem even -- again, it's a little hard to come up

10 with conclusions and potential impacts when you can't

11 even find what you're supposed to be assessing.

12 There are lots of potential problems with the

13 lack of information on short-eared owl; the impacts of

14 turbine noise on acoustic hunting are not addressed; and

15 if such a large assemblage of a New York State

16 endangered species is not considered significant -- toPage 12


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17 be at significant risk from an industrial wind complex,

18 then I'd basically like to know what is.

19 I have to question the level of competence as

20 well as the amount of time put into the field.

21 Basically, when you have a report that talks about

22 unidentified geese, and my favorite, woodpeckers. I

23 would like to ask the consultant what in heaven's name

24 are using for field people? That's rather poor, to put

25 it mildly.


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1 They draw conclusions from raptor migration

2 studies through the area. Now, I have spent hundreds,

3 indeed thousands of hours looking at raptors in this

4 area. They have a total of 63 hours. They assume there

5 is no raptor migration in this area.6 Well, I'd be interested to know where the

7 raptors that I see coming in, and I have seen an active

8 migration, are coming from. Perhaps there's a black

9 hole that goes around the survey sites, I don't know.

10 But these conclusions are not viable.

11 The breeding bird summary -- breeding bird

12 survey, 20 points in 20 square miles covered for a total

13 of ten minutes. Absolutely ludicrous, folks. You can't

14 draw conclusions based on that kind of information. It

15 is simply not possible. And any ornithologist worth

16 their salt will tell you that.

17 No surveys were conducted for rare species

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051609pubhrg-2.txt18 such as Henslow's sparrow, which require targeted field

19 surveys. As for the winter raptor study, let's put it

20 this way, their entire study effort is far less than

21 mine in one single year, let alone all the years I've

22 been doing this, and in the three years that I've been

23 doing this since the wind farm was proposed.

24 The basic point in all this is --

25 MR. MATHES: One minute, Gerry.


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1 MR. SMITH: Okay. Basic point in all of this

2 is that the information being provided and the

3 conclusions cannot be considered valid. Essentially,

4 the level of effort is insufficient. Citing studies

5 from other locations is basically not useful. There is

6 all sorts of fill information, such as breeding bird

7 surveys and stuff from other areas that are not

8 relevant.

9 Basically, what this is all about, folks, is

10 this is not about protecting or assessing the raptor or

11 any other resources. Perhaps this DEIS is acceptable

12 for surface strip mines in Wyoming or other projects in

13 the back woods of Wyoming. It is certainly not

14 acceptable by the standards of DEIS work in the state of

15 New York. Thank you.

16 MR. MATHES: Don Metzger.

17 [Applause]

18 MR. MATHES: Folks, I appreciate that people

19 have substantive comments and you want to applaud, butPage 14


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20 if you could refrain from applauding, it's helpful in

21 terms of getting through the hearing. And also if you

22 could address the Board. Don?

23 MR. METZGER: Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

24 Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here

25 today. Fellow Board members, Todd.


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1 MR. MATHES: Can everyone hear him?

2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No.

3 MR. MATHES: Can you use the microphone, Don?

4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Why doesn't he get to

5 the middle so everyone can hear him?

6 MR. METZGER: Good morning, Mr. Chairman,

7 fellow Board members, Todd. Thank you for the

8 opportunity to speak this morning.9 For the record, my name is Don Metzger, and

10 for the past 32 years I have been a resident --

11 year-round resident of the town of Lyme, one of the

12 towns that will be affected by this project.

13 I am a property owner there, taxpayer there,

14 and registered voter there. The town of Cape Vincent --

15 in the village of Cape Vincent for past 32 years

16 concurrent I have been an operator, owner, and manager

17 of a business here in Cape Vincent paying taxes here in

18 Cape Vincent.

19 With that as a background, I'd like to state

20 that my comments today will be to you concerning the

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051609pubhrg-2.txt21 Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement that

22 was just released a little less than two months ago.

23 I will present my concerns and my questions

24 that I have on it, and I will go in numerical order in

25 the draft. So my order of presentation isn't


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1 necessarily my order of concern or importance.

2 In Volume 1, Section 2, Page 3, it says that

3 after the public comment period on the SDEIS two

4 alternative procedural pathways will be available to the

5 lead agency, the Cape Vincent -- the Cape Vincent

6 Planning Board is the lead agency for the two towns,

7 here, for the town of Lyme and the town of Cape Vincent.

8 The town of Cape Vincent Planning Board could

9 require preparation of a final Environmental Impact

10 Statement. If that alternative policy is chosen, the

11 following steps would be taken. And then it delineates

12 the following steps.

13 What my question would be to the Board in

14 hopes that it could be in the final impact statement is

15 what about alternative two? It doesn't state anything

16 about alternative two.

17 And my other concern is that if you take

18 alternative one, it gives the public only ten days in

19 which to consider the final Environmental Impact

20 Statement. I believe that ten days to consider a

21 project of that size is insufficient for the community.

22 I would ask that the Board have in the finalPage 16


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23 draft a clarification on decommissioning. There seems

24 to be -- if you read closely, Volume 1, Section 2,

25 Page 20 and 21, it leaves a little bit of confusion as


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1 to what will be or will not be taken down. Do the

2 foundations go, the collection cables, the 37 miles of

3 underground collection cables? They talk about a

4 permanent easement for those cables, and they talk about

5 greater than 48 inches, less than 48, at one point they

6 use the depth of 44 inches. I believe that's a

7 misprint, but -- one minute left? At this point I would

8 like to request time at the end if it's available.

9 I have big concerns about the safety and

10 integrity of the Development Authority of the North

11 Country's western Jefferson County regional water line,12 the 12-inch interior diameter water line that goes for

13 25 miles from Cape Vincent to Glen Park, serving four

14 towns, five villages, the General Brown School, and

15 many, many water hydrants. That is a potential -- with

16 the poles there being set 15 feet into the ground, there

17 is a physical integrity, physical security problem. I

18 think the engineers have been working on it, but I would

19 request, Mr. Chairman, that if there is a DANC,

20 Development Authority of the North Country, engineer

21 here today, that he might be able to address some of our

22 concerns and fears in that matter, because that line has

23 been here for ten years now serving this community and

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051609pubhrg-2.txt24 all the communities all the way to Glen Park very well

25 with fresh water. We can deal --


19

1 MR. MATHES: Don, that's your time.

2 MR. METZGER: We can't go without fresh water.

3 We can go without electricity, but we can't go without

4 fresh water, Mr. Chairman. Thanks. If I have more

5 time, I would appreciate it later.

6 MR. MATHES: Beth White. And you don't need

7 to reserve time. To the extent there's time and people

8 raise hands, that's fine. Beth White?

9 MS. WHITE: I'm Beth White. I'm in favor of

10 accepting the DEIS. The DEIS includes the project

11 description, environmental impacts, the layout and

12 design of the wind farm, as well as the decommissioning

13 process. The lease agreements also contain contingency

14 plans for the decommissioning. Sections 2.8, one

15 through three, detail this process. The process will be

16 in accord with all applicable state and federal and

17 local permits.

18 The restoration process is also explained,

19 including a two-year monitoring and remediation period.

20 The decommissioning includes aboveground and

21 below-ground structures, and the sequence for their

22 removal has turbines, foundations, collection cables,

23 substations, roadways, and paths.

24 The actual removal of the turbine is described

25 in Section 2.8.1.1. Then the removal of the foundationPage 18


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1 is described in Section 2.8.1.1. As you read the DEIS,

2 each element of the process is described in great

3 detail, leaving nothing to chance and covering every

4 possible angle.

5 I believe the wind company has gone to great

6 lengths to go above and beyond the ordinary scope of an

7 EIS.

8 I trust the Cape Vincent Town Board and

9 Planning Board to review this document and to approve it

10 as it deems appropriate.

11 I am in favor of the wind farm. Thousands of

12 turbines across the U.S. and the world are producing

13 energy safely. Control systems continually monitor the

14 turbines to assure safe and efficient operations. Like15 many Upstate New York communities, Cape Vincent faces

16 economic challenges. The wind farm can be our solution.

17 MR. MATHES: Melodee Doull. I apologize if I

18 mispronounce your name. And feel free to pronounce it

19 for the stenographer too.

20 MS. DOULL: In several places the Supplemental

21 Draft Environmental Impact Statement proposed for the

22 St. Lawrence Wind Power Project states that the Acciona

23 project is in compliance with the local zoning ordinance

24 and land use regulations. This is not true. Cape

25 Vincent does not have a zoning law with regulations

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21

1 pertaining to commercial wind turbines.

2 The joint comprehensive plan was adopted in

3 2003 by Cape Vincent to regulate land use in the town

4 and village. This document clearly discouraged the

5 scale of a monumental turbine industry by specifically

6 mentioning towers or utilities.

7 The setbacks that the project claims to adhere

8 to in Section 3.5.1.3 are not criteria that have been

9 legally adopted by the Town or the Planning Board. The

10 report states that these setbacks were determined by

11 considering public comments after the public hearing on

12 the draft EIS. This is not how zoning regulations are

13 legislated.

14 This community is mired in a controversy over

15 conflicts of interest which have prohibited our local

16 government from adopting a fair and legal wind

17 ordinance.

18 In Section 3.8.3 mitigation measures are

19 discussed. Acciona believes reducing the number of

20 turbines from 96 to 53 will reduce the number of

21 turbines visible from a given location.

22 There is insufficient documentation to back up

23 the claim that downsizing the project is a viable

24 solution. Acciona also believes that reducing the

25 height of each turbine from 425 feet to 390.5 feet is an


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1 answer to mitigation. Turbines that are 390.5 feet tall

2 cannot be mitigated by the color they are painted or the

3 lack of commercial advertising, as stated by Acciona.

4 In the visual impact conclusion, 3.8.4,

5 Acciona states that since renewable energy sources such

6 as wind turbines are so important, that the residents

7 need to live with these large and visible facilities.

8 This is an arrogant and callous disregard for the rights

9 of nonparticipating residents. Natural or manmade

10 devices to mitigate the negative visual and auditory

11 impact of wind turbines do not exist. This is an

12 unacceptable living environment.

13 Where is the logic in offering this

14 questionable asset and ruining one of the most scenic

15 vistas in America? In several European countries, such

16 as Denmark and Germany, they are already reconsidering

17 the wisdom of their investment in large-scale wind18 power.

19 In Paragraph 2.8 Acciona describes their

20 decommissioning plan. There is no mention of the

21 transmission lines; there is no mention of secure funds

22 to implement the plan. Will there be bonding? What

23 happens when the wind farm is sold to another company?

24 Will the new company adhere to the decommissioning plan

25 as described in the SDEIS? These questions need


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1 answers.

2 In Appendix J, supplemental shadow flicker

3 analysis, it states that the distance between a wind

4 turbine and a receptor affects the intensity of the

5 shadows cast by the blades, and therefore the intensity

6 of flickering.

7 One can assume similar effects relative to the

8 noise and low frequency vibration issues can be based on

9 the proximity of a receptor to a turbine.

10 A logical mitigation solution would be --

11 MR. MATHES: One minute left.

12 MS. DOULL: A logical mitigation solution

13 would be to increase turbine setbacks in order to lessen

14 the effects of flicker, noise, and vibration concerns.

15 MR. MATHES: Thank you. Urban Hershey?

16 MR. HIRSCHEY: Thank you and good morning.

17 Urban Hirschey, Cape Vincent, New York.

18 I'm going to confine my remarks today on the

19 cumulative effects, which was Section 4, and on the

20 alternative analysis on Section 7.

21 I think it's instructive and interesting that

22 the original DEIS on both of these -- on the -- the

23 number of pages on the cumulative effects was three, and

24 on the D -- on the supplemental DEIS it was 20.

25 Basically the same goes with the alternative analysis,


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1 there were four pages, and on the supplemental there arePage 22


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2 41 pages.

3 And as you look over here at the -- I think

4 there are two big volumes versus one smaller volume on

5 the original DEIS. So there's a lot more data and a lot

6 more words to look at and to study.

7 And it's also interesting that the DEIS

8 original was presented on January -- accepted on

9 January 24th, and the comment period closed

10 June 15th. Almost five months. This -- the

11 supplemental was submitted March 25th, accepted

12 March 25th, and May 30th is the comment.

13 Given the volume of information, it would seem

14 to me that it should be at least five months, which was

15 the original DEIS comment period.

16 Getting into some of the detail, in the -- on

17 Page 4-1 it reads, the SEQRA process requires that

18 reasonable related cumulative impacts be evaluated where

19 other projects have been specifically identified and

20 either are part of a single plan or program or21 sufficient nexus of common or interactive impacts

22 warrant assessing such impacts together.

23 This is pretty interesting because, you know,

24 what does common mean? BP and Acciona are both projects

25 for Cape Vincent. They're within the bounds of Cape


25

1 Vincent, and they share a transmission line, or they're

2 talking about sharing a transmission line. Clearly they

Page 23


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051609pubhrg-2.txt3 are common, and they should be viewed as one. And it

4 seems to me that it's -- it's rather convenient that

5 they divided this township in two so that each one could

6 be considered separately, and therefore it wouldn't have

7 the cumulative effect of having considering 140 or 150

8 turbines versus 50.

9 Towards the bottom of the Page 4-1 it lists a

10 number of projects within 13 miles, I believe. And it

11 lists the BP Cape Vincent wind, it listed the

12 Hounsfield, which is Galloo Island, Horse Creek Farm in

13 Clayton, and the Wolfe Island project.

14 What it does fail to mention, though, is that

15 BP also has a project which is currently dormant in the

16 town of Lyme. But clearly the -- this project has not

17 been abandoned, the -- I would guess that the contracts

18 are still alive, and when this thing goes through, if it

19 goes through, Lyme is going to fire up again, and there

20 are going to be an additional amount of turbines that

21 are considered.

22 MR. MATHES: One minute.

23 MR. HIRSCHEY: 4.1.3, ecological resources.

24 They talk about significant cumulative adverse effects

25 are not anticipated because none of the projects when


26

1 considered individually are anticipated to cause

2 significant impacts to wildlife or wildlife habitants of

3 the project taken together. It will not cause impacts

4 that interact with or increase the extent of the impactsPage 24


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5 of other projects.

6 This is pretty interesting because if you

7 consider some -- the migrating birds fly along the

8 eastern shore of Lake Ontario. And if you get a flock

9 of ducks or geese or whatever flying through, let's say

10 50. If -- am I going too --

11 MR. MATHES: It's time.

12 MR. HIRSCHEY: Okay. I'm going to forget that

13 part. Let's go to the last one, which is alternative --

14 this is the section that talks about what happens if

15 there are no turbines.

16 MR. MATHES: I'm going to have to ask you to

17 stop because we're past five minutes.

18 MR. HIRSCHEY: I'll come back later.

19 MR. MATHES: Okay. Theresa Ciocci? Do you

20 want to submit anything?

21 MR. HIRSCHEY: No, I'll do it later.

22 MS. CIOCCI: Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

23 Precaution is the principle of justice that no one24 should live with fear of harm to their health and

25 environment.


27

1 I am Theresa Ciocci, a property owner,

2 taxpayer, and registered voter in the town of Cape

3 Vincent. I'm a registered nurse, master's prepared in

4 nursing administration, and certified in education.

5 In my current job I am a member of a medical

Page 25


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051609pubhrg-2.txt6 planning board with similar responsibilities to this

7 Board. The responsibilities include reviewing all

8 research prior to implementation for potential risk of

9 human harm. My role demands that I perform ethically,

10 unbiased, and without real or the potential for

11 financial gain to determine risk and to inform those

12 potential participants of those risks or to deny the

13 research in the face of unresolved risk uncertainty.

14 Most of my statements are excerpts from the

15 Precautionary Principle in Action Handbook written for

16 the Science and Environmental Network from the

17 January 1998 Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary

18 Principle. In order to accurately report their words, I

19 will be reading much of my presentation.

20 The public has typically carried the burden of

21 proving that a particular activity or substance is

22 dangerous. Well, those undertaking potentially

23 dangerous activities and the products of those

24 activities are considered innocent until proven guilty.

25 Chemicals, dangerous practices, and companies often seem


28

1 to have more rights than the citizens and the

2 environment.

3 When citizen groups base their calls for a

4 stop to a particular activity on experience,

5 observation, or anything less than scientific proof,

6 they're accused of being emotional and hysterical. We

7 do not have to accept business as usual. Precaution isPage 26


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8 a guiding principle we can use to stop environmental

9 degradation.

10 The precautionary principle has become a

11 critical aspect of environmental agreements and

12 environmental activism throughout the world. It offers

13 the public and decision makers a forceful, common sense

14 approach to the environment and public health problems.

15 The National Environmental Policy Act requires

16 that any project receiving federal funding and which may

17 pose serious harm to the environment undergo

18 environmental impact study, demonstrating that there are

19 no safer alternatives. Risk assessment is fundamentally

20 undemocratic. Those exposed to harm are rarely asked

21 whether the exposure is acceptable to them.

22 The President's Council on Sustainable

23 Development expressed support for the precautionary

24 principle in the form of a core belief that even in the

25 face of scientific uncertainty, society should take


29

1 responsible actions to avert risks to the potential harm

2 to human health or the environment is thought -- when

3 the potential for harm to human health or the

4 environment is thought to be serious or irreparable.

5 It is evident that this EIS has been guided by

6 ignorance, arrogance, and agreed on the part of this

7 planning committee and those who have the power,

8 control, and resources to act and prevent undue harm to

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051609pubhrg-2.txt9 human health and ecosystems in relation to the following

10 list of health and wellness insults: Noise emission

11 pollution, visual assault pollution, airborne toxin

12 pollution.

13 Ignorance and uncertainty are no longer

14 excuses for postponing actions to prevent harm. At this

15 time I can only question why arrogance and greed have

16 not been emergently dealt with by the New York Attorney

17 General Office for Public Integrity.

18 The precautionary approach requires that the

19 public be involved initially and intimately in the

20 ongoing decision making process. The public needs to

21 determine if we are dealing with something unknowable or

22 about which we are totally ignorant. High uncertainty

23 about possible harm is a good reason not to proceed with

24 a project.

25 The uncertainty surrounding noise emissions,


1 visual assault, and airborne toxin pollution includes

2 but is not limited to the long- and short-term effects

3 of sleep deprivation, potentially leading to chronic

4 stress, increased rates of suicide attempts --


6 MS. CIOCCI: -- and their successes, smoking

7 and alcohol abuse in vulnerable populations, for

8 example, children and the elderly, which comprise

9 one-third of this community, as published in your Joint

10 Commission Comprehensive Plan for village, the town ofPage 28


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11 Cape Vincent, a document also largely ignored by the

12 Planning Board, and soldiers and others suffering from

13 PTSD, ADHD, autism, depression and chronic fatigue

14 syndrome.

15 Potential for increased frequency and severity

16 of headaches, seizures, dizziness, irritability

17 disturbances in and child learning capability.

18 Potential for increased rates of respiratory

19 distress and disease, including lung cancer due to the

20 inhalation of dirt and dust during the unregulated or

21 ignored regulations during the installation phase of

22 such projects.

23 This is just one more airborne assault on our

24 lungs in addition to rather than protecting us from

25 other toxic airborne emissions.


31

1 MR. MATHES: That's your time.

2 MS. CIOCCI: I'll finish at the end. Thank

3 you.

4 MR. MATHES: John Byrne?

5 In the back when people speak into the

6 microphone do you hear them?

7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Not very well.

8 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can you turn the volume

9 up?

10 MR. MATHES: That's all we've got. It's up

11 now.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt12 MR. BYRNE: Okay, I'll speak up for you, I'm

13 sorry. Thank you, Board members, for letting me speak

14 and letting the community have the opportunity to speak.

15 Thank you, fellow citizens, for listening.

16 We're here today to comment on a DEIS for a

17 wind power project in Cape Vincent. And in looking

18 through this DEIS I have noticed that it's extremely

19 inadequate in the sound studies in there. We're

20 supposed to be dealing with a project where the

21 developer is going to come in and give us an honest

22 assessment of what's going on in Cape Vincent, and

23 he's -- it's his job to determine what our ambient

24 background noise level is.

25 This is an extremely important topic because


32

1 this is -- when you have an ambient noise background

2 you're going to have an increase over that. He's

3 already told us it's going to be louder in Cape Vincent

4 after the development than prior to. So that's

5 something I think everybody should get used to.

6 He's allowed to go 5 decibels above ambient,

7 according to what the DEC guidelines are going to allow

8 him. So in determining the ambient background noise

9 level it's going to determine what noise level we're

10 going to listen to afterwards.

11 Hessler & Associates, who represents both

12 developers in Cape Vincent in their noise studies, has

13 gone around town and taken some noise assessments. ThisPage 30


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14 is a typical site of what he's studying, okay? Now, I'm

15 going to hold this up if I can, Chuck. This is supposed

16 to be your typical farmhouse in Cape Vincent, okay?

17 Now, this looks lovely, I see a farmhouse over here, but

18 if you notice, over here there's a construction trailer.

19 You can show the audience this as well; I

20 think they should be entitled to see this. This looks

21 straight now. If anyone goes out to this site, which is

22 on Route 12, and they stand here and look at their noise

23 monitoring equipment and they look over their shoulder,

24 they see this, which is your staging yard for a

25 construction operation. If they think this is fair, I


33

1 don't know what is fair.

2 This is dishonest, at the least. And it3 borders on being fraudulent. And this is what we're

4 going to have to live with. 5 decibels above this noise

5 level for the rest of our lives, folks. Or at least 20

6 or 30 years. If you're comfortable with living with

7 this, it's good for you. I'm not comfortable with it.

8 That's why I'm speaking out on this.

9 And I think anyone that's here that cares

10 about what's going to happen in the future of Cape

11 Vincent needs to speak out on this. We can't allow

12 these guys to come in and do this. Pro wind people,

13 non-pro wind people, we're going to have to live with it

14 for the rest of our lives. I'm here to tell you you're

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051609pubhrg-2.txt15 going to have to deal with this noise. If you want to

16 deal with it, that's fine. I don't want to deal with

17 that. Thank you.

18 [Applause]

19 MR. MATHES: Dave Docteur.

20 MR. DOCTEUR: My comments as related to the

21 SDEIS under D, alternative analysis, St. Lawrence Wind

22 says that the project will meet all of the following

23 setbacks required by the Planning Board of Cape Vincent.

24 They are as follows: 1500 feet from the village of Cape

25 Vincent; 1,000 feet from a nonparticipating property


34

1 line; 1250 feet from a nonparticipating residence; and

2 750 feet from a participating residence.

3 My question is why does St. Lawrence Wind even

4 consider coming within 1500 feet of this beautiful,

5 quaint, quiet, one-of-a-kind village located on the

6 St. Lawrence River when it's common knowledge that these

7 huge generating plants radiate sweeping shadows,

8 excessive noise, flicker, and in addition to this a

9 sickness called vibroacoustic disease that makes life

10 intolerable for the people living there.

11 The recommendation of the scientific community

12 is a setback of one and a half miles from a residence to

13 avoid the debilitating sickness called vibroacoustic

14 disease. Vibroacoustic disease is a result of the

15 inaudible low frequency energy transmitted from the

16 turbine generator causing body cavities such as the headPage 32


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17 and chest to resonate or vibrate. This can cause

18 sickness in the form of headaches, sleep deprivation,

19 nausea, dizziness, depression, palpitations, et cetera.

20 Why does St. Lawrence Wind propose to destroy

21 our little village like this? Other nearby towns are

22 proposing ordinances that will require a setback of

23 close to a mile from their villages. Anyone can spend

24 some time at Maple Ridge Wind Farm near Lowville to

25 verify these harmful effects. And I have included


35

1 scientific evidence on vibroacoustic disease as a

2 reference.

3 A 1250-foot setback from a nonparticipating

4 residence results in putting the generating plant

5 practically on top of them and will cause intolerable6 conditions with the shadows, flicker, and noise.

7 Especially the noise. Remember, it is recommended that

8 there be a one-and-a-half-mile setback, not two-tenths

9 of a mile.

10 Why should people have to abandon their homes

11 in Cape Vincent to satisfy some wealthy investors in the

12 country of Spain? Why does St. Lawrence Wind want to do

13 this? They know all too well the harm this can cause.

14 Don't they have any sense of common decency?

15 I have included written statements from people

16 in other parts of the country that are being driven from

17 their home because of this very situation.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt18 Also, a 1,000 setback from a nonparticipating

19 property line renders that property uninhabitable,

20 undevelopable, and for many causes unusable. Why does

21 St. Lawrence Wind want to do this? They are fully

22 knowledgeable of the harmful effects of doing this.

23 As far as a 750-foot setback to a

24 participating residence is concerned, you just have to

25 feel sorry for the innocent nonparticipants, the


36

1 children, and uninformed adults who live there.

2 Why does this Spanish-owned company, Acciona,

3 St. Lawrence Wind want to destroy our beautiful

4 one-of-a-kind area where Lake Ontario meets the

5 St. Lawrence River with these unconscionable setbacks?

6 The reference for vibroacoustic disease and

7 the letter from one of the soon-to-be-displaced persons

8 is on the internet at WindTurbineSyndrome.com. A letter

9 to the editor written by Jessica Nuhn of Strykersville,

10 New York, is included as the other family whose life has

11 been intolerably interrupted by living too close to

12 industrial wind turbines.

13 MR. MATHES: Kenneth White.

14 MR. WHITE: Hi. I'm Ken White. I'm in favor

15 of the wind farms in the town of Cape Vincent. The

16 process of building a wind farm is not easy. There are

17 very many environmental and geological concerns. The

18 Town Board and the Planning Board have done a superior

19 job in handling the many aspects of the project withPage 34


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20 professionalism and diligence.

21 The Supplemental DEIS describes the entire

22 wind project from start to finish. It includes a scope

23 of project, including the description of layout and

24 design, the turbines, the transmission lines, and

25 geological concerns. The turbines will be grouped along


37

1 individual electrical circuits and will be monitored by

2 sophisticated computer control systems.

3 The decommissioning process is described in

4 Section 2.8 and adheres to all applicable local, state,

5 and federal permits. Not only is decommissioning of the

6 turbines discussed in detail, but also the removal of

7 the underground cables, collection lines, substations,

8 roadways, and pads.9 In effect, every possible aspect of the wind

10 power project has been addressed. The wind turbines are

11 a clean, renewable resource that we can take advantage

12 of in the town of Cape Vincent. The Town Board should

13 review the document and approve the Supplemental DEIS.

14 Cape Vincent is known for the abundant natural

15 resources we have, and one of these resources is wind.

16 Across the country and the world thousands of wind

17 turbines are producing power affordably without

18 polluting emissions and, most importantly, safely. The

19 development of wind farms brings solutions to our

20 present economy and curbs the pollution from

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051609pubhrg-2.txt21 coal-producing power plants, which will be part of the

22 solution.

23 The benefits of the projects far outweigh any

24 impact -- negative impact. The town should take

25 advantage of this windfall opportunity. I recommend the


38

1 town accept the document as presented. Thank you.

2 MR. MATHES: Gary King.

3 MR. KING: Good morning, everybody. I trust

4 you can hear me. It's interesting, I have friends on

5 both sides of this issue, so consequently I took it upon

6 myself to do a little bit of studying about a little bit

7 of the rigmarole that's going on. And I went to five

8 wind farms throughout the United States and put my ear

9 not to the ground, but to the wind towers. The actual

10 transformer made more noise than the turbine as it was

11 running.

12 I believe there's a group of people, I don't

13 care what you're doing, if you were giving away $100

14 bills, somebody would complain and say oh, gee, mine is

15 bigger than yours or yours is bigger than mine. But

16 it's an important issue and, I hate to see the village

17 and the town divided.

18 I've lived here for 25 plus years, and I've

19 lived on this earth for 68, almost 69 years, and I

20 remember so many times and so many different things that

21 were going to kill me. The very first one I remember,

22 this is off the beaten path maybe, but it's important toPage 36


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23 me -- she agrees with me it's off the beaten path -- but

24 I remember when oleo first came out; oh, that's going to

25 kill you. I remember when cranberries were deadly.


39

1 But I'll bet there isn't a person in here that

2 hasn't crossed in their life a dozen different things

3 that's going to kill them that later on turned out to be

4 a good thing.

5 Wind turbines are used all over the world. I

6 feel that this Board and the elected officials that were

7 elected by the majority of the residents of Cape

8 Vincent, knowing full well that they were going to be

9 voting, my only gripe is some of people elected not to

10 vote because it would pretend -- whatever the big word

11 is -- to be a conflict of interest. I believe it's a12 conflict of interest when they don't vote when they were

13 elected to do the people's work.

14 MR. MATHES: Gary, if you can confine your

15 comments to the SDIS.

16 MR. KING: I don't know what he says because I

17 can't hear him.

18 MR. MATHES: If you can confine your comments

19 to the physical document.

20 MR. KING: I'm sorry. I'm all done. But I

21 thank the Board for a good job well done. And thank you

22 for all your efforts, and I'm sorry you had to take so

23 much abuse that I think is unnecessary.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt24 MR. MATHES: Tom Chapman.

25 MR. CHAPMAN: I'm a member of Crowe & Hammond.


40

1 We have been through hell, like a lot of you have. And

2 I planned on talking maybe a little bit about the dBC

3 levels which the wind companies don't want to seem to

4 talk to you about, they just deal in dBAs. But that has

5 been covered pretty well. The gentleman back there was

6 right on when he talked about ambient noise. But if you

7 go to the wind companies they'll probably tell you it's

8 40 here when you're going to find if you get an honest

9 test it's probably about 25.

10 So I don't get a -- very often get a chance to

11 chew on wind companies, but seeing as they told us what

12 a wonderful job they've been doing in Europe and places

13 like that, I will address you. And for your people that

14 are dressed in green and think this is green energy, you

15 should be looking at things a little closer.

16 They talk about what a wonderful job they have

17 been doing in Europe with all these wind companies that

18 have been established, but they failed to tell you how

19 many fossil fuel plants have had to go up because wind

20 is so unreliable there. In fact, in Denmark, Spain,

21 Germany, they're doing away with the subsidies that they

22 get here because it's been such a failure.

23 And up in Denmark, for example, where they

24 have 6,000 turbines up already, the carbon emissions

25 have gone up 36%. They don't tell you that. I'll betPage 38


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41

1 you the wind company representatives cannot tell me

2 anywhere where any coal-fired or fossil fuel generated

3 plant has shut down because they have erected a wind

4 tower farm anywhere.

5 I don't hear any -- another thing, I don't

6 know, I don't understand why you don't sign onto the

7 Attorney General's code of ethics.

8 MR. MATHES: Tom, if you can address the Board

9 and stay on the topic.

10 MR. CHAPMAN: Okay. I know what the Board has

11 gone through, they got misrepresented by some of the

12 statistics that are out there from the wind companies.

13 And most of the County Planning Boards were misled. And

14 you probably copied your plan from the County Planning15 Board. And we had the same problem in St. Lawrence

16 County.

17 Now, we talk about how -- the jobs that will

18 be created by this wind energy business. Seeing this

19 company is from Spain, I'll go there. For every job

20 that was created by wind power, 2.2 jobs were lost. And

21 you know how much it cost to produce those jobs? They

22 got $2 million in subsidies for every job that was

23 produced.

24 Now, if you don't think -- you people that are

25 dressed in green think this is a green energy, you

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42

1 better do a little more looking into it because you may

2 going to find that it's not. Thank you.

3 MR. MATHES: Rick Lawrence.

4 MR. LAWRENCE: I'm Rick Lawrence. I'm -- my

5 wife and I are property owners in the project. Our son

6 works for St. Lawrence Wind, and I've seen the hundreds

7 of hours they've put into this -- these studies, and

8 they have done a very thorough job in my opinion.

9 And I want to thank the Planning Board and the

10 Town Board for all the hard work and countless hours

11 that they've put into this. And they are looking to the

12 future, and that's the important thing.

13 And I will add that wind turbines have much

14 fewer negative impacts than a nuclear plant somewhere on

15 the St. Lawrence River. Thank you.

16 MR. MATHES: Warren Johnson.

17 MR. JOHNSON: My name is Warren Johnson, and

18 I'm a councilman in the town of Lyme. And I'm here to

19 deliver a letter from our Supervisor, Scott Aubertine.

20 Dear Supervisor Reinbeck and Cape Vincent Town

21 Board: At our May meeting the town of Lyme Board

22 approved a motion to contact you regarding concerns it

23 has with the proposed wind project in the town of Cape

24 Vincent. The concerns of the Board are in relation to

25 the transmission lines and their location in the town of


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1 Lyme.

2 We as a Town Board would like to respectfully

3 request that you -- that your project comply with the

4 proposed town of Lyme Wind Energy Facilities Zoning Law,

5 presently in litigation, Article II, Section 4,

6 Standards for WECS, which reads: The following

7 standards shall apply to all WECS, unless specifically

8 waived by the Zoning Board as a part of a permit. A:

9 All power transmission lines from the tower to any

10 building or other structure shall be located underground

11 to the maximum extent possible and to the maximum extent

12 allowed by law, including all transmission lines

13 transiting the town of Lyme from wind farms originating

14 in other jurisdictions. Respectfully, Scott Aubertine.

15 I'd like everyone in this room to reflect on

16 the last ice storm we had. That was a horror story. We

17 replaced 6,000 telephone poles aboveground and 123 miles18 of electrical wire. Let's do it right the first time.

19 Thank you.

20 MR. MATHES: Jerry LeTendre.

21 MR. LeTENDRE: I'm Jerry LeTendre. I've been

22 a resident of Cape Vincent since 1965. I love Cape

23 Vincent. I travel around the country, and the last

24 couple years I've driven all the way to the West Coast

25 each year. And on my trip I noticed lots of wind


44

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1 towers. Kansas has them by the hundreds, thousands

2 maybe even. Iowa has them by the hundreds and

3 thousands.

4 And you know what, the only person that's

5 going to bother in any of those wind tower projects is

6 the person that owns the land. Whereas we're living in

7 a place that's completely different. Cape Vincent is a

8 residential community, and any of you that drove into

9 town that haven't been here lately that looked across

10 the wonderful St. Lawrence River saw what Cape Vincent

11 will look like once this project is completed.

12 Okay. Anyway, so I've been around doing that.

13 My only question here today is going to be concerning

14 birds. I'm involved and interested in the whole

15 project, I've written comments several times and will

16 continue to do that. But a year ago yesterday I was

17 birding in my backyard and had 14 species of birds that

18 were migrating through. This is a high migration area.

19 Somebody started talking earlier, birds come

20 up migrating in the eastern corridor, and they get to

21 Lake Ontario, they come around, they come through Cape

22 Vincent.

23 Somebody seems to think that birds don't come

24 here. Well, anybody that's played tennis with me up

25 here at these courts knows I'm calling out every eagle,


45

1 hawk, and vulture that comes by. There are lots ofPage 42


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2 birds that migrate through; there are a lot of raptors

3 that migrate through. Somehow these people don't see

4 that.

5 But the worst thing I think is in 2005 there

6 was a great gray owl in Cape Vincent. I showed that

7 bird to over 3,000 people, and over 500 of them had

8 never seen that bird before. And when they were here I

9 always send them over to see a very interesting bird

10 that we had called the short-eared owl. Before they

11 left, they were here somewhere near evening, they went

12 over and looked at that.

13 The short-eared owl is a very important bird

14 in Cape Vincent. These guys have not found one. Not

15 one. It's a threatened New York State bird.

16 That's how they do their whole study. Sure,

17 they went from four pages to 21. They can go to 400.

18 They don't answer the question and they can't mitigate

19 problems with birds, they're wasting our time.

20 And that's how the whole project is. I'm21 sorry, I could go through other parts of it, but -- it's

22 unconscionable what they're trying to do. That's the

23 end of my statement. Thank you.

24 MR. MATHES: Paul Sirianni.

25 MR. SIRIANNI: Good morning. My name is Paul


46

1 Sirianni. I am a representative of the New York State

2 Ironworkers District Council.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt3 I have attended a lot of these meetings

4 throughout New York State, have given some opinions on

5 their Environmental Impact Statements, I give some

6 opinions in regards to economic development.

7 I'm here today, number one, to thank this

8 Board for having this meeting on a Saturday morning at

9 10:00. You do not know how many countless meetings I've

10 been to that have been held on a Tuesday at 8:00 in the

11 morning with a community that's not been given the

12 opportunity to speak as you are, and I commend this

13 Board for that.

14 In reviewing the impact statement here that's

15 put forth on this particular project, looking at the

16 construction portion of it, because I am a construction

17 worker and do represent the workers that potentially

18 would work on this project if you were to allow this

19 project to go through, and I'll make it very clear, that

20 I obviously -- I'm a construction worker, we like to do

21 the work, but whatever this town decides and your people

22 decide, that's truly up to you.

23 But I am here to say that in reviewing what

24 they have written down, what their procedures are in the

25 aspects of the construction of these projects and


47

1 knowing full well how these projects pan out, because

2 the New York State Ironworkers District Council has done

3 every single one in the state of New York to date, we

4 have represented, put our people on these projects. SoPage 44


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5 we do know how they are done and how they're done

6 properly. And from what I can see, I can honestly say

7 that it looks like their procedures fall right directly

8 in line with procedures that have been used in the past,

9 that have been used here successfully.

10 It's a kind of a quick impact at first, but

11 everything melts back into the norm. If you've visited

12 wind farms, I heard a gentleman say he did go out and

13 visit, I would -- if you're skeptical, I would suggest

14 that you do visit because some of the things you hear

15 maybe aren't what you're told.

16 But they -- their procedures for digging the

17 foundation are very adequate; the same type of

18 procedures that we've used on Maple Ridge and up in

19 Ellenville. Down in the Southern Tier south of Buffalo

20 and Rochester now there's farms that are going. I'm

21 understanding that their components that they use are

22 state of the art, very good components from that aspect.

23 What I would ask this community if you do24 decide to move forward with this project, of great

25 concern to us is that we -- on the economic side of


48

1 this, that the economic development a lot of it happens

2 with the construction portion of the project. There's a

3 lot of economic development that comes back to the town

4 through the developer as the stages go, as it goes on

5 and the farm is in operation, but the construction

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051609pubhrg-2.txt6 portion of it is a huge portion of economic development,

7 and I ask one thing: That they hire the local worker.

8 And the town should demand that the developer commit to

9 using local labor.

10 And that's what I'm about, that's what we're

11 about. It's -- it makes perfect sense to have the

12 people that live and work in the community, pay their

13 taxes, buy their groceries and their gas, be afforded

14 the jobs that are going to become available through the

15 construction.


17 MR. SIRIANNI: Thank you.

18 MR. MATHES: John Clark.

19 MR. CLARK: Good morning, my name is John

20 Clark. And thank you for having -- giving us the

21 opportunity to come here and speak this morning.

22 I'm a construction worker, and I am here to

23 speak in favor of the St. Lawrence Wind Farm. This

24 project will provide much-needed jobs for the

25 construction worker in this area.


49

1 As a construction worker, I am in favor of

2 projects that will provide an income for me and my

3 family. We need these projects for power we consume.

4 As an outdoorsman and an avid fisherman, I would much

5 rather build wind farm windmills for power that we need

6 than I would to build coal-burning plants that continue

7 to affect our lakes and rivers with acid rain. WePage 46


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8 cannot continue to pollute our waterways.

9 I see this project as a win-win for

10 construction worker and for the environment. During the

11 construction of the wind farm in Lowville the

12 contractors and the workers made every effort to

13 preserve the land around their construction site. And

14 as this report indicates, this project would provide the

15 same. Thank you.

16 MR. MATHES: Bob Gauthier.

17 MR. GAUTHIER: First of all, I must apologize

18 because my show-and-tell guy didn't show up. I don't

19 know, I think he's over on Wolfe looking at birds or

20 noise or something.

21 But anyway, I would like to thank the Town

22 Board, Tom Reinbeck, and all the guys on there for all

23 their hard work that they've done. And especially I'd

24 like it thank Richie Edsall; the man has been through

25 pure hell. And the rest of his town and the rest of his


50

1 members as well.

2 I'm all in favor of this project, as you can

3 tell, and I would just like to end by saying that

4 Mr. Reinbeck and Mr. Edsall, you guys look really cool

5 on YouTube.

6 MR. MATHES: Paul Mason.

7 MR. MASON: Paul Mason. I've been a resident

8 of this town for 69 years. I have helped feed the

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051609pubhrg-2.txt9 American people for probably the last 50 some years. I

10 have a dairy farm down on the St. Lawrence River, which

11 I enjoy just as much as anybody here in the town of Cape

12 Vincent or all the world.

13 I have a dairy distinction; I am a

14 conservation dairy farmer of the year. I have been

15 selected as environmental stewardship of the year for

16 New York State, which there's only one per year. So

17 don't call me I'm not an environmentalist, I am.

18 And I think this project, as all the studies

19 show, the birds, I work around the birds, I work around

20 the deer, the turkeys. I have a scope in my backyard

21 that looks out onto the environment. And I don't think

22 this environment is going to be hurt in any way.

23 Because I have talked with other farmers in these same

24 situations that we're going to be in, which the dairy

25 industry is one of the biggest industries in the town of


1 Cape Vincent. But it's gradually diminishing, and it

2 will continue to diminish. And this is one thing that

3 could help the landowners, which I'm sure most of these

4 environmental people aren't concerned about.

5 Visual impact. That's a matter of opinion,

6 the studies show. I was actually -- had an impact when

7 I arrived at this building today. That's a visual

8 impact to me. Cell towers, we just was approved a cell

9 tower, another one going up in the town of Cape Vincent.

10 They're going up all over. That's visual impact.Page 48


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11 The other thing in here is the flicker effect.

12 Like I stated, I have many, many acres looking out my

13 back window, and this is my best view. I don't look at

14 the river, I love the river, but I have a visual impact

15 because of trees across from me that's been planted

16 there that I can't see the river that I used to be able

17 to see back when I was a little kid.

18 Okay? And when -- and this flicker effect,

19 I've been keeping track of it because there is a test

20 tower back of my farm. The sun rise is only a very few

21 days in the morning that I would ever get a flicker

22 effect. And you know what, about half of those mornings

23 or more are cloudy.

24 So I'm not sure, they say in this impact here

25 that on a cloudy day you don't get a visual impact -- or


52

1 a flicker effect. We have 8,760 hours a year, and most

2 of these sites, 75, they say are going to have one hour.

3 MR. MATHES: One minute, Paul.

4 MR. MASON: 87 is going to have between an

5 hour and ten hours a year out of 8,760.

6 I would like to thank the Planning Board, the

7 Town Board, Richie, and Tom. You guys have done a great

8 job in spite of all of the abuse that you have taken.

9 Thank you.

10 MR. MATHES: Gail Kenney. I might be

11 mispronouncing that.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt12 MS. KENNEY: I'm not sure that I can't do

13 better without the microphone, so if you can hear me

14 I'll proceed that way and I'll feel much more

15 comfortable. Is that all right with everyone?

16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Of course.

17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, sure.

18 MS. KENNEY: Okay. I want to thank you to

19 giving me this time to come up and speak here. I'm not

20 comfortable speaking. But my name is Gail Kenney. I

21 come from Wolfe Island. I'm chair of WIRE, the Wolfe

22 Island Residents for the Environment.

23 I put my name down on the sheet wondering if I

24 should take this opportunity, since this is your

25 project, it is not Wolfe Island's. But you have seen


53

1 Wolfe Island's project, and I don't know if you have

2 been to Wolfe Island to see it close-up.

3 But there are many things that I've heard here

4 now that I think that the Board and the people here

5 should consider after having the experience that we have

6 had. And please, please bear with me because, as I say,

7 I'm not really comfortable speaking.

8 But first of all, I want -- just want to make

9 the comment that in -- we called it an environmental

10 review, the people who were not proponents, not

11 landowners that were going to have turbines were named

12 as nonparticipating receptors. So immediately what you

13 felt like was you weren't counting because you weren'tPage 50


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14 really human.

15 Now, the nonparticipating receptors weren't

16 really people, that were the houses and buildings that

17 were going to receive the negative impact. So it was

18 definitely a negative name to have.

19 Now, these people aren't benefiting

20 financially in any way, nonparticipate from the project,

21 but they will definitely, along with the proponents, be

22 recepting [sic] or receiving any negative impact.

23 And I think that's one thing when I look at

24 this group and I see exactly what I saw on Wolfe Island,

25 here is one group and here is another group. And before


54

1 this project came to Wolfe Island we were one group.

2 And people say nevermind, it will go away,3 you'll get used to it. I -- I don't see that happening

4 yet on Wolfe Island.

5 So you need to be very careful. When the

6 gentleman said I have friends on both sides, you really

7 need to hold onto those friends on both sides and

8 understand -- try to understand where everybody is

9 coming from.

10 And I didn't mean to come to lecture, I'm

11 just -- whatever is coming into my head. But that --

12 tearing the community apart is what is happening with

13 these projects, and tearing families apart. And we have

14 to have more understanding there.

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051609pubhrg-2.txt15 Anyway, I'm a nonparticipating receptor. In

16 front of my home I see 28 turbines. A couple of them

17 are turning now. They're in the testing process.

18 We went through a year of construction period

19 that was very difficult. I don't see it getting better

20 at this point. The gentleman who mentioned noise and

21 said that he has stood beside them and he -- I did the

22 same thing, I went to Lowville, I stood under them, I

23 walked around them. I went to the conference that your

24 bird specialist talk about.

25 I also walk down my lane way in the evening


55

1 when three or four are turning now with my dog. And

2 it's a lot different than what I heard in Lowville.

3 Because it's evening, the atmosphere is just right for

4 it, and they're pounding.

5 Sometimes in the daytime I go to my garden, I

6 hardly hear them, they sound like a little bit of a jet

7 going overhead. And these are only a few getting

8 started now.


10 MS. KENNEY: Okay. Sorry. I want to just say

11 about an environmental assessment, we went through

12 struggling through this issue. And I just want to say

13 that there isn't an environmental assessment that can

14 deal with everything you're going to deal with.

15 And even if you say oh, it's complete, there's

16 no way it could possibly be complete. But you need toPage 52


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17 have a protocol so that people who have concerns when

18 issues come up, people can go and say this is the issue

19 that I have.

20 So we've got one of those; we got what we

21 called a Community Liaison Committee. But they have no

22 authority. So we go and we say we have an issue with

23 this, this wetland is being intruded on or it was dumped

24 into or whatever, and they say oh, that is really too

25 bad, the community listens, we walk away, and nothing is


56

1 done.

2 So you need to look into this environmental

3 assessment and see who has the authority to say to this

4 company, okay, you've got a contract with us, are you

5 keeping it? Who's monitoring them daily? Because the6 proponents need that as much as the nonparticipating

7 receptors. If you've got a company on your land you

8 want to know that -- who's monitoring it, who's

9 responsible.

10 MR. MATHES: That's your time, Gail.

11 MS. KENNEY: I'm sorry, I'll stop. I would

12 like to invite you to come to Wolfe Island and see not

13 from a distance, but up close the turbines and talk to

14 the people on Wolfe Island. Thank you.

15 [Applause]

16 MR. MATHES: Tom Brown?

17 Oh, I apologize, I accidentally skipped Chuck

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051609pubhrg-2.txt18 Ebbing. But Chuck, you can go next and we'll be back in

19 order. Sorry about that.

20 MR. BROWN: Good morning. I think it's still

21 morning. My name is Tom Brown. I'm a resident with the

22 village and have been for a number of years.

23 I spent a career in the field of environmental

24 science. And I too love this community, and I love

25 living here. And what I would like to do today is among


57

1 the number of comments that I had on the Supplemental

2 Draft Environmental Impact Statement, I've selected a

3 couple that I think are pretty pertinent, and I would

4 like to express those comments here today. And I have a

5 copy I can leave with your secretary.

6 The Thousand Island region is well recognized

7 for its unique beauty and holds a position of both state

8 and national environmental significance. Yet the

9 Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement fails

10 to assess what impact converting the Cape Vincent

11 landscape to an industrial wind energy site will have on

12 this unique quality and national standing.

13 The Supplemental Draft states the visual

14 impacts are unavoidable but necessary to achieve

15 renewable energy requirements. Yet I haven't found in

16 the environmental is assessment an effort to evaluate

17 other less alternative visually intrusive project sites.

18 Evaluation of alternative project sites has

19 always been a central requirement of the SEQRA planningPage 54


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20 process. Yet in this case the developer appears to be

21 relying on a law provision that may, and I und

Public Hearing ~ on Cape Vincent's Proposed St. Lawrence Wind Project

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Transcript of Public Hearing ~ on Cape Vincent's Proposed St. Lawrence Wind Project