Dwyer May Close School Over Wind Farms

BY CARLA OCCASO, Staff Writer

Saturday July 12, 2003

EAST BURKE VT - A local businessman has threatened to close operations, if recently proposed wind farms are built in view of Burke Mountain Ski area.

"We are receptive to wind power and alternative energy resources, but I don't think you should shoot yourself in the foot," said Kirk Dwyer, headmaster of Burke Mountain Academy and president of the Burke Mountain Ski Area. "It is obvious why you don't see (wind farm) proposals in the Sugarbush ski area and the Stowe ski area and more affluent parts of the state where tourism is as important as it is to this area, but the opposition ... (is viewed as being) too great."

Dwyer said construction of wind towers -- especially on Kirby ridge -- would constitute "visual pollution" and destroy long-term economic viability of the Burke Mountain Ski Area, forcing him to either close or move Burke Mountain Academy , a private high school. Further real estate development would be the only way the ski area could survive economically, Dwyer said, and wind farms would wreck the view.

There are two serious wind farm proposals in view of Burke Mountain , one in East Haven and one in Kirby.

Neither entity has applied for an Act 248, public good, permit, said Rob Ide, director of Energy Efficiency with the state Public Service Department. Act 248 relates to constructing new electric transmission facilities, with which neither project appears to comply. Under Vermont Statute 30, Act 248, except for replacing existing facilities or on-site personal use, "no person ... may begin site preparation for or construction of any such transmission or generating facility or electric transmission facility within the state which is designed for immediate or eventual operation at any voltage ...."

It is necessary for the state Public Service Board to determine an in-state facility would not "unduly interfere with the orderly development of the region" in consultation with regional planning commissions.

Also, it must be shown an electric transmission facility would result in economic benefit to the state and its residents and must not adversely effect aesthetics.

Still, talks have been ongoing in recent years in the Legislature to alter restrictions with the idea that wind power may lower electricity rates and attract business.

Permits aside, the East Haven project seems to be closer to fruition than the Kirby one.

Measurement towers have been up for a few years and data has been gathered, said Dave Rappaport, vice president for the East Haven Wind Farm.

The company has not yet filed for the utility generating permit because "we are still determining how the plans are going to unfold. It could be built in phases," he said.

It is not clear how much of a visual impact the East Haven project would have on Burke Mountain residents, though, and simulated visual impact illustrations have not yet been produced. Rappaport said he thought East Haven mountainous undulations would largely shield wind turbines from most viewers.

The Kirby projects are a bigger concern, Dwyer said, due to their obvious proximity to the mountain. It is not clear when wind turbines would start appearing there, though, and wind power company representatives were not enthusiastically forthcoming with information.

To construct a wind farm, a company must first buy or lease land on a windy mountain top and erect measurement towers to gather data, said John Zimmerman, president of a firm called Vermont Environmental Research Associates. That firm is helping enXco, Inc., a French-owned wind farm developer build wind power sites in the northeastern United States .

Zimmerman represents the entire Northeast for enXco from his Waterbury , Vt. , office, states the company Web site ww.enxco.com.

Zimmerman also heads up the Kirby project, but prevaricated for several minutes before divulging the status of enXco's wind farm there, saying first he did not have any plans there, then saying he felt uncomfortable talking about it.

More than one private property owner has given permission for enXco to erect measurement towers, including from Kirby Selectman Reginald Lussier, but no towers have been erected yet, Zimmerman said. The state has not given permission for state-owned land in Victory, originally considered part of the overall project. Zimmerman said the project could go forward without Victory land, though.

In any case, should wind turbines ever come to Kirby ridge, Zimmerman claimed scientific studies show real estate values were more likely to increase rather than decrease in a wind farm area based on a recent scientific study.

In Vermont , Searsburg did not experience a drop in real estate prices as a result of wind turbines, said Josie Kilbride, the Searsburg town clerk and a lister. Instead, real estate values experienced little change after Green Mountain Power put a wind farm there, she said.

There have been 12 wind towers at that site since 1997. Kilbride lives 2 miles from turbines, and can see them from near her house, she said.

"I don't hear them or anything," she said. Kilbride said wind towers have had more of a positive than negative economic impact on town.

Economic impact aside, another big beef of Dwyer's is that the Northeast Kingdom is the first target location for the next wave of wind farms, while other, more affluent parts of the state are spared.

Zimmerman said other parts of the state were considered about 15 to 20 years ago, but did not work out. Wind measurement towers were erected at Bolton Valley Ski Areas, Sugarbush and at Stowe in the mid 1980s, but they were taken down and not pursued.

Suitable properties had deed restrictions, which would have prevented wind towers, and the rest of the ridge land was federally owned, he said. A lack of power lines to the areas was another hindrance, he said.

Rep. Howard Crawford, R-Burke, also a resident of Burke Mountain , said he was a little concerned about the lighting, but does not have an opinion on the topic. Instead, he said he is waiting to see what the state decides to do.