Plan to build wind farms near Steens is generating controversy

Several miles northwest of Steens Mountain in Southeast Oregon, 400-foot-tall turbines would sit on top of ridges, catching the wind and generating enough electricity to power 60,000 houses.

The turbines are at the heart of two proposed projects in Harney County, called the East Ridge and West Ridge wind farms, that would each have a string of between 40 and 69 wind turbines.

While some portions of the wind farms would be located within the boundaries of the Steens Mountain management area, they would be built on private property.

Harney County has given a preliminary OK to the projects, but some environmental groups and wildlife agencies are concerned about whether people know enough about the environmental and visual impacts of wind turbines in the unique area to move forward.

To address those concerns, Columbia Energy Partners, the developer of the wind farms, is working on additional studies, slated to be released this week, that will focus on wildlife, views and socioeconomic impacts, and the county planning commission will hold another hearing on the proposals Dec. 17.

“Our primary concern has been the lack of information that was submitted in the original proposal,” said Brent Fenty, executive director of the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association.

While wind developers in the Columbia Gorge have drawn up voluntary guidelines for projects, many of those guidelines weren’t addressed by the Steens Mountain wind developers when the first hearing was held Aug. 20, he said.

“Some of these areas are ecologically sensitive, and because this is renewable energy and something that we all expect is done ‘green,’ there’s an expectation that they balance environmental impacts with the development,” Fenty said.

Turbines can strike and kill birds and bats, and their construction and maintenance can disturb elk, deer and pronghorn, he said. The developer needs to take a look at the effects of the project, and show that these turbines won’t have a substantial impact on the environment, Fenty said.

“We’re very supportive of renewable energy development,” he said. “But it doesn’t need to happen everywhere, and we need to be very thoughtful about where we site renewable energy (projects),” he said.

The Steens area is a new one for wind projects, said Jerry Cordova, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Because this is a unique area,” he said, “we don’t know much about what the impacts of wind development in that area would be. There’s interest in making sure we have the right information before we make a decision.”

And near Steens, biologists might have new issues to deal with — officials are considering listing sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act, and the chicken-like birds’ habitat overlaps with some turbine sites.

A sage grouse lek — an area where the birds strut and display during mating season — is considered irreplaceable habitat by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Bob Hooton, Klamath and Malheur Watershed manager with the state agency.

The agency recommends against building wind turbines within three miles of them. And a “significant” part of the West Ridge project is within three miles of a lek, Hooton said.

“It’s our assessment that the wind tower itself, and all of the activity around it from the wind tower operating, will be enough disturbance to the birds that (the) particular breeding area and nesting area will basically be extirpated,” or wiped out, he said.

Biologists don’t know much about how sage grouse will fare near wind facilities, he said. So while agency staff recommended the county not approve turbines near the lek, they added that if the project was approved, the developers should conduct detailed studies of the birds.

But the county, which is not required to follow ODFW’s recommendations, gave the preliminary OK without those suggestions, Hooton said.

While the wildlife agencies could help developers draw up plans to lessen the impacts on sage grouse and other wildlife, it’s hard to do that without knowing what the impacts are, Cordova said.

“The bottom line is that there are a number of concerns about the project, and the concerns are there because of a lack of information,” he said. “It may have limited impact ... but we don’t know, and it’s going to be approved (by the county) before we know. That’s kind of the quandary we’re in.”

Columbia Energy Partners asked for an extension on the planning commission’s decision to address these and other concerns, said Chis Crowley, the Vancouver, Wash.-based company’s president. And the company will soon file additional materials, he said, including bird studies where wildlife biologists counted birds and mapped habitat.

On East Ridge, birds are scattered throughout the site, he said, “but there’s no particular ‘oh-my-God’s’ out there to be worried about.”

On West Ridge, sage grouse do live in the area with turbines, and the company will come up with a plan to make up for the disrupted habitat, he said. The lek will be an issue, he added, but there are no scientific studies on the effect of wind turbines on sage grouse leks three miles away.

“There are very few areas that have wind as good as this area,” he said. “I think a circle on a map is not the best way to make wildlife policy. Certainly sage grouse don’t know where three miles is.”

Views from Steens

Concerns surrounding the Steens projects extend beyond the potential environmental impacts.

Steens Mountain, a 9,670-foot fault block, is the focal point of the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, which was created after federal and state officials and local landowners agreed on legislation to protect the area.

Some people are worried about the visual impacts of turbines on what’s considered a “crown jewel of the High Desert,” said Fenty, with the natural desert association, since it’s a landscape that many people love.

“That’s a tough decision that I think we all face with wind energy,” he said. “We have to balance the desire for clean renewable energy with visual impacts. That’s a piece of the puzzle we’ll be looking at.”

The developers could modify the projects to move individual turbines that would stand out, and also work on issues like the lighting surrounding the towers, he said.

The visual impact is subjective, said Crowley, of Columbia Energy Partners.

The turbines will be visible to the north from the Kiger overlook and the Steens Summit overlook, but the nearest ones will be three to four miles away, and some will be hidden by other ridges.

The company is working on visual simulations of what the towers will look like, he said, which could be sent to the county next week.

The visual impacts will be part of the planning commission’s ultimate decision on the project, said Brandon McMullen, planning director for Harney County.

“The idea that they’re on one of the ridgelines of the Steens — it’s no secret, some people aren’t going to like that ... It’s a part of the area that everyone loves,” he said.

But there are other factors to consider, he said. At the first planning commission hearing on the matter, there was not one local person or group who gave testimony against the project.

While parts of the projects are within the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, they’re on private land. It doesn’t appear that the Bureau of Land Management has any say about what kinds of development can be built on private land, even within that area, said Skip Renchler, realty specialist with the BLM in Burns.

“I don’t know anywhere where (the Steens Mountain Act) would extend our reach to the private lands, to be able to say, ‘Hey, you can’t do that,’” he said. “It’s kind of an interesting situation.”

Sizing the projects

The size of the two projects has also drawn questions.

In Oregon, wind projects that generate more than 105 megawatts of power require permission from the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council.

Projects below that threshold only need approval from county government.

The two projects north of Steens are each 104-megawatt facilities and are both being developed by Columbia Energy Partners.

Columbia Energy has plans for another 104-megawatt wind farm in the same area, sparking concerns that the proposals are actually part of one big wind farm.

This is happening elsewhere in Oregon as well, said Lou Torres, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Energy, and it’s a concern to the state agency.

“We are noticing that there’s some developments out there that are just below the minimum for statewide siting, and we think that they are gaming the system a little bit,” he said.

The perception is that the state’s process takes longer to go through than the county’s permitting process, Torres said, but the state doesn’t think that’s the case.

Still, if a company submits two separate applications, all the state can do is advise the county on what Oregon considers the standards for wind facilities should be, he said.

“If it’s below 104 megawatts, there isn’t anything we can really do except work with the county and answer their questions,” Torres said.

Crowley said that the two projects are, in fact, separate, and will have separate land ownership, power sales agreements, financing, substations and transmission agreements.

Even if the project does get approved by Harney County, he said, there are still a list of things the company has to line up before the project kicks off, like getting financing in a tough economic climate, completing more environmental studies and determining how to get the power from the turbines to the electrical grid.

But, Crowley said, “We’re convinced that the Harney County wind resource is one of the best in the state.”

And the community has been supportive of the wind projects, he said.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty said he can’t talk about the proposed projects because he could have to make a decision if the projects are appealed. But he said that with the already-approved Echanis project, the No. 1 benefit is that wind power allows ranches to stay in one piece.

“Keeping land blocked up beats the heck out of a subdivision,” he said.

And in addition to providing a big increase in the tax base, Grasty said, the wind projects give residents hope and opportunities for the future.

Columbia Energy’s Crowley said President-elect Barack Obama regularly talks about building a ‘green’ economy and generating more energy from renewable sources.

“Why the heck shouldn’t Harney County be an addition to that?” he asked.

Kate Ramsayer can be reached at 541-617-7811 or kramsayer@bendbulletin.com.

Planning hearing

The Harney County Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the East Ridge and West Ridge wind farms at 7 p.m., Dec. 17, at the Harney County Courthouse, 450 N. Buena Vista Ave., Burns.