Setbacks Doubled for Hartsville turbines

Tighter rules on Hartsville wind farm emerge
By Bob Clark
The Evening Tribune

Hartsville, N.Y. -The draft revised wind law for Hartsville is out, but those planning to spend millions developing wind power in the town want a line-by-line review before they know if the project can move forward.
Hartsville town Supervisor Steve Dombert said the new law, presented to the public in written form for the first time at Wednesday night’s meeting, is in response to flaws in the old law that was pushed through with little to no outside support.

Not enough copies of the law were made for distribution for all attending the meeting, Dombert said, so copies were only distributed to town board members, E.ON officials and candidates for town offices in November. None were offered in paper form to local media outlets, but Dombert said an emailed copy would be made available shortly.

The two biggest changes, Dombert said, cover setbacks from property lines and the sound level at non-participating landowners’ homes.

The current law states the sound cannot be higher than 50 decibels at the nearest non-participating property line, but Dombert said complaints in Cohocton and other locations made the town look at adopting different standards.

Dombert said new standards from the American National Standards Institute will be used to measure background and ambient noise at the site, in addition to noise from the turbines themselves. The readings also will be taken from the nearest non-participating home, rather than a property line, Dombert said.

The draft law also increases the turbine site setback from 1,200 feet to 2,460 feet — almost half a mile — and measures from the nearest non-participating property line, not the nearest home as the current law reads. More...



Posted by Solomon's words for the wise at 10/15/2009 09:03:00 PM



5 comments:
Anonymous said...
This took courage. Too bad our Potter County Commissioners caved in and did not stick to their guns on setbacks.
Maybe the township supervisors who passed ordinances that basically encourage these giant turbines will realize how out of step they are now.
Protect your citizens and do not sell out your townships just so a few people who are leasing property for these corporate government welfare machines can pile up the almighty dollars.

Thursday, October 15, 2009 10:03:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...
sounds like someone did not get any money

Friday, October 16, 2009 8:53:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...
What is with all the bulls*%t about the windmills in potter county? I have yet to see where or even when there will be any here?Are there any concrete plans?

Friday, October 16, 2009 4:49:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...
8:53, you are sooooo right, Ha!

Friday, October 16, 2009 6:04:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...
The Commissioners did not cave in. They made the setbacks more reasonable.

Uranium Mining

Province plans to ban uranium mining

The NDP government announced Wednesday that it will make it illegal to mine uranium in the province -- but had trouble explaining why.
Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell said turning a long-standing ban into law was a response to public concerns. He said he heard some of those concerns while he was chairman of the legislature's resources committee, although he couldn't recall the details.

Read the full story at http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1147691.html