Posted on Fri, Mar. 04, 2005
Supervisors hear activists tilt at Altamont windmillsBy Guy Ashley
CONTRA COSTA TIMESOAKLAND - Alameda County supervisors Thursday continued to grapple with a conundrum over Altamont Pass windmills and their deadly impacts on birds, but failed to reach a consensus.
At a public hearing, the board again examined ways to balance protection of migratory birds with the needs of companies providing a potent source of renewable energy.
The board heard a new round of appeals by three environmental groups of a series of county decisions to renew use permits for wind farm operators in the hills east of Livermore.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Californians for Renewable Energy and the Golden Gate Audubon Society assert permit renewals applying to more than 4,000 Altamont-area windmills should have been contingent on environmental impact studies focusing on the causes of more than 1,000 windmill-related raptor deaths each year and possible solutions.
The groups are asking county supervisors to overturn the renewals and require the studies.
Wildlife groups say rare bird species such as golden eagles and burrowing owls are killed almost daily in the Altamont, either by flying into whirring turbine blades or by electrocution from electrical transmission lines that thread through wind-energy facilities.
The problem is especially bad because the Altamont windfarms are located in the middle of a major flyway for migratory birds, and operate amid one of the largest nesting areas for golden eagles in the world.
But in a pair of decisions in November 2003 and January 2004, the Alameda County Board of Zoning Adjustments sided with wind-energy companies that argued the permit renewals did not require environmental studies under state law because the turbines are existing structures that operate in the exact same way they did when first approved in the early 1980s.
The appellants countered, however, that significant information has been uncovered about the breadth of the bird-mortality problem since the original permits were issued. In addition, they say the growth of wind-energy operations in the Altamont hills together have greatly increased the risk to birds over the years, creating a "changed condition" that triggers the need for environmental studies under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The possibility of a compromise has emerged since last November, when two county supervisors said at an appeals hearing that they were leaning toward imposing strict new rules that would require wind energy companies to replace their windmills with larger -- and likely less lethal -- turbines.
Wind-power companies now seem more willing to conduct environmental impact studies focusing on their operations' impacts on birds, said Chris Bazar, Alameda County planning director.
In addition, he said, companies seem open to taking part in "seasonal shutdowns," so that wind turbines would not operate during winter migratory periods. Wind companies continue to press for a plan in which half the Altamont turbines would be allowed to operate during the 4-month migratory period. Environmental groups want a complete shutdown, Bazar said.
WHAT'S NEXT
Wind farm operators and environmental groups will continue negotiations in hopes of hashing out an agreement over ways to prevent the deaths of hundreds of migratory birds who are killed each year by flying into Altamont Pass windmills.
The issue is scheduled to return May 5 to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
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