County Commissioners Approve Meteorological Tower Despite Moratorium On Wind Farm Applications

By Gordon HopkinsJefferson County Commissioners voted to approve the placement of a meteorological tower in the agricultural district on Tuesday, September 21, despite a recent moratorium on wind farm applications.With the possibility of future wind farm applications looming, county commissioners decided at a previous meeting on September 14 to institute a six-month moratorium on wind farm applications, effective immediately. Commissioners voted unanimously for the moratorium, feeling it was necessary to review and, if necessary, revise the policies that govern the placing of wind turbines within the county.The application was filed by Big Blue Nebraska Wind, LLC, for a meteorological tower in the agricultural district. A meteorological tower, or met tower, is designed to assess wind resources.Big Blue Nebraska Wind, LLC, is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy resources, which built the Steel Flats wind farm in Steele City.County commissioners previously approved a similar tower in April. Lee Greenwald with Baird Holm LLP, a law firm that represents NextEra, attended the meeting. He said, “The plan was always to have two meteorological towers.”The towers are only temporary structures and will be removed after a period of time.“Three to four years, generally, is how long they’re kept up,” said Matthew Jones, a developer for NextEra. “But it’s something that we take down after a period of time after we’ve been able to gather adequate data for the area.”Jefferson county regulations require that any met tower must be removed after it has not been in use for six months.A hearing was held prior to the vote, which was unanimous, to allow the public to have input. Although several members of the public attended the meeting, no one spoke up. County commissioner Michael Dux clarified prior to the vote, “This does not approve the (wind farm) project. This just approves the tower.”MoratoriumA met tower is not a wind turbine and is unaffected by the recent moratorium on wind farm applications, which is set to expire in six months, unless commissioners vote to extend it.County commissioner Mark Schoenrock indicated that a primary driver of this decision is the changing technology for wind turbines. Newer turbines can be considerably taller than they were at the time regulations were originally set, “And so we believe that it’s a good idea for our planning and zoning committee to review our regulations, in light of these advancements in the technology, and to ensure that our regulations strike that balance to protect our citizenry, and yet make it so that it would be possible for wind farms to be here in the county.”Planning and Zoning CommitteeOn Thursday, September 9, the Planning and Zoning Committee met to discuss the met tower application by Big Blue Nebraska Wind.Matthew Jones, spoke at the meeting, “Nebraska has one of the best wind resources in the entire country.”Jones added, “We do a lot of analysis on the front end of these projects to make sure that the resource is adequate, it’s a good place for us to invest our money. And so that’s why we’re here.”Greenwald noted that, in order to gather the needed data, the tower would likely have to stand a year or more, meaning the moratorium would be over before NextEra would be ready to move to the next stage, unless the moratorium is extended.A motion was made by a member of the committee to deny the permit but that motion failed. A motion was then made to approve the application and that motion passed.AirplanesJefferson County is an agricultural county and planes are often used for spraying large acreages. Randy Prellwitz, a pilot for Sky Tech, the aerial division of Farmers Cooperative, expressed concerns about the tower, “It affects my livelihood out there. And it also, I would think, would affect the landowner’s, his livelihood, a little bit. I mean, not necessarily just the met tower, but when you put in a wind project like that, it definitely restricts what kind of aerial application that you can have.”Prellwitz said, “There’s a lot of areas there we just that we will not go in because it just affects the safety of our pilots.”According to Greenwald, the tower does not require flashing lights to warn passing aircraft, as it is below the height threshold required by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). The tower is expected to be approximately 200 feet tall. However, it will be painted orange and yellow, in accordance with FAA regulations.Noise LevelsAnother concern raised by both the Planning and Zoning Committee and County Commissioners is sound levels, which will be explored by the Committee during the moratorium.Bruce Weise, who serves on the Committee, said of one wind farm, “One thing that they had down there was a 50 decibel noise rating. And I think that was during the day. That wasn’t even counting at night. An electric lawnmower is 70. A gas lawn mowers is 95. I mean, we ain’t going to be able to do nothing if you’re going to be worried about noise out in the country. Combines won’t be able to run. Your irrigation motor, if you’re close to a neighbor, they ain’t going to be able to run them at night or whenever because it’s going to your neighbors that moved in from the city.”Decommissioning Wind FarmsAnother concern that led to the moratorium was the costs of decommissioning wind turbines. There are expenses associated with the decommissioning of wind turbines and some Nebraska Counties require that wind farm operators open an escrow account to ensure there are sufficient funds to cover decommissioning expenses.Weise is against the county getting involved with decommissioning, “As far as the decommissioning, there’s no reason. We don’t decommission hog units. We don’t need commission anything else in the county. Why would we start with a windmill? There are sandpits out there that are not decommissioned. And they just stayed the way they are? Do they not?”The Planning and Zoning Committee is expected to make recommendations to Commissioners in approximately five months. At least one hearing is planned to allow for public input.

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