William Cody, an inspector for the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), Office of Water Quality, conducted a site inspection Sept. 25 at the location of a job trailer on the Scout Clean Energy’s Nimbus Wind Farm site on County Road 905 near Green Forest. Cody found the company in violation of the required site’s Notice of Coverage, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP), or the required visual site inspection reports.
“I have written the site in violation of these parts of the permit, as they are required to maintain these documents on-site,” Cody wrote in an email to E. Richard Williams, an opponent of the wind farm who lives on CR 905. “I discovered the job trailer to be locked and it appeared to be empty inside. I walked a majority of the site and identified that they are constructing what appears to me as some type of on-site roadway in both the south corner and northwest corner of the site. In both of these areas the path eventually comes to a fork and goes deeper into the property, which I did not investigate. I did not cite any stormwater/sediment Best Management Practice (BMP) violations, but that is always subject to change with any additional evidence.”
Cody wrote that the responsible official of Scout Clean Energy is required to respond to and address the violations cited against the company in my inspection report. “They will have fourteen (14) business days upon receiving the inspection report (electronically) to respond and provide evidence and/or documentation of their remediations to resolve the violations,” Cody said. “If you would like, I can provide a copy of my inspection report directly to you once it becomes available for public view. Once we receive Scout Clean Energy’s response, it will be attached to the report and I can provide a follow-up copy of the complete report and response.”
At a Scout/Nimbus public open house Oct. 14 in Berryville, Mark Wengierski, vice president of east development at Scout Clean Energy, denied that there had been a SWPPS violation at the job trailer site.
Williams said he and other opponents of the proposed $400-million project have been concerned about adequate regulatory oversight for the wind farm that now is proposed to include 30 wind turbines averaging 644-feet tall. SWPPP permits will be required of the turbine sites, roads, and installations of electrical lines for the project that Nimbus has indicated will cover 9,000 acres of leased land.
“If Scout can’t get it right initially just for one trailer, how can we trust them to do the right thing with much larger and more complicated SWPPPs including on very steep land that can erode easily?” Williams asked. “These stormwater plans are required by the state in order to protect the water quality of the streams, rivers and lakes that are vital to our natural environment.”
The ADEQ website states that when stormwater from rain or snow melt flows, it carries dirt, litter, chemicals, or other pollutants that could harm water quality.
“Stormwater discharges are considered point sources, and stormwater permitting is administered under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program,” ADEQ states. “ADEQ issues individual and general stormwater permits. The permit conditions for an individual permit are specific for each facility.”
“We can confirm with you that we have a SWPPP in place with the State of Arkansas covering roughly 1,600 acres that includes the land for the construction trailer,” Scout Director of Marking & Communication Will Patterson wrote in an email. “This has been in place since February. We are in the process of acquiring an additional SWPPP to cover the entire site.”
Scout Clean Energy said the benefits of Nimbus include generating 180 megawatts of electricity over a 30-year period with expected $31.5 million in tax revenues to Carroll County during the time and $14 million in direct lease payments to landowners.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) states that about 10 percent of electricity currently generated in the U.S. comes from wind, “a clean and renewable energy source. Wind turbines harness energy from the wind using mechanical power to spin a generator and create electricity. Not only is wind an abundant and inexhaustible resource, but it also provides electricity without burning any fuel or polluting the air. Wind energy in the United States helps avoid 336 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually—equivalent to the emissions from 73 million cars.”
DOE states that wind power is also cost-effective; land-based, [and] utility-scale wind turbines provide one of the lowest-priced energy sources available today.
“Furthermore, wind energy’s cost competitiveness continues to improve with advances in the science and technology of wind energy,” the DOE states. “Wind turbines work in different settings. Wind energy generation fits well in agricultural and multi-use working landscapes. Wind energy is easily integrated in rural or remote areas, such as farms and ranches or coastal and island communities, where high-quality wind resources are often found.”