Scout Clean Energy’s proposal to build the Nimbus Wind Facility, which would be the first commercial wind facility in Arkansas, has generated excitement on behalf of proponents of alternative energy. There is also strong support from some rural landowners in the area who see leasing their land for turbines as a way to be able to bring in more revenue while continuing to use their land for agriculture, silviculture and animal production.
But some people view the project with more dread than enthusiasm. Angela Usrey grew up on Osage Creek and both her mother’s and father’s families have been in Carroll County for generations. Usrey’s family left Carroll County when she was in the first grade. She spent the past 25 years primarily in New York City and is now planning to move back home.
“I enjoyed New York, but I always had my GPS on the Osage,” Usrey said. “I’ve been waiting fifty years to come home.”
Usrey fears the natural beauty of the rural area would be destroyed by the proposed Nimbus Wind Facility that would cover about 9,000 acres. Wind turbines, including some more than 650-feet tall, aren’t the landscape that prompted her to return home. Her greater concerns aren’t aesthetics, but about how the facility could impact water quality, water quantity, fire danger, noise, and disruption to wildlife.
Scout Clean Energy says that the Nimbus Wind Facility has been under planning since 2016, and the company has held two public information forums this year. But Usrey said because Scout lease agreements with landowners have non-disclosure agreements requiring that the leases not be discussed with others, some area residents have been in the dark.
Usrey has been knocking on doors in the area asking people to consider sending a complaint to the Carroll County Quorum Court expressing concerns about the potential impact of blasting and excavation for tower foundations on water supplies. She has found that most people were either not aware of the project or were unaware of the industrial scale of the proposal.
“The thing that has stunned me is how close this came to be without any of us knowing about it,” Usrey, founder of the non-profit Concerned Citizens of Carroll County Arkansas (CCCCA), said. “When I talk to people, it is literally starting from scratch to explain these aren’t going to be small windmills. These will be very tall towers that will be seen from many miles away. Excavations for the concrete foundations for the towers have major potential for disrupting water supplies.”
Usrey said about 20 years ago there was groundwater pollution from Tyson in Green Forest. Water supplies on her family’s property nine miles away were contaminated.
“That shows how connected these aquifers are,” Ursey said. “The idea of blasting around karst terrain is nonsensical. There is grave potential for contaminating and disrupting the wells and springs that people rely on for themselves and their animals. Water is essential. How often do you turn on the water in your house? What would you do if your water supply was disrupted? It is extraordinary we are even considering this proposal.”
Recently, an hour-by-hour video of the devastating fire in Maui, Hawaii, has become available. The fire started by an electrical transmission line fueled by high winds and dry conditions happened so quickly that many were not able to evacuate. There can also be very strong winds in this part of Carroll County; the strong hilltop wind regime is a reason why the area was selected for a wind facility.
There have been tornadoes in the area. There are well-publicized cases of wind turbines catching on fire. There is no fire-fighting equipment in Carroll County that could put out a fire hundreds of feet in the air. Usrey fears that if something similar happened with the Nimbus project, wildfires could result.
“Where I live, I am downwind from where these things are being proposed,” Ursey said. “If a fire comes from that direction, my exit is blocked. Maui was very dry. We have a lot of dead pines in east Carroll County. It frightens me that there is no plan or even conversations about plans for fire protection because of the rush to get these things built.”
She said she considers herself a proud environmentalist but sees nothing environmentally sound about this. Instead, she considers it corporate profiteering, corporate America forcing industrialization on rural America.
“These wind turbines are not economically feasible without federal tax subsidies,” Usrey said. “That is what it all boils down to. Brookfield Renewable, the parent company of Scout Clean Energy, is a foreign-owned company that wants to be paid by our tax dollars to destroy our rural way of life. This makes no sense. My dad’s family homesteaded on the Osage in the 1850s. This is home for me. I’m going to fight for it. I’m stunned it has gotten as far as it has.”
Usrey sees this as just the start of what could end up happening in Carroll County.
“As time goes on, the more pristine we keep our land, the more we will have corporate America come knocking,” Usrey said. “What we are asking the Carroll County Quorum Court for is a one-year moratorium to pause and see what we are being asked to sign on to. We need to more adequately consider all the potential consequences, such as extreme fire risk. After what happened two decades ago with Tyson, why would we allow this to happen?”
The CCCCA has held four public forums, one in Eureka Springs and three in Berryville. Another public forum is being planned for Green Forest in late November.