By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Cattaraugus County has asked the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment for a rehearing on its June ruling that Alle-Catt Wind Energy’s turbines did not meet nighttime noise limits.
The Siting Board appeared to hand Alle-Catt a setback last month when it ruled against the company’s request to remove the nighttime noise limit of 40 dBA for non-participating residences.
Alle-Catt has already installed turbines in Centerville and Rushford in Allegany County and has started erecting masts, blades and turbines in Farmersville, according to one Cattaraugus County lawmaker, Brenda Hanson, R-Delevan.
Hanson sent a letter to the Siting Commission asking if the commission’s June 23 decision actually meant Alle-Catt could not meet nighttime noise limits and could not operate with the newer turbines. The construction with the newer turbines continues unabated, she added in a July 23, letter.
The distance between blade tip and the ground is about 600 feet. There are 41 turbine sites in Cattaraugus County — 14 in Farmersville and 27 in Freedom. The rest are in the Allegany towns of Rushford and Centerville and the town of Arcade in Wyoming County.
Hanson points out in her letter to the Siting Board that its denial “raises three urgent and distinct questions that I respectfully ask the Board and DPS staff to answer in writing: (1) What is Alle-Catt now obligated to do? (2) Does that obligation extend to turbines already erected in Rushford and Farmersville? (3) What happens if Alle-Catt fails to comply, and who enforces it?”
Hanson asked the Siting Commission to please reply to her questions in writing.
The June 23 ruling by the Siting Commission stated:
“ACWE’s petition is inconsistent with Siting Board and Commission precedent on noise impact minimization and avoidance. ACWE’s petition is inconsistent with Siting Board policy on protecting against long-term noise exposure. Granting the petition would remove protections against long-term noise exposure with no replacement. It would, as commenters note, pose a public health risk. The Siting Board therefore denies ACWE’s Petition to remove the L(night) Design Goal” of 40 dBA.
An noise expert for environmental attorney Gary Abraham, who represents a Coalition of citizens from Farmersville, Rushford and Centerville who are opposed to the project,
said Alle-Catt’s figures showed it could not comply with the Siting Board’s ruling on nighttime noise.
An exhibit from attorney Benjamin E. Wisniewski, who represents Cattaraugus County in Alle-Catt issues, states the Siting Board “correctly denied Alle-Catt Wind Energy LLC’s (“ACWE”) petition to remove Certificate Condition 68(d)(vi)—the L(night) Design Goal requiring the facility to be designed so that the annual equivalent continuous average nighttime sound level does not exceed 40 dBA outside any existing non-participating residence.
“The County welcomes that denial as it promised to protect residents from noise impacts that would risk public health. The Order, however, leaves a critical and dangerous vacuum. It does not order ACWE to submit a revised Pre-Construction Noise Impact Assessment (“PNIA”),” Wisniewski said. “It does not confirm that the turbines already erected in Centerville, Rushford and Farmersville may not be commissioned or operated until a compliant PNIA is approved. It does not address ACWE’s ongoing construction of wind turbines without demonstrating compliance with Condition 68(d)(vi), a posture that appears to assume compliance based on the current facility design is a foregone conclusion,” Wisniewski said.
John W. Dax of Hodson Russ, attorney for Alle-Catt Wind, said the petitioners had overlooked the Siting Board’s approval of the turbine locations “for all phases of construction” from December 2024, as well as the Department of Public Service’s notice to proceed with full construction in May and June 2025.
“The time for challenges to those notices to proceed and the orders authorizing them has long passed,” Drax said in his letter to the Siting Commission in reply to Cattaraugus County’s petition for a rehearing.
“Petitioners also ignore the Commission’s April 29, 2025 Order Approving Multiple Compliance Filings Subject to Conditions in which the Commission determined “that the Noise Package, as filed and supplemented, reasonably assures compliance with the requirements of Attachment A No. 9 and Certificate Condition 68(a), (c)(i), (d)(v), (vii), and (viii) of the Certificate Order and are approved for the excavation and pouring of foundations and erection of turbines.”
In particular, Petitioners overlook the Commission’s December 24, 2024 Order Approving Multiple Compliance Filings Subject to Conditions in which the Commission approved the project design including turbine locations “for all phases of construction.”
Alle-Catt is fully aware of its remaining compliance filing obligation, i.e., the requirement to file a final Pre-construction Noise Impact Assessment that demonstrates compliance with the annual average Lnight goal,” the Dax letter to the Siting Board states.
“The (county’s) Petitions are premised on mischaracterizations and an outright failure to account for prior Commission orders and lack sufficient merit to require the convening of a Siting Board meeting. The Chair should exercise his authority under Public Service Law § 161 to dismiss the Petitions and avoid setting a precedent for the misuse of Article 10 procedures.”
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