By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — The Olean Common Council voted 5-1 Tuesday for a local law extending a city moratorium on new solar farms or facilities.
Alderman Vernon Robinson Jr., I-Ward 6, who voted against the extension, said the city had not done anything to draw up new regulations during the last18 months a solar moratorium has been in effect and he wouldn’t vote to extend it again.
Alderwoman Sonya McCall, D-Ward, said this would be her last vote to extend the moratorium.
The city is working on preparing an updated Comprehensive Plan that would also address solar regulations. Community Development Director Keri Kerper said she applied for a grant in July to hire a firm to update the city’s code.
During the public hearing conducted prior to the vote on the solar moratorium, Mary Fay, a member of the city Planning Board who said she was speaking as a city resident, recommended the council continue the solar moratorium.
The solar facilities use farm land and land that could be used for recreation, Fay said. At the end of its 20 to 30-year lifespan, it’s nothing but electronic trash. Solar is not as efficient in the Northeast due to the high number of low light days, she added.
“We don’t need these solar panels” because Western New York has abundant hydropower from Niagara Falls, Fay said.
During the public comment part of Tuesday’s meeting, Glenn Wahl of Little Valley, who is a member of two area environmental groups, noted that nothing appears to have been done about sewage overflows into the Allegheny River. The city received no responses for its request for proposals to study the issue and make recommendations to fix it.
Wahl said the city could have hired a team of workers to survey whether roop drains were improperly hooked into the sanitary sewer system and contributing to the overflow problem during heavy rains.
After receiving no response from Brad Camp, the director of the city’s Water and Sewer departments, Wahl received an email from Mayor Bill Aiello that the city wouldn’t be commenting further on the issue until the new city attorney had reviewed the matter.
“The city has known about this problem for 23 years,” Wahl said, including the mayor’s 10 years in office. The city is under a consent order with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to end the river discharges.
“Olean is still very much at risk for polluting the river,” Wahl noted. “You could have solved it by now, or nearly solved it,” he added.
There are three possible solutions, Wahl said:
- Build a new lift station at South Fourth Street and pipe the sewage directly to the wastewater treatment plant.
- Add collection tanks to contain overflow sewage during heavy rains.
- Segregate rainwater from sewage, including diverting rainwater from roof drains that flow into the collector sewers.
Not only has the city “taken it off the front burner, it’s not anywhere near the stove,” Wahl said of the overflow issue.
