Residents attend community meeting on proposed wind farm in Allegany, Olean and Portville

By RICK MILLER

Olean Star

Liberty Renewables community meeting at Franchot Park Wednesday to talk about its proposed Hemlock Hollow Wind Farm in Allegany, Olean and Portville did not go as planned.

Dozens of area residents viewed maps and charts of the proposed 19-turbine wind farm that were set up on picnic tables under the park’s pavilion.

The draft maps also showed collection substation locations, the interconnection point, meteorological tower, overhead collection lines, underground collection lines, transmission lines, access roads and lay down yards. Photo-simulations of what the turbines would look like from different locations were also on display.

Representatives of Liberty Renewables, a New York company owned by a Danish investment firm, walked through the pavilion answering individual questions about how far along the proposed wind project is in the process.

As the program was about to get underway, a man climbed up onto a picnic bench and proceeded to draw peoples’ attention with questions to the company over decommissioning and the wind turbines’ effect on people with nerve hypersensitivity. 

A company representative replied that residents had not been surveyed for that condition.

The man, who later identified himself as Todd Previglian of Indiana Avenue, Olean, said that a survey should be undertaken. He promised court action if that survey on residents with nerve hypersensitivity does not take place.

“It’s going to be on the hill above us,” Previglian told the Olean Star. Ideally, he said, the turbines should be at least a mile away to mitigate health issues. He said the company has been operating under the radar since 2021.

Another man asked how Hemlock Hollow Wind planned to get power onto the grid and whether area lines had the capacity. 

A company representative said Liberty Renewables must conduct an interconnection study to determine capacity requirements. The study will determine if additional infrastructure is needed and at what cost, which would be borne by the developer.

After that, the company went back to mostly one-on-one discussions with concerned residents.Over the course of the three-hour community meeting, more than 100 people stopped by to review the maps and ask any questions they had.

The 19 turbine sites in the proposed project would generate 95 megawatts of electricity. Twelve turbines would be located in Allegany along the Chipmunk ridge, five in the town of Olean and two in the town of Portville. They would generate enough electricity to power 17,000 homes. 

The Allegany portion of the project is similar to a failed plan by Everpower, which was rejected by the Allegany Town Board in 2014 after a five-year effort to locate a wind farm in the Chipmunk area. Others opposed the 500-foot turbines’ visual impact.

The wind turbines proposed by Liberty Renewables would be located along ridgelines for maximum wind. The 19 turbine sites would generate 95 megawatts of electricity. Twelve turbines would be located in Allegany along the Chipmonk ridge, five in the town of Olean and two in the town of Portville. They would generate enough electricity to power 17,000 homes. 

The Allegany portion of the project is similar to a failed plan by Everpower, which was rejected by the Allegany Town Board in 2014 after a five-year effort to locate a wind farm in the Chipmunk area. Others opposed the 500-foot turbines’ visual impact.

The wind turbines proposed by Liberty Renewables would rise 650 feet into air from the ground to blade tip. The turbine blades would be more than 300 feet long.

Jessica Klami, an attorney representing Liberty Renewables Inc., told the Olean Star the community meeting was meant to be a pre-application meeting with the community. The company is currently completing studies and filling out an application. Public comment is welcomed at this early stage.

For a list of filings with the State Public Service Commission’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) by Liberty Renewables, as well as a section for residents concerns, go online to:

https://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/MatterManagement/CaseMaster.aspx?MatterSeq=85387

Klami said Liberty Renewables is still in the pre-application phase with ORES. The timeline calls for construction in 2028 and 2029, with operation upon completion.

Klami said the turbine model has not yet been selected, but a couple are under consideration.

The turbines would not be located closer to a non-participating residence than two times the height of the turbine — two times 650, or 1,300 feet, Klami said. A distance of 1.1 times the height from a property line is also required. 

Participating households face a lesser setback and potentially louder noise, particularly at night.

Under ORES, the successor to Article 10 which regulated earlier wind turbine farms, Hemlock Hollow Wind will be permitted to emit louder sounds than the Alle-Catt Wind Farm, part of which is in  the northern part of Cattaraugus County. 

Klami said Hemlock Hollow will be limited to a 45 dBA sound level averaged over two hours — day or night.

By comparison, the Alle-Catt project faces a 40 dBA nighttime limit under Article 10, which opponents argue it cannot meet.

The state Department of Health found that noise above 45 dBA is a health risk. 

The commission earlier ruled that the turbines did not appear to meet noise restrictions, and that Alle-Catt had not undertaken pre-construction noise modeling as required.

The Alle-Catt noise issue will come before the Siting Commission again soon. 

Sue Groves, an Olean resident who lives in the First National Building, the former Mann Hanny, said she received a notice of the meeting in the mail. “It’s going to spoil my view,” she said of the 650-foot turbines and blades.

Mary Fay, the Olean City Republican chairman told the Olean Star the Right Thinkers conservative group planned to hold a demonstration at Olean’s Lincoln Park soon to show its opposition to the Hemlock Hollow Wind plan.

The Right Thinkers’ founder and moderator of its monthly meetings in Allegany, Nate Smith and his wife Theresa attended the meeting. Smith was not impressed.

“I’m very opposed to it,” Smith said. “They are bad for the environment. They have to cut down thousands of trees for access roads. They kill birds and wildlife. They make utility bills go up and they are unsightly and unhealthy.” 

“We have to get local leadership to fight this,” Smith told the Olean Star afterward. “The towns, the city and the county have to get onboard. People should contact their local representatives. We’ve got to fight this thing.”

Corey Wiktor, executive director of the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency, attended the meeting to collect whatever information he could to update the IDA board of directors on the project.

The IDA may be asked to offer tax breaks for the Hemlock Hollow project in return for host community agreements for the towns involved and payment in lieu of taxes agreements with Cattaraugus County, the Towns of Allegany, Olean and Portville and the Allegany-Limestone School District, Olean City School District and Portville Central School District.  

Cattaraugus County lawmakers had asked the IDA not to provide tax breaks for Alle-Catt, but later rescinded that under pressure from towns benefitting from host community agreements. The county also hired an environmental attorney to challenge Alle-Catt on a number of issues including a road use agreement. 

In the end, the county negotiated for millions of dollars in funds from Alle-Catt over the length of the PILOT.

It’s not clear what position the Cattaraugus County Legislature and County Planning Board will take with Hemlock Hollow Wind.

From the sound of those in attendance at Tuesday’s community meeting, there was not a lot of support for the wind farm, but a lot of questions.