BLM and USFWS discuss Chokecherry wind farm

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) joined the BLM Rawlins Field Office at the Platte Valley Community Center Dec. 17, to present more information regarding the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre (CCSM) Wind Energy Project.

Nearly 40 people came to the PVCC that evening, where officials from the BLM and USWFS gave presentations, took questions from the audience and guided people through the project plan. Representatives from Power Company of Wyoming (PCW) were also present at the meeting to address questions and concerns.

The BLM and USFWS are conducting two separate scoping periods concerning the proposed power plant project. The BLM is currently studying right-of-way issues associated with Phase 1 of the turbine buildup on the western half of the CCSM project, while UFWS is focusing on impacts to bald and golden eagles and other birds from the planned 500 wind turbines.

During the meeting's scoping periods, members of interested parties and the general public asked one-on-one questions with BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service specialists; viewed maps and posters detailing the site-specific phases of the CCSM project; and provided written comments.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials also answered questions pertaining to the analysis of the Eagle Take Permit.

Heather Schultz, from the BLM Rawlins Field Office, and Dave Carlson and Kevin Kritz, with USFWS, gave brief presentations and took questions from audience members. Schultz, who spoke first, said the meeting was a good teacher for the two different processes involved.

"What we want is the public to have a clear understanding on what the BLM process is, and what the USFWS process is," she said. "The BLM will be, at the end of this, analyzing the authorization of a right of way permit, as opposed to the Fish and Wildlife Service analyzing the issue that's of an eagle take permit for the same project. We won't have scoping for Phase 2 until we work through this process for the infrastructure environmental assessment (EA), and the EA for Phase 1 of turbines. The next anticipated meeting, which the date has not been set yet for, is a public information meeting on the infrastructure EA."

Carlson, who is the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) project manager, said there will be two decisions coming out of the meetings, including one from the BLM for the right-of-way permit, and one from the USFWS for the eagle take permit. He said PCW will present information regarding the eagle take permit application to USFWS.

"We'll be coming out with additional information in January, based on the studies that the company presents to us for their application for a take permit," Carlson said. "We'll be making that all available, so that will be another level of information for the public to review."

Carlson said PCW will submit the eagle take application in January and the USFWS will then issue a decision in 2015. According to PCW press release, under the USFWS' 2009 Eagle Permit Rule that applies to a variety of activities, the USFWS may "authorize the limited take of bald eagles and golden eagles under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, where the take to be authorized is associated with otherwise lawful activities," such as generating clean, cost-effective wind energy supplied.

The release also stated the service approves permits only when rigorous conditions and requirements are met, including developing a detailed evaluation of the risk to eagles, implementing all practical measures to reduce that risk, and providing mitigation and compensation in the event of a take- all elements that will be outlined and proposed within PCW's comprehensive plan. Carlson said any eagles that die expectedly in the CCSM building process would have to be replaced somewhere else by USFWS, and that the company is taking suggestions for how to continue saving eagles to offset the number killed in projects like CCSM.

"The permit we're considering is really a permit to take eagles, and we'll have an estimated number of eagles that we expect the project to take, and that they will have to offset," Carlson said. "We'll contain conditions within the permit for minimizing and avoiding impacts first of all, and secondly, offsetting any eagles that they do kill. There will also be conditions for improving conditions elsewhere to offset any eagles that they do kill. The goal is no net loss of eagles, and we'll have those conditions listed in the permit."

Kritz, a Wildlife Biologist for USFWS, said applying for and issuing an eagle take permit is a longer process than one might think.

"There probably is some misunderstanding in the public that a proponent for a product just applies for a permit, and then boom, they get a permit," he said. "Every permit that comes into our permit office for review and a decision is treated as an individual case, and will be judged on its own merits. We have to have some kind of justification, but we always have the ability to deny the permit. It's not a conclusion that we'll issue a permit just because somebody applies for one."

Already knowledgable on CCSM, Saratoga resident Pat Rollison said he learned new vital information from last week's meeting, especially regarding the eagles.

"I found out a lot on what their intentions are on when they get this model up and in place, and how they're going to use it," he said. "A question I asked is if the particular model for this project is going to be used on all of them. We're likely to get several other projects coming up in the future, over and above what we already have, but do all of them have to do this? All these big wind generator projects that are already in place, do they all have to use this same model?"

Rollison said he was also surprised how long the CCSM project had been taking to get underway.

"It started in 2008 and I came to one of the first meetings, and now here we are, we're still going," he said. "I thought it would be a done deal and they were going to get started on the road building and all that. It shocks me because now I hear it's not going to happen until 2016."

Carlson said he hopes people walked away from the meeting better informed, and knowing that their voices were much appreciated.

"I hope people will learn that public participation is an important process of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, and they have an opportunity to voice their issues and concerns," he said. "We're trying to find what the correct questions are to answers when we start to undertake this analysis. We think the public has knowledge about the project that we don't have, and ideas that we don't have in terms of things we haven't thought of. We're inviting that participation and input, and we're inviting it from other state and federal agencies, as well as the public and other interested parties."

The proposed CCSM project includes two wind farm sites encompassing 1,000 turbines on more than 227,638 acres of mixed public and private land, located around 10 miles south of Rawlins. It is estimated that each wind turbine would generate between 1.5 to 3 megawatts (MW) of electricity, with a total capacity of 2,000 to 3,000 MW, which is enough energy to power nearly 1 million homes.

Public comments to the BLM must be received by Jan. 14, and comments specific to the impacts on birds must be submitted to USFWS by Feb. 3.