Lyme's findings Re: the St. Lawrence Wind Project were ignored by Cape Vincent Planning Board

  The Town of Lyme sent a letter to the Town of Cape Vincent Planning Board
 Re: The St. Lawrence wind power final environmental impact statement .  

  Deeming their actions and issue of findings to be both premature and improper.


October 12, 2010
Town of Cape Vincent Planning Board
Town Office Building
'1964 NYS Rte 12E
Cape Vincent, NY 1 3618
St. Lawrence  Windpower  FEIS

To: Chairman Richard Edsall and members, Karen Bourcy, Thomas Ingersoll,  Andrew
Binsley,  and George Mingle:
The Lyme Planning Board transmitted  a letter to you on August 17,2010 as an
involved  agency participating  in the SEQRA process for the above captioned  project.
We transmitted  our findings  to you prior to your acceptance,  as Lead Agency for the
SEQR process,  of the FEIS as a "complete"  document  on August 18, 2010.
Notwithstanding  our extensive  listing of the serious shortcomings  in the document,  you
acted to adopt and accept the document  as complete on September  15, 2010. During
this time you had no further interaction  with the Lyme Planning Board nor did you
apparently consider any of the findings in our above referenced letter. We therefore
deem your actions and your issue of "findings"  to be both premature  and improper.
The functions  of a lead agency in the SEQRA review process include the following'.  (Our
comments in italics)
.  Asking all other involved  agencies about their concerns  for the proposed action,
and consider  these concerns in making its determination  of significance;  (The
Cape Vincent Planning Board in its position as lead agency failed to ask the
Lyme Planning Board about its concerns, but even when The Lyme Planning
Board transmitted a letter citing some of its principal concerns, it was ignored by
the Lead Agency)
.  Determining  whether any aspect of the overall action may have or will not have a
significant  adverse impact upon the environment.  (in its consideration  of a
proposal's  impacts,  the lead agency should not limit its review only to those
impacts affecting its own jurisdiction.);  (Clearly the Cape Vincent Planning Board
failed to consider the impact of the project in the Town of Lyme)
561 7.7 Determining  significance
(a) The lead agency must determine  the significance  of any Type I or Unlisted  action
in writing in accordance  with this section.
c) Criteria  for determining  significance.
(1) To determine  whether a proposed  Type I or unlisted  action may have a significant
adverse impact on the environment,  the impacts that may be reasonably expected to
result from the proposed  action must be compared against the criteria in this
subdivision.  The following  list is illustrative,  not exhaustive.  These criteria  are
considered  indicators  of significant  adverse impacts on the environment



Town of Cape Vincent,  Planning  Board page 2

(i) a substantial  adverse change in existing air quality,  ground or surface water
quality or quantity,  traffic or noise levels; a substantial  increase  in solid waste
production;  a substantial  increase  in potential  for erosion,  flooding,  leaching  or
drainage problems; (Many comments regarding the effect of noise, both during
construction and during the operation of the proposed wind facility were heard during
the public hearings. Such comments appear to have been ignored by the lead
agency and the developer. The plans for the project are being pushed forward as if
the public hearings were never held. Most egregiously, the Cape Vincent Planning
Board has ignored the findings and opinions of its own engineering consultants with
respect to the permitted noise levels for the project, instead adopting those
promulgated by the developer for its own benefit.)

(ii) the removal or destruction  of large quantities of vegetation or fauna; substantial
interference  with the movement of any resident or migratory fish or wildlife species;
impacts on a significant  habitat area; substantial  adverse impacts on a threatened  or
endangered  species of animal or plant, or the habitat of such a species;  or other
significant adverse impacts to natural resources; (While the document /is extensive
likely damage to wildlife and vegetation, this finding appears to be ignored by the
lead agency. There seems to be no attempt to define the advantages that could
possibly accrue to the residents of Cape Vincent or Lyme and to make a decision
based on the project's overall merits balanced against the significant adverse impact,
many of which are detailed in the FEIS.)

(iii) the impairment  of the environmental  characteristics  of a Critical Environmental
Area as designated  pursuant  to subdivision  617 iaG)  of this Part;
(iv) the creation of a material  conflict  with a community's  current plans or goals as
officially approved or adopted; (The proposed development is clearly in conflict with
each of the comprehensive plans for the Towns of Cape Vincent and Lyme)

(v) the impairment  of the character  or quality of important  historical,  archaeological,
architectural,  or aesthetic  resources  or of existing  community  or neighborhood
character; (The proposed project will have a devastating effect on the character or
quality of important historical, archaeological, architectural, or aesthetic resources or
of existing community or neighborhood character)

(vi) a major change in the use of either the quantity or type of energy;

(vii) the creation of a hazard to human health; (There is ample documentation  of the
deleterious effects of wind turbines on residenfs whose homes are at an insufficient
distance from the turbines. The developer and the lead agency appear to ignore this
potential danger for residents)

(viii) a substantial  change in the use, or intensity  of use, of land including  agricultural,
open space or recreational  resources, or in its capacity to support existing uses;
(The present desirability of Cape Vincent and Lyme's river and lake shore areas for
homes and recreational busrnesses  will be severely compromised by the nearby
installation of large and noisy wind turbines. Property values and consequently tax
assessments will be sharply reduced.)

(ix) the encouraging  or attracting  of a large number of people to a place or places for
more than a few days, compared  to the number of people who would come to such
place absent the action; (Clearly the extensive wind turbine development planned
for these areas in Cape Vincent and Lyme as well as neighboring Wolfe lsland,
where Lake Ontario empties into the St Lawrence River will forever alter the


Town of Cape Vincent, Planning Board page 3

character of the area, leading to a decline in tourism and reduced income for the
many businesses that thrive on tourism and summer residents)

(x) the creation of a material  demand for other actions that would result in one of the
above consequences; (the St Lawrence wind project, if it should go forward, will be,
to a large extent, a model for the adjacent and similar BP project in the Towns of
Cape Vincent and Lyme. Members of the Cape Vincent Planning Board are known
to have contracts with BP. By refusing to recuse themselves from the St Lawrence
Wind project, such persons are clearly "feathering their nests" for the similar and
subsequent BP Project. This is a clear conflict of interest and a blatant example of
corruption fostered by the wind developers.) (A related question is how did Cape
Vincent go/ so neatly divided between these two developers? Doesn't this appear to
be collusion or restraint of trade?\

(xi) changes in two or more elements of the environment,  no one of which has a
significant  impact on the environment,  but when considered  together result in a
substantial  adverse impact on the environment;  or

(xii) two or more related actions undertaken,  funded or approved by an agency, none
of which has or would have a significant  impact on the environment,  but when
considered  cumulatively  would meet one or more of the criteria  in this subdivision.
(The two wind developments planned for Cape Vincent and Lyme surely must be
considered together to determine their overall impact on the area. in addition the
presently existing wind facility on nearby Wolfe lsland and its planned extension
must be taken into account as well. To consider the impacts of the St Lawrence
Windpower project in isolation is both invalid and disingenuous.)

The project proposed by St Lawrence Windpower includes development of
facilities  in the Town of Lyme and has a direct impact on the Town of Lyme as well as an
apparent additional set of impacts as a precedent for the conduct of BP in pursuing its
adjacent  and contiguous  development  in the Towns of Lyme and Cape Vincent. We,
therefore  find it disconcerting,  to say the least, that neither  the Cape Vincent Planning
Board, in its function as lead agency, or the developer  supplied  the Lyme Planning
Board, an involved  agency in the SEQRA process with copies of documents,  meeting
notices and correspondence  relevant to the project. We should not have had to rely on
newspaper  accounts or documents  found on the Internet in our attempt to keep current
on the project application.

Furthermore,  we find that you have apparently  ignored our findings as outlined in
our above referenced  letter of August 17,2010. We, therefore,  consider  the SEQRA
process to be incomplete  until such time as the findings of the Town of Lyme Planning
Board as expressed in our earlier referenced letter are recognized  and incorporated  in
the findings and resulting  decision.  ln addition  there are a number of points in this letter
illustrating  that the Cape Vincent Planning Board in its function  as lead agency has failed
to follow the procedures  and recommendations  outlined  by NYDEC.


For the Town  of Lyme Planning  Board
Paul Norton, Chairman
Lyme Planning  Board