Sunday, April 21, 2013

The DEC comments concerning BP's Preliminary Scoping Statement and Avian & Bat resources

update: 6:24 AM
4/22/2013

  Subheading – Avian and Bat Resources (Page 111)

a. On page 111 BP’s PSS states; “Based on extensive avian and bat studies completed
within the Project area to date, additional studies for this group are not proposed.
Potential avian mortality due to operation of the Project will be estimated using
fatality rates derived from post construction mortality monitoring studies
conducted at operational wind energy facilities located in New York and the
Northeast U.S.”
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
This point is of particular significance to Cape Vincent because within 2 miles of the shores of Cape Vincent across the St. Lawrence River is Wolfe Island Canada on this Island is a wind project consisting of 86 turbines.   The project on Wolfe Island has been operational since April of 2009 and avian and bat mortality rates have been available since May of 2010. However Acciona /BP chose to use data from Maple Ridge Wind farm some 40 miles away to calculate projected avian and bat mortality rates.
The Eastern southern shore of Lake Ontario and the eastern shore of Lake Erie,  are documented and well recognized migratory bird pathways, which are important within Eastern North America on a regional scale, particularly During spring migration as birds move North this is an important bird area .  Additionally, the habitat within a half mile of the shoreline along Lake Ontario holds higher numbers and diversity of migrant birds than several miles inland.

 BP stated that they had already performed extensive Avian and bat studies and additional studies are not proposed.

However, the DEC sees it differently

 Subheading – Avian and Bat Resources (Page 111)
i. The DEC recommends including information from studies that have been and
are being conducted at the nearby Canadian wind power project on Wolfe
Island which has similar social, economic, and environmental conditions as
Cape Vincent, NY.


"VI.  Heading 2.22.2 Extent and quality of Information Required(Pages 107-108) 

2.  The DEC recommends that the Applicant design and conduct new studies to be 
included in the Article 10 Application, in consultation with local state and federal 
agency personnel who have extensive expert knowledge of the resources in this region. 
a.  New studies would be needed in order to more accurately assess the potential
impacts that the new CVWF Project may have based on the use of larger turbines
and an altered footprint
(Project Layout) from the two separate projects 
previously mentioned."


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There also has to be some guarantee that those studies will be honest and not interfered with. There has been talk around the island that some may be cooperating with coving up the bird kill. There have been observation of large flocks flying into the turbines. One voter for wind publicly stated that the turbines were shut down during migration. Local avian experts should be involved with and observe those studies and the count should be continuous for ample periods of time.
Cape - Clayton - and Wolfe could be combined to be one of the biggest avian disaster of all times and Bee Pee, the community organizer and Voters for Wind should be held accountable in the future.

Anonymous said...

some features of industrial wind development are universal and seem to pop up wherever turbines do.

One of these features is the killing of birds and bats,and the immoral practice of scooping up the evidence before it can be accurately monitored.

anecdotal reports of such activity abounds in most areas where windfarms are present.

Our society increasingly tolerates,condones, all sorts of corrupt, immoral actions, and abuses of power, until eventually they become acceptable, even legal.

Example- Us Fish and Wildlife issuing taking permits for killing endangered species.

example-Us supreme court rulings that corporations can legally buy government officials.

example-New York State legislature pre-empts Constitutional provision of municipal home rule denying citizens the right to self-govern.

Its not enough that man has consistently degraded the environment and habitat for avian (or wildlife in general)species for its own purposes, now under the guise of saving our planet from global warming, we attempt to justify physically reaching up and knocking birds out of the sky,as we claim dominion over their world.