Town of Cape Vincent Response to Bp Preliminary Scoping Statement

 April 19, 2013

Mr. Richard Chandler

Director, Development

BP Wind Energy North America, Inc.

700 Louisiana Street, Floor 33

Houston, TX 77002

Re: Case 12-F-0410 Cape Vincent Wind Power, LLC

Dear Mr. Chandler:

Attached you will find comments from the Town of Cape Vincent pertaining to BP's Preliminary Scoping Statement [PSS]. You should note that we find many deficiencies in what BP proposes to submit in its application. We understand BP's position of keeping this project alive while it looks for a buyer for the Project, but there are a number of substantive issues that need attention, funding and special efforts.

Potentially adverse environmental impacts cannot and should not be addressed with stale, incomplete and out-of-date assessments. We viewed your PSS as re-packaging the work that was completed years ago under SEQRA. Regrettably, reviews and concerns by involved agencies at the time were never properly addressed and those same flaws are still visible in your PSS today.

Although we tried to complete a comprehensive review of your two-hundred page PSS, we feel our review needs some additional work and attention. We expect to be putting forth a request for expert opinions to bolster some of our preliminary recommendations, and for additional support in making the case that our zoning law is responsible. We have focused our comprehensive plan and zoning law on ensuring the health, safety and general welfare of our citizens and we intend to forcefully make the case that our law should not be abrogated by either BP or the State.

Summary Review

Is Cape Vincent the right town for wind development?

Throughout its Preliminary Scoping Statement (PSS) BP has subtly mischaracterized the Town of

Cape Vincent (Town), seeking to weave a picture of a rural farm community without any

economic prospects other than its wind development that would allow "struggling farmers" to

remain stewards of its land. This one-sided view of our town fits the purposes of BP and its

development plans, but it is nothing close to the truth in describing Cape Vincent. For an

honest, official view please read the Town and Village of Cape Vincent's Joint Comprehensive

Plan.

What will be evident to whomever reads the Plan and the Town's PSS review in the following

pages is that BP's Project, comprised of 124 five-hundred foot high wind turbines, is not a good

fit for the Town of Cape Vincent. Early on, poor decisions made by wind developers following

their first visit to Cape Vincent more than seven years ago, can only reflect a willful dismissal or

misinformed understanding of the essential nature of the Town.

The Town’s historical identity was long reflected in a guiding vision developed to take

advantage of our cherished small town qualities and the special benefit we enjoy from having a

long shoreline on one of the world’s most scenic waterways. Unlike the type of host communities we assume were contemplated for wind development under Article 10, Cape

Vincent is a destination town on both Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River. People are

drawn here frequently for the enjoyment of being here. Many have substantial investments in

its homes, both year-round and seasonal, that allow them to enjoy the area and participate

more fully in the special life that Cape Vincent offers. The degree to which that destination

quality underpins the local economy is hard to overstate.

Environmental Compatibility and Public Need

BP with its Cape Vincent Wind Power Project is applying under Article 10 law for a Certificate of

Environmental Compatibility and Public Need. The New York Department of Environmental

Conservation defines environment as:

'Environment' means the physical conditions that will be affected by a proposed facility, including land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, noise, resources of agricultural,archeological, historic or aesthetic significance, existing patterns of population concentration, distribution or growth, existing community or neighborhood character, and public health.

Compatibility infers that the Project will seek a balance between a public need and the broad

suite of attributes defined above that constitute our environment. What follows in the Town's

review are concerns and issues related to a number of adverse impacts that the Town will incur

from the Project.

The critical issues we have defined are based on our principal concern for health and safety. We

have identified noise, shadow flicker, blinking red FAA lighting, rotor failure and ice throw,

property devaluation, scenic degradation and avian wildlife collision mortality as issues with the

greatest potential for adverse environmental effects. For all of these concerns more work needs

to be done by BP to properly assess the risks to people, our environment and our economy. We

should emphasize one important point that others should never lose sight of. Cape Vincent is

our home and we want our families, our dwellings, our public spaces, and our quality of life to

be relatively unaffected by industrial development. We do not believe that is too much to ask

when the factors that define our community are given proper weight.

the proposed project would do to Cape Vincent economically, culturally and socially. Article 10

was written with the belief that there are at least some rural areas in New York State where the

presence of a large wind farm would be tolerable, or even desirable, to a large cross-section of

the community -- unfortunately for BP, Cape Vincent is not one of those towns. Furthermore,

Article 10 was not enacted so as to be able to literally kill a town in order to make way for a

renewable energy project.

To read complete response 

Town of Cape Vincent Response to Bp Preliminary Scoping Statement

Link here ~ No downloading required