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twitterProposed wind farm near Searchlight worries some residents
Farm with 160 turbines would be Southern Nevada’s first
Cassie Tomlin
William Berg, “Shorty” Schwartz and Bonnie Schocker, of Searchlight, look at a map of a proposed wind farm Tuesday at public meeting hosted by the Bureau of Land Management at Searchlight Community Center.
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 | 11:49 a.m.
A tentative map outlines where Searchlight Wind Energy might build 160 wind turbines and new roads, east of Searchlight.
To comment
Send written comments to Mark Chandler, BLM Project Manager, BLM Las Vegas Field Office, 4701 North Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89130, or fax them to (702) 515-5015, or e-mail them to Searchlight_Wind_Energy_EIS@blm.gov.
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A wind farm that would be Southern Nevada's first could sprout 30 miles south of Boulder City near Searchlight as soon as 2011.
Some Searchlight residents, though thankful planners have already moved turbines because of their concerns, worry that the wind-powered energy plant would be ugly, noisy and deadly to wildlife.
Yesterday, about 60 Searchlight and Cal-Nev-Ari residents met with planners for Searchlight Wind Energy LLC at the first of three Bureau of Land Management public meetings. A meeting in Laughlin is scheduled for today, and a meeting in Boulder City on Thursday.
Duke Energy, a Charlotte, N.C., company, wants to build about 160 wind turbines east of Searchlight, across about 24,000 acres of publicly owned land.
The Bureau of Land Management needs to collect, address and assess comments and concerns before it can allow the development. Comments will be accepted until Feb. 17.
The bureau expects to have a final environmental impact statement and decision by April 2011.
The plant could generate 370 megawatts of power from the turbines, which would stand 415 feet tall with blades extended upward, Robert Charlebois, managing director of Duke Energy, told the crowd at Searchlight Community Center in his fourth visit to the town.
Searchlight was the windiest of 20 places across the state and perfect for the project, he said.
Charlebois told residents that, before construction begins, the company would study the roads and determine which ones were suitable for travel by large trucks. Duke Energy would replace any road damaged during construction, he said.
Resident Sabra Shawn asked about bird mortality because of the turbine's blades, and Charlebois said some of the country's best biologists are studying the area to see if the wind project would endanger the area's blackhawks and bats.
Before the meeting, some locals said they'd been keeping track of the project since last April.
Robert Shawn, a member of Searchlight's Town Advisory Board, said the initial map had turbines closer to town, bordering some yards. When people complained, planners moved them in the design.
"We didn't like the idea of having these things right in our backyard," he said.
Shawn said he was still worried the wind farm could deflect public safety radio systems and confuse military radar.
Taylor Emanuel, volunteer director of Searchlight's airport who lives in Henderson, said Duke Energy had moved turbines away from the airport after working with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA regulations say any structures taller than 200 feet should be at least 3 1/2 miles from runways, he said. Duke Energy placed the turbines about 1 1/2 miles from the airport's runway. Emanuel said he didn't know if the FAA would suggest moving them even farther.
Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.
Discussion: 13 comments so far…
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No need for more studies, wind turbines kill birds and bats without a doubt. No means have been found to avoid this. Duke needs to come up with the money to mitigate the increase in vermin and insect population that will result. More pesticides anyone ?
dfh
Henderson, Nevada
This is absolutely crazy, what happened to "wind power" is the future. Come on, this is cracking me up.
Harry Reid is from Searchlight, surely as a native son he can talk sense into the NIMBY's and get this on the road.
Since he doesn't want nuclear, coal or gas fired generators you would think he would lobby for this himself.
I am stunned, no crazed, no deranged by this garbage.
We can't put a transmission line in Ely due to environmental concerns, these people are whining about environmental concerns. No, this sounds like more idiots who want to remain dependent on foreign oil and want US to run out of energy.
I am just stunned.
You can't have your cake and eat it too! I haven't been to Searchlight, but I have a feeling it isn't like the Strip. (Storey County had a similar complaint.) How is this renewable energy supposed to get off the ground if people aren't willing to make sacrifices? It's called progress and with progress comes change, (or is it with change comes progress?)
newtothis, get a map of Nevada and look down near the point, it's easy to find, 50 miles from NOWHERE.
Progress, progress, I can tell you are new because you still believe in progress.
Population of Searchlight is 576 according to the 2000 census. They are spread out around the country side like jackrabbits.
You would think people in searchlight would be welcoming jobs in the area. People will have to build the things and then maintain them. They will need security and engineers to monitor the electricity. Those people that work out at the plant will need to eat lunch buy gas and spend money in the area stores. Hotels will rent rooms to workers and on and on. As far as birds the turbines don't kill all the birds just the ones that try and fly threw the spinning blades. If the objections in this article are the only ones then people need to let this thing pass and be happy that it does.
I demand that a group of "green energy Libs" form a demonstration "squad" and descend on the hamlet of Searchlight and do "sit-ins" and call for boycotts of the gas stations and casino's until the misguided townfolk come to their senses and allow this project to come forth.
While you are at it maybe you could get the Kennedy's, the hollywood elite and tree-huggers from all around to produce a documentary on the terrible cost to humanity that the deaths of innocent birds and bats would cost our great society.
You people are clowns.
All of the people in Searchlight can pay my electric bills down here in Vegas. As we use more of our fossil fuels, the less there are in the ground. So prices go up and we all pay more. With the economy in shambles, you expect us to pay more in electric bills while work is hard to find? Forget the birds and bats, it is called adaptation. Sooner or later they will learn not to fly into big white objects. Natural selection always seems to work in the long run.
windcityfan23, I couldn't agree with you more.
"Natural selection always seems to work in the long run."
Except when it comes to humans. We allow our governments to protect us from cradle to grave so stupidity never has a chance to die off before reproducing.
The Darwin awards go out to far too few, sad but true.
No, now the stupidity gets elected.
Come on folks, it's not like this is a new technology. My cousin has three of them on his farm in Texas. In my experience, they make very little noise, and that on startup. What will these folks do when their neighbor puts up the residential version of the windmill in their back yard? The only reason I don't plan to put one up is that I don't have the suggested or required amount of land area.
We went to the meeting in Searchlight. Over 100 citizens of the town showed up. In the three hours of comments, NOBODY stood up and supported the project. It is a small town and many of the residents have retired there because they like the quiet town and spectacular scenery. One woman even said that she moved there to get away from the ugly wind farm mess in Palm Springs. All of the people were flat out against this project. Everybody who spoke was against the project.
When one of the town residents asked the two speakers how the wind turbines would effect property values, both speakers actually said wind turbines RAISE property values! This was met with loud, sarcastic laughter from the audience.
Bob Charlebois said they were doing an avian and bat study to determine how much impact turbines would have on these populations. He implied that if impacts were too great, the project would not happen. I asked him if there was an official number of bird deaths that would considered too high to proceed with this project. He looked very confused and after a couple seconds the BLM contractor cut in and simply said, "no".
Other questions were about money and jobs staying in the town. The answers were no.
The project is just a give away to a big company. The taxes will be taken by the county and the Federal Government. The people of the town will lose their view, property values, wildlife, access to public lands and quiet place to retire. No jobs will be created for locals except cheap construction jobs, but it was pointed out that construction for the Boulder City Sempra Solar Facility was contracted out to people from another counrty-Nicaragua. All in all, this is a lose/lose project for the citizens and the wildlife.
Wow, I can't believe the hatred, meannness and ignorance of most of these comments. I own a parcel of land down by Searchlight, so I went to the scoping meeting there. If any of you city folks had actually GONE to he meeting, maybe you'd see things a bit different. Most jobs will be shipped in and are very specialized. After a 6 month construction period, the total number of permanent jobs will be 15! After 20 years the windfarm will probably be deconstructed. And this will not reduce the number of fossil fuel plants being built, as they are needed to provide base load electricity for the very intermittent wind power. The wind does not always blow down here!
I can see this renewable corporate energy thing is going to turn into a rural vs. urban war. Why don't all of you city-dwellers be required to let big companies and governments put photovoltaic panels on ALL roofs in the city. That would create a huge amount of energy. Please do a little research.