Too many turbines, too close, too big, impacts too many people
The Horse Heaven Hills Project is huge and will negatively impact and change the environment and lives of people in Tri-Cities for decades to come.
The Environmental Impact Statement Process
We do not believe this project should move forward in its current condition. The SEPA process is flawed and the DEIS is filled with errors, omissions, and misrepresentations regarding the Project’s purpose and need, premise, financial feasibility and viability, proposed action, lack of feasible reasonable alternatives, lack of mitigation measures, and the significance of environmental and community impacts that cannot be avoided.
Even in spite of these flaws and issues, the DEIS clearly demonstrates that the Project will bring about more harm than good. It is imperative that EFSEC search, develop, analyze and present alternative solutions that actually meet the need for power generation and do not impose such damage on the environment and the communities of Benton City, Richland, Kennewick, and Finley, as well as the rest of Benton County and the Tri-Cities and beyond.
A five-page summary of the list of flaws, omissions, and misrepresentations all describing the problems with the project can be found and downloaded here.
The 115-page report and comments submitted to EFSEC by TCC can be downloaded here.
The Final EIS has yet to be published. There is no public comment period on the FEIS. EFSEC has yet to explain how the project will comply with WAC requirements and mitigate the severity of the impacts.
The Adjudication
The adjudication started in June and has yet to be officially declared to be over. Closing briefs are going to be submitted sometime in October. The official hearings, which were virtual and not in person, were held over a two-week period in in August. The Yakima Nation covered wildlife and cultural resources. Benton County covered land use and compliance with conditional use regulations and requirements. Tri-Cities CARES covered visual impacts, property values, tourism, farming, recreation, and dust.
As the only public organization intervenor in the adjudication, TCC expert witnesses brought in testimony and evidence that documented the severity and magnitude of the problems with the project. You can read the evidence and testimony that was submitted on the following topics here:
Visual Impacts on Too Many People, the value of scenery and ways to mitigate visual impacts.
Negative Impacts on Real Estate, Property Values, and Tourism.
Limitations of Aerial Firefighting Capabilities near farms and residential communities
Airspace restrictions needed to maintain aerial firefighting capability.
Here is the project update presentation TCC gave to the Columbia Center Rotary on September 21, 2023.
Summary
The Horse Heaven Hills Project isn’t green at all. The project need for the project is unproven and will force dependence on giant, mechanical monsters which have very little impact on climate change at all.
This project has nothing to do with protecting the earth from the impacts of climate change and power. Instead, it is dedicated to corporate profits at the expense of the public and the impact on the local environment. Spending $1.7 billion dollars on this project, much of it is taxpayer money, is irresponsible, unnecessary, unacceptably damaging and wasteful.
References
Audubon Society Comments on the DEIS
Yakama Nation Motion to Intervene
Benton County Comments on the DEIS
Benton County Public Works Comments on the DEIS
Expert Witness Testimony on Property Value Impacts
Expert Witness Testimony of Aerial Firefighting Impacts
Expert Witness Testimony on Aerial Firefighting Airspace Restriction Requirements
TCC Testimony on Fugitive Dust
Articles
Yakamas worry huge proposed Tri-Cities wind farm will harm antelope and the land