CORNISH TOWNSHIP, Minn.—How long is too long?
About six years and counting, in the view of dozens of rural residents fighting a proposed 1,600-acre, 10-turbine wind farm in southern Minnesota.
“This has been going on, just hanging there, sitting there,” said Barb Wenninger, a Cornish Township resident and longtime opponent of the Sibley Wind Substation turbines. “We seem to have shown violations of their permit, and no action has been taken. That’s what it seems to us, like nothing is being resolved.”
A local legislator, Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, a Republican, wants the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to convene a hearing and rescind the longstanding wind station permit. In an Oct. 2 letter, Gruenhagen also asked regulators to investigate alleged “fraud and misrepresentations” in a dispute over whether pre-construction site work met state standards under the permit.
“They’re not really proceeding according to Minnesota statute,” said Gruenhagen in the letter co-signed by 53 concerned citizens. “We believe this is not consistent with Minnesota statute, as far as fulfilling the requirement for continual construction and, therefore, the permit should be revoked.”
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission first issued the permit in 2008, followed by a two-year extension Oct. 12, 2011. On Oct. 11, 2013, the developer informed state regulators construction had begun, according to state documents.
“During the last year, commission staff have been monitoring this situation as well as the information supplied by the permit holder as part of its required monthly reports on issues raised regarding the project and the holder’s response,” Dan Wolf, Minnesota Public Utilities Commission management and assistance executive secretary, said in an email.
Photographs show the grading and site preparation work done last year by Sibley Wind Substation to keep the 20-megawatt project’s state permit largely blends in with farm fields in the area.
“They pushed a little dirt, but when we turn dirt with our plows, we turn more than they pushed,” said Wenninger. “I have pictures of weeds growing and nothing has happened. The stakes they had in the ground are gone, they took away the little shed they had there at one time. To us it seems like they’re going backwards.”
Indiana-based Wesco Wind maintains it’s all systems go.
Documents show the developer worked on a 100-foot by 200-foot gravel lot and installed a culvert pipe and driveway for access. New paperwork filed online with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission indicates construction will pick up again in May 2015.
“The construction for the project was started on a timely basis as required by the MPUC permit in October of 2013. It continued to early December, until the weather became an issue and construction was delayed,” state company documents.