Money from Dead Eagles

 This article will be published soon.........

                                                          Money from dead eagles

Altamont has been in the news a great deal lately as this wind resource area tries to garner public support for their new huge turbines being installed at Altamont. One of the major selling points for these turbines we are being fed by stories is that these turbines will reduce eagle mortality. Let's look at some hidden facts that say otherwise.

While Altamont, the media and Audubon may be reporting a substantial decline in eagle mortality, the fact is that eagle carcass counts and other body counts are way up at this  "green" industrial slaughterhouse. 

                                                                                                                                                                            The highest eagle mortality estimates to ever come out of Altamont, came from the 1998-2003 study. In this study only 56 eagle carcasses collected over a 5 year period.  This study then went on to report Golden Eagle mortality adjusted for scavenger removal and search detection, to be 116.5 per year. This estimate was given with less than a third the number of eagle carcasses that are now being collected each year.  

The Smallwood studies published in 2004 determined that the small old turbines at Altamont were killing thousands of eagles, hawks, owls and other birds each year. These studies produced 1189 bird carcasses and 10% of these carcasses were determined not to be wind farm related. In other words about 120 of the carcasses found by researchers were dismissed from the turbine mortality data.

In the later 2005-2010 study used by Audubon to assess the required reductions in raptor mortality for the Audubon settlement, 6133 carcasses were found (over 5 times more) during similar searches and more than 1500 (over 10 times more) carcasses were dismissed from the data (see table 2-2).  This total also includes 21 additional eagle carcasses that were picked up the WRRS and dismissed from calculations. These studies reported a total of 126 golden eagle carcasses or about 21 per year.

Despite rigged research and carcasses not being reported, the body count at Altamont has increased by 2-3 times when compared to the previous 1998-2003 study. These increased numbers can be seen in table 3-1.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
New eagle carcass numbers are higher
       

Recently the USFWS’ Office of Law Enforcement for California and Nevada stated in an article that the small turbines “owned and operated” by AWI in the Altamont had been associated with the death or injury of 67 golden eagles between 2004 and 2014.

In March 2015 another article about eagle deaths and repowering turbines at Altamont was published "Despite bird deaths, electric wind farm wins extension."  

The article told us all about these deadly these older turbines that needed to be replaced because they have killed 31 (approx. 6 per year) eagles over the last five years. But these articles like all mainstream media wind energy articles, conveniently left out important facts.

                                                                                                                                                                         In Oct. the USFWS gave me a total monthly breakdown of eagle carcasses that they had received from Altamont.  They reported receiving 33 and 37 eagle carcasses from Altamont in 2013 and 2014 respectively.  This number did not include injured eagles. What this means is that the rest of Altamont has been killing far more eagles with far less operational MW's. With the ongoing construction large sections of Altamont have been shut down. 

If the AWI had been killing or injuring an average of 6 - 6.7 eagles per year then the remainder of Altamont during this period was probably been killing and injuring an average of 30-35 eagles per year.When looking at these fatality numbers keep in mind that these are just body counts.  They do not take into consideration wounded eagles that are never found and wind personnel not reporting high priority turbine kills.                  

The 1998-203 Smallwood studies only picked up an average of 11 eagles per year and adjusted fatality estimates were put 116 per year. With these new eagle body counts would new Smallwood studies estimate that 250-300 golden eagles were being killed each year at Altamont?

                                                                                                                                                                            Altamont's new turbines                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The increase in carcass counts at Altamont is very understandable for many reasons. When calculated in cubic meters, each of the new massive turbines being installed at Altamont has an eagle killing rotor sweep over 50 times greater than the turbines being replaced.  These turbines are not being replaced at a ratio of anywhere near 50 to one. The replacement rate is more like 15 or 20 to 1.                                                     

Reducing the numbers of small turbines at Altamont does not help eagles when the cubic feet of deadly rotor sweep in their habitat at Altamont is being greatly increased.                                                                                                                                                           

A close look at Google earth imagery will illustrate this new higher concentration of rotor sweep being installed on the ridgelines. Pay attention to the number new footings for these huge turbines. In the Google earth image from 2015 image (see below) there are 16 turbine footings. In the 2007 image of Altamont about 253 of the small 100 kW turbines can be seen. The ratio on these behemoth new turbines is 15.8 to one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Then along with these new huge turbines reaching up hundreds of feet,  comes the deadly illusion created from the massive blades rotating more slowly that actually have much faster tip speeds. These massive turbines have blade tip speeds moving 33 percent faster than the old deadly 100 kW turbines. These slower rotations fool the eagles, other species and even people more easily.

The new eagle killing turbines start spinning in much lower speeds.  What this means is that each day of each month of each year, they have a greater opportunity to smash an eagle out of the sky.                                                                                                                                                         

The big lie                                                                                                                               There is no way to make this style of wind turbine safe unless they are put in a dumpster. Building these turbines bigger, faster, with far more rotor sweep reaching higher into the air, does not make them safer. Even suggesting that they can be made safe is very deceptive. While this industry may be claiming to be very concerned and working to reduce the slaughter to protected species like eagles, it is not happening.

                                                                                                                                                                           If we had house fans without protective cages, after several decades there would be millions of people walking around this country without fingers and nasty scars on their bodies. But these turbines are not like an uncaged house fan, they are a million times more dangerous because of their size and their blade tip speeds that far exceed any house fan. These new big turbines do not cut off fingers, they cut eagles in half or send body parts flying into several different directions as their bodies explode upon impact.

                                                                                                                                                                            Paying Audubon $10500 per MW for repowered turbines and up to 5 million for this environmental disaster also does not reduce eagle mortality. The truth is in the carcass counts and mortality numbers have escalated at Altamont.

                                                                                                                                                                            Speaking of the new Altamont, no one should ever expect Audubon to ever make any of this right because along with this money and the settlement agreement to reduce raptor mortality by 50%, take a look at what Audubon signed away...........                                                                                                                                                                      

"8. Covenants Not to Sue

The AG, Audubon and CARE hereby release any and all existing and future claims against NextEra Wind (including any new entities formed for repowering or other purposes stated herein) and the NextEra Settlers, with respect to any and all avian and bat mortality at the APWRA for existing and repowered turbines. If, for any reason, this Agreement or any portion there of is terminated or otherwise deemed invalid, the release of existing and future claims by the AG, Audubon and CARE will continue to apply to any phase of repowering for which Approvals have been obtained."

                                                                                                                                               Audubon can't help these eagles. What reasonable person or organization claiming to be working in the best interests of eagles being annihilated this industry, would ever sign away the future and voluntarily make this group irrelevant? Audubon did and that is why nothing this group has to say concerning Altamont should ever be trusted.

It is also why new legal challenges need to be made from the outside that would expose the wind industry's rigged and unscientific research.  Research manipulated to hide wind industry impacts that will never help these poor eagles. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             A few weeks ago I had a lengthy meeting with a wind industry employee disgusted over the numbers of eagles being killed.  I was told about a culture of not reporting high priority carcasses.  As I looked over dozens of images of chopped up eagles.  This employee also told that if too many carcasses are found/reported you could expect to be laid off or fired.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             As I mentioned the golden eagle body count is way up at Altamont, the public and a Grand Jury need to ask the industry with their fake experts to explain all of this.