Maine DEP fines Fox Islands Wind Limited Liability Corporation
Environmental agency fines Fox Islands Wind
Trenching done prior to permit
By Lynda Clancy | Aug 25, 2010 Herald Gazette
Maine's Board of Environmental Protection has approved a $3,864 consent agreement between the state and Fox Islands Wind LLC for trenching work done prior to approval in 2009 on Vinalhaven.
Fox Islands Wind has already paid the fine, according to the consent agreement.
The BEP met Aug. 19 for a regularly scheduled meeting in Augusta and unanimously approved the agreement. The BEP is a 10-member advisory board whose citizen members are appointed by the governor to provide independent decisions on environmental protection laws and Maine Department of Environmental Protection decisions. The BEP regularly considers consent agreements and policies.
According to the agreement prepared by the DEP, Fox Islands Wind received permits in June 2009 to build a small-scale wind energy development on leased land on Vinalhaven and to clear 77,126 square feet of vernal pool habitat there. In September 2009, Fox Islands Wind submitted permit modification applications to remove more soil and alter 3,604 more square feet of significant vernal pool habitat. Significant vernal pools are defined as critical habitat within 250 feet of the spring or fall high water mark of a vernal pool depression. They are considered essential environments for amphibians that breed there in the spring.
In November, DEP staff inspected the wind power site and determined that Fox Islands Wind had dug trenches and removed vegetation in the vernal pool areas in order to place grounding wires in two stormwater buffers. The work was done before the modification applications had been approved by the DEP. The DEP issued a notice of violation in November, and then in December, issued the permits for the additional alterations to the site.
The DEP penalized Fox Islands Wind for $3,864, which the company paid. The size of the penalty, according to the DEP, reflected the size of the violation, the knowledge of the violator, and that the violation could have been avoided.
Views: 73
Comment
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
© 2024 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine