New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘They want to decimate the entire mountainside’
Hundreds sign petition to stop solar project
HAMDEN — Kim Talmadge is trying to save 15 acres of forest across the street from her home from being cut down.
It’s there, in the northern corner of Hamden, that a renewable energy company is looking to build a solar panel field. But Talmadge and many other residents are fighting the project.
“They pretty much want to decimate the entire mountainside,” Talmadge said. “The kicker is that the power isn’t even for Hamden.”
The energy generated from the solar field would be sold to the Connecticut
State Colleges and Universities System and used for power at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, according to plans filed with the Connecticut Siting Council.
The panels are expected to generate more than 3,000 megawatt hours in the first year, enough to power nearly 260 homes.
Verticle Bridge LLC owns a 33-acre property on which a communications tower already sits. The energy company plans to lease 15 acres in that area for the solar panels.
The company also considered an area in Stonington, two sites in Plainfield and two other sites in Hamden, but said those sites were unsuitable due to land restrictions, impact on environmental resources and/or unwillingness of property owners.
Talmadge and her husband run KayCee Farm, where they maintain animals and do sugaring; they have lived there for about 10 years. She said those opposing the solar field aren’t against developing solar energy — she’s interested in putting solar panels on her house — but rather the clear-cutting of such a large woodland.
More than 800 people have signed a petition Talmadge created in an effort to stop the project that would sit at 360 Gaylord Mountain Road.
“There are so many people riled up about this,” Talmadge said.”They’re also rushing this project so fast.”
Distributed Solar Development, a renewable energy venture of GE, was the original company proposing the project, which was then filed with the Siting Council under Gaylord Mountain Solar Project 2019 LLC.
Requests for comment have been made to the company’s project manager and attorney.
The Siting Council has sole jurisdiction over the project because it involves an energy utility’s project, so Hamden’s local zoning and wetlands regulations are bypassed.
Nevertheless, Hamden’s
Planning and Zoning Commission and Inland and Wetlands Commission have written to oppose the project.
Talmadge said in part what would make the proposed project so devastating is how trees in the area already have been decimated by tornadoes in the past two years.
“This area has been hurt and it needs time to regrow,” she said.
Since then, Talmadge said she and her neighbors have experienced an enormous amount of flooding with each rain and worry that, with a loss of more trees, flooding in the area will only get worse.
“By taking all those trees out, they’re taking out the topography that takes care of the rain water,” she said. The PZC voiced the same concern as the site is steeply sloped.
Residents also are worried about wildlife in the area that they’ve observed — box turtles, deer, wild turkey — inhabiting the woods.
The project also is within the public water supply watershed of Lake Whitney Reservoir, an active source of public drinking water for the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, which the company didn’t mention in its environmental assessment, according to the Department of Public Health.
DPH’s assessment notes the “potential impact of the loss of forested land and disturbance of wetlands on source quality and quantity should be assessed.”
The proposed site is near several wetlands, with some areas of the site directly abutting or intruding into a wetland, according to the Inland and Wetlands Commission.
The energy company, however, said the project “will not have an undue adverse effect on the existing environment and ecology” based on its assessment.
The company also said the project will help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The town and residents, however, are insisting the Siting Council take a look for itself.
The Siting Council recently approved Mayor Curt B. Leng’s request to extend the public comment period on the project, to hold a public hearing and perform a site visit. The Siting Council plans to schedule the hearing at its next meeting Sept. 24.
“We’re not against solar, but when you’re taking things out, I think it’s detrimental,” Talmadge said. “There are so many other possibilities that they’re not willing to entertain. The more people that know about it, I think they would be upset.”
Until the public hearing and site visit, Talmadge said she’s going to continue to rally support and post more information in her neighborhood, but feels somewhat helpless to do anything to stop the project.