In a 50-page document released late Monday, the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting has recommended the approval of the Rock District Solar project in Carlisle and Seward.
“…no substantive and significant issues requiring adjudication have been demonstrated…” ORES concludes on page 50.
“Accordingly, Staff recommends issuance of a final Siting Permit…”
The ruling came within hours of Rock District Solar’s 38-page response to concerns raised at an October 9 hearing in front of ORES Office of Hearings Administrative Law Judge Dawn MacKillop-Soller, both posted on the ORES website late Monday.
“Angry, but not surprised,” is how Carlisle Supervisor John Leavitt described his reaction. “I thought some of the issues we raised would warrant some further adjudication. I thought maybe the karst…
“This is just so lopsided. But honestly? It’s kind of what I expected.”
ORES does recommend the addition of a “final geotechnical engineering report” to look at karst.
But even that, Mr. Leavitt said, is essentially nothing; ORES is only advising that any potential impacts in the karst “are avoided, minimized, and mitigated to the maximum extent practicable.”
ORES cites the towns’ failure to raise a “substantive and significant issue” when it comes to Rock District Solar’s request for waivers over setback, wildlife gaps in fencing, and karst, and faults them for failing to provide expert testimony for things like glare, screening, roads, and the project’s impact on farmland--not true, Mr. Leavitt said.
“The towns’ claims fail. Again, they provide no offer of proof,” ORES wrote regarding the farmland argument.
The project, ORES insists, “was designed to “minimize or mitigate potential significant adverse impacts to wetlands, streams, agricultural resources, cultural resources, and other environmental and ecological resources”--despite the towns’ claims otherwise.
Most galling to Mr. Leavitt is page 11: Host Community Benefits.
Before Rock District Solar pulled the project from local review and took it to ORES, they were offering upwards of $250,000 in payments to Carlisle and Seward.
Now?
“They’re not going to give the towns anything.”
Listed as Host Community Benefits are 50 quarterly fulltime equivalent construction jobs over seven quarters—none of them likely to be local—one FTE job when the project’s up and running, “a PILOT agreement and/or increased tax revenues”—with no figures listed, “an estimated $84,000 in additional income for contracted shepherds, and payments to support fire and EMS training equipment funds, and the maintenance of town facilities and parks”—again with no figures listed.
Mr. Leavitt said he and Seward Supervisor Earlin Rosa will be meeting with Dylan Harris in the next few days to figure out their next—if any--step and whether there’s any process for appeal.
Mr. Harris said Judge MacKillop-Soller has 60 days to issue a final decision on the application.