By Stephen Smoot
Last month, Scott Somerville of Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County addressed the Pendleton County Commission on a recent development from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Somerville opened his comment during public discussion by praising the Pendleton County Commission, saying, “I really appreciate your service. I appreciate all that you do.”
He then shared that he recently learned of an FAA study to measure the possible issues caused by a farm of wind turbines on Jack Mountain, specifically if it would interfere with flights in and out of nearby airports in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“Nobody knows about that. They didn’t tell you about that,” Somerville explained to commissioners Carl Hevener, Roger Dahmer, and Jimmie Bennett. He added that since “the Legislature has taken power away from you” that he wasn’t “asking you to do anything in particular.”
Somerville referred to an act that would forbid county commissions in this example from passing ordinances that might hinder the development of turbines. A bill backed by Pendleton County’s delegates Elias Coop-Gonzalez and Bryan Ward, among others, to establish residential setbacks to restrict wind turbine development passed the West Virginia House of Delegates last year, but the State Senate refused to take it up.
That bill could reappear in the 2025 session with former State Senate President Craig Blair of Berkeley County not returning to office and Tucker County Senator Randy Smith assuming the leadership position in that chamber.
Changes in federal policies under the incoming administration of Donald Trump could also alter the economic realities of wind turbine development as well.
Somerville provided the commissioners copies of a public document issued on Oct. 17, 2024. The FAA stated that it was “conducting an aeronautical study concerning . . . Wind Turbine A18” proposed to be located in Cave. The ridge there rises to 3,658 feet above sea level with the turbine potentially extending 591 feet above ground level.
The document states that “the structure above exceeds obstruction standards” and that the FAA would “determine its effect upon the safe and efficient use of navigable airspace by aircraft and on the operation of air navigation facilities.”
In the document, the FAA invited the public to offer input, but established a fairly short window of opportunity that ended on Nov 17. When Somerville pointed this out in the commission meeting April Mallow, Pendleton County prosecutor, who was there on other business, suggested that concerned citizens continue to reach out to the FAA. “The comment period was short,” she advised, “but you can still write them.”
The results of the study also came fairly quickly with the FAA finding that the turbines would “have no effect” on incoming or outgoing flight operations or “air navigation and communications facilities.”
Liberty Gap Wind Force LLC attempted to get permission from the West Virginia Public Service Commission in 2005 to construct a farm of wind turbines on Jack Mountain. The PSC rejected the application in June 2007, “citing an inadequate application and the lack of proof on certain issues” after 17 months of the company trying to complete a satisfactory application.
The application, according to the PSC, did not take into account several factors. First, it rejected the five mile siting map provided by the company. The potential cultural and viewshed impacts were also not articulated to the satisfaction of the PSC.
Viewshed issues seemed to serve as the main concern in 2007. The PSC noted that while the highest ridges in West Virginia provided excellent platforms from which to harvest wind energy, “unfortunately, that tends to make those projects more visible.”
Liberty Gap Wind Force in 2007 provided six viewshed renderings but did not include “Entrenchments Overlook, U.S. 250, Shenandoah Mountain, High Knob Tower, the Confederate Prayer Service Site on U.S. 220 and the Shenandoah Mountain Overlook, U.S. 33.”
The potential effects of noise and adverse impacts on native endangered bat populations also swayed the commission.
The 2007 application envisioned a seven-mile-long development with up to 50 turbines proposed.
