From the Brookings Register
January 21, 2010
By Ryan Woodard
Brookings County Planning and Zoning Director Bob Hill updated county commissioners Tuesday on a multimillion-dollar Brookings County wind project. Hill told the commission that construction began Oct. 5, 2009, on Buffalo Ridge II, which is expected to consist of at least 100 wind turbines across northeastern Brookings and southeastern Deuel counties.
Hill and Brookings County Highway Superintendent Larry Jensen met with a pair of Buffalo Ridge II officials last week and received an update on the project.
Hill said Buffalo Ridge II LLC., has received 40 building permits from Brookings County for wind towers/turbines, and crews have so far dug 40 large holes for towers and poured concrete for 40 bases. There are still 41 holes to be dug in Brookings County and 24 in Deuel County to prepare for additional towers, which will serve as the bases for the turbines.
Hill said the project is slated to include 105 towers at two megawatts apiece, although more could eventually be added.
Sitework now halted
He said eight of the 40 bases have been backfilled and are ready for towers to be brought in when work resumes later this year. Crews quit working for the winter in late December.
Hill said the crews can resume work as soon as the snow melts but won't be able to bring in the heavy towers until closer to summertime, as the roads are typically soft in the spring when the frost comes off.
Hill was pleased to report that a South Dakota business Winter Inc. (concrete) is being utilized for some of the work.
"One good thing that came out of our discussion, which I didn't know, is that they originally started with an out-ofstate contractor for cement, and now they found and in-state contractor," Hill said.
Another aspect of the project has included stripping nearly 60,000 linear feet of topsoil to create roads throughout the fields that are being utilized for the wind farm.
Hill said Buffalo Ridge II officials have been sending out monthly updates on the project and are willing to share a daily update to Jensen if he would like to see one.
'Good job' to date
"They did a good job, and they told us exactly what, when and where," he said. "And it sounds like the biggest thing that they want to get done before the construction season h o p e f u l l y by the first of April is to get a new met tower up so they can m e a s u re the winds, b e c a u s e everything's w i n d dependent in this part of the woods, obviously."
Met, or meteorological, towers are devices commonly used by wind entrepreneurs to measure wind potential.
Hill told commissioners that he was pleased with the communication he has had with Buffalo Ridge II officials.
Following Hill's report, Commission Chairman Dennis Falken told Hill of a letter the commission received from a concerned citizen in Minnesota. The citizen, who runs a crop spraying business in Fergus Falls, worries about the lack of regulation regarding meteorological towers.
The citizen had said in his letter that companies are not required to notify the Federal Aviation Administration or any other entities before erecting the structures. "I just wanted the board to know that," Falken said. "I think we should pass that on to the (Brookings County) Planning and Zoning (Board)."
Falken expressed his agreement with the citizen.
"It just doesn't make any sense to me they can put a 200-foot tower up and never tell anybody that it's there," he said.
Hill said he would look into the matter. He said the planning and zoning board is also looking at updating the county's ordinance in regard to wind energy.
Big Stone II impact?
Commissioner Don Larson had another wind question for Hill; he asked about the potential impact of the failed Big Stone II project.
"What impact on the future of wind energy development in South Dakota is there with the discontinuance of Big Stone II?" he asked.
Big Stone II was a proposed electrical power plant for northeastern South Dakota that was expected to assist with the transmission of wind energy, had it been built.
"They are still trying to get funding to get some of those transmission lines going," Hill told Larson. "Right now they're scrambling trying to figure out how they can fill that hole. Because there is a hole and it's going to affect people up north more than it's going to affect, obviously, us, because our towers are up and we've got the grid."
Contact Ryan Woodard at rwoodard@brookingsregister.com.
