Wind developer makes last effort in Washington

Desert Claim Wind Power, a subsidiary of California-based enXco, has asked Washington's siting council to approve a 180-MW wind farm near Ellensburg even though the project application was rejected by local officials and an appeals court.

Washington law allows developers of alternative energy projects to file with local authorities, or the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or both. The authority of the six-member siting council supersedes local zoning authority, but to date EFSEC has not overridden a local ruling.

The chairman of the council is appointed by the governor, and five other members represent key state agencies. Sitting in with the council as a voting member will be an official from the county where a project would be built. In this case, it is Kittitas County, said Allen Fiksdal, council manager. Washington Governor Christine Gregoire has supported alternative energy.

Kittitas County rejected the permit application in 2005. The county said the wind farm that would be located on 4,783 acres of private and state-owned rural land was located too close to population areas.

enXco asked the Kittitas County Superior Court to overturn the Kittitas County ruling But the court in October upheld the county. Desert Claim last week then filed an application with the siting council.

The developer in its filing with EFSEC noted it had reconfigured the project to make it more acceptable to local residents, said David Steeb, project director. The wind farm now consists of one single contiguous area instead of four separate parcels, and total acreage was reduced by 454 acres, or 9%.

Only 32 residences are within 3,000 feet of a turbine, and of those, 25 are more than 1,500 feet away. The turbine sound level will be limited to 50 decibels or less, the state's night-time requirement for residential areas, Desert Claim said. The number of turbines was reduced from 120 to 90.

"The state's population is projected to increase by more than 2 million people in the next 25 years. It's up to Desert Claim and other new projects to meet those power needs if we're going to sustain the state's economic growth and well-being," said Steeb.

The project would be sited in a key transmission corridor for lines owned by the Bonneville Power Administration and Puget Sound Energy.

The siting council also is embroiled in permitting another wind farm that officials in Kittitas County said did not meet local zoning codes. Sagebrush Power Partners in 2003 asked the council to approve the 181-MW Kittitas Valley Wind Farm in Kittitas County.

The council told Sagebrush to go back to the county to determine whether the project met the county's land use consistency laws. The county ruled that the project did not meet local laws and rejected the project. The developer then asked EFSEC to pre-empt the county. The council has been holding hearings on that project and expects to rule by the end of the year.