Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News
Cumberland — DEER PARK — Construction on Western Maryland’s first wind farm could resume within days, despite some residents’ protests, pending a green light from the Garrett Soil Conservation District and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Twenty-eight wind turbines, measuring about 415 feet tall, are slated to go up along Garrett County’s Backbone Mountain, in an area south of Deer Park near Eagle Rock.
Work began March 16 on the project, owned by Baltimore-based Constellation Energy. Workers clearcut several acres of timber from the mountainside before MDE halted construction after one week, pointing to major issues related to water runoff, erosion and sediment.
MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said construction was halted because of “sediment-laden water” flowing from the site, which the project’s erosion and sediment controls could not adequately manage. She said the developer cannot proceed until an engineer revises the plans and they are approved by the Garrett Soil Conservation Office.
“The volume of the water on the site appears to be more than the controls they have in their current plan,” she said. “That’s why it’s really important to have an engineer work up a new plan, because sediment from stormwater runoff is a serious threat to water quality.”
Soltzfus said a second major problem related to an erosion and sediment control fence, called a “super silt fence,” that was not installed at the required depth of at least 8 inches below the ground’s surface.
Constellation is already working to correct the issues and move forward with construction. On Monday the developer’s revised plans reached the Garrett Soil Conservation District office. District Manager Shaun Sanders said his office hadn’t yet completed its formal review of the revised plans, but after preliminary review they looked “about 90 percent adequate.”
Sanders said some parts of the revised plan related to sediment control were returned to the developer for further changes, but he expects that Constellation will comply with the additional requests and that his office will complete its review of the plans within one or two days after the final version is submitted. Constellation has until April 5 to submit the final plan revisions.
Constellation spokesman Larry McDonnell said the developer has worked out a solution to the issues with input from all relevant agencies, including MDE, the Garrett Soil Conservation District and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“The issues appear to be resolved, if not today then hopefully by tomorrow,” McDonnell said.
McDonnell said he had few specifics on the plan revisions but said the silt fence will now be anchored by up to 12 inches of stone.
Soltzfus said MDE “may or may not” enforce penalties on Constellation for operating out of compliance with state regulations.
MDE halted the construction after receiving complaints from neighboring residents that Constellation’s erosion and sediment controls did not comply with state environmental law.
Eric Robison, who lives adjacent to the project and is the owner of a construction company, said he examined the site and the project permits and believed that the controls “weren’t even remotely correct.”
Robison and other nearby property owners also object to what they say was a complete lack of review of the project’s impact on environmentally sensitive areas.
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