BEP Denies Appeal of DEP Permit for Wind Power Project

The Maine Board of Environmental Protection has rejected an appeal by the Friends of Spruce Mountain of the permit for a 10-turbine wind power project in Oxford County.  The Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit to Massachusetts-based Patriot Renewables for a 20-megawatt wind power project along the Spruce Mountain ridgeline in Woodstock, Maine last October.  The Friends of Spruce Mountain, a local citizens’ group, opposed the project, raising concerns about low-frequency noise and the project’s proximity to homes, and subsequently appealed the DEP’s permit.  The BEP voted down the appeal 5-1.  

Verrill Dana attorney Gordon Smith represented Patriot Renewables in the BEP appeal.  Smith said that a conservative scientific model was used to predict noise levels and that the project will comply with the DEP’s most stringent noise limits.  Moreover, the DEP order included a requirement that Patriot Renewables collect noise data at permanently-established sites and operate a toll-free complaint hot line so that residents can report loud turbine noise.  If the DEP finds that the project is exceeding noise limits, Patriot must immediately reduce the noise levels of the turbines.

Quincy-based Patriot Renewables has proposed four wind projects in western Maine, including a 12-turbine wind farm on Saddleback Mountain in Carthage, which Franklin County commissioners voted earlier this week to support.