The Shadow
Circuit Court Judge Joel Branscom ruled that the modified permit issued to Apex Clean Energy to build the Rocky Forge Wind Project in Botetourt County must be sent back to the state agency for review.
Rocky Forge Wind, LLC had received approval for the PBR Modification on June 24, 2020, from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Originally, Apex Clean Energy based in Charlottesville received a permit from DEQ on March 2, 2017, for the Small Renewable Energy Project (Wind) Permit by Rule (PBR).
Delay after delay and modification after modification have led to the further delay that Judge Branscom’s decision will add to Apex Clean Energy’s project that will, if given the greenlight by the state agency, permit the company to erect 13 wind turbines, 612’ in height, on North Mountain, 4.2 miles northeast of Eagle Rock.
His decision rendered on Fri., March 11, sends the modified permit for the Rocky Forge Wind Project back to the state agency to reevaluate what was originally planned for 25 wind turbines less than 600’ in height.
The original permit allowed Apex Clean Energy to install the wind turbines on top of North Mountain which runs approximately 17 miles northeast to southeast, separating Botetourt County from Rockbridge County and Alleghany County from Rockbridge County.
The original permit for 336 acres of development was modified to 200 acres for the facilities plus 18 acres for the disturbance corridor necessary to provide access to the “wind farm” that has been touted by the Roanoke chapter of the Sierra Club as Virginia’s first onshore “wind farm.”
The modification permit in question allows Apex Clean Energy to erect fewer wind turbines while increasing their height, and the current proposed project is for the development of 50 acres, 40 percent less development than the previous plan.
Virginians for Responsible Energy, a group of 40 residents from Botetourt, Rockbridge and Alleghany counties, has opposed the project from its infancy and filed suit to stop it, and the nonprofit group has managed to further delay the project that it hopes prevent.
Dominion Energy had agreed to purchase the electricity that Apex Clean Energy projected that the Rocky Forge Wind Project would create, but during the nearly six years of delays, Dominion Energy has bowed out of the picture, leaving Apex Clean Energy searching for a new purchaser.
Apex Clean Energy projects that the project once completed will generate enough electricity to light 20,000 homes, but many of the residents in the Eagle Rock area of Botetourt County worry that the environmental damage the project would perpetrate and perpetuate once built would far outweigh any benefits derived.
Mill Creek, near the southern boundary of North Mountain, runs through Eagle Rock where it empties into the James River. The watershed for Mill Creek and smaller creeks that provide a habitat for native trout could be damaged by the “wind farm” according to activists against Apex Clean Energy’s project.
They contend that the access road and resulting facilities that Apex Clean Energy plans to erect could very well cause silt from the project’s runoff to negatively impact those streams.
Also, members of Virginians for Responsible Energy cite facts that show wind turbines slaughter thousands of birds and bats each year, and they point to the fact that the Golden Eagles, an endangered species, migrate south over North Mountain.
Proponents for Apex Clean Energy had hoped that Judge Branscom would rule that the homeowners in opposition to Rocky Forge Wind Project have no standing because of the distance they live away from where the project has been approved for construction.
Instead, Judge Branscom found fault in the way the state had dealt with the modified permit, a partial victory for the homeowners and Virginians for Responsible Energy and yet another delay for Apex Clean Energy.
