Lake windmill project spurs debate among lawmakers

LOCKPORT — Three months ago, the Niagara County Legislature unanimously demanded fair consideration from the New York Power Authority for a Great Lakes wind power project.

The action was triggered after a Power Authority trustee stated that he looked forward to seeing windmills in Lake Erie. His failure to mention Lake Ontario was explained as an oversight.

But now that the Power Authority has received five proposals from developers willing to build the 166 windmills off the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario or both, some county lawmakers from lakeshore districts are saying, not so fast.

“I support the resolution we set up supporting the project, but we need to pay attention to the environmentals,” said Legislator John Syracuse, R-Newfane. “We’ve got a sensitive resource there.”

“I think you’ll see strong, vocal opposition, not only from the recreational boaters but from the fishing interests as well,” said Legislator Clyde L. Burmaster, RRansomville.

Burmaster said he’s already received negative feedback about the possibility of the $1 billion project coming to Lake Ontario.

Among the critics, he said, were members of the Youngstown Yacht Club.

Burmaster said he’s also heard concerns from Robert Emerson, executive director of Old Fort Niagara. A set of windmills in the lake could spoil the historic vista at the fort.

Burmaster said it’s not just the notion of windmills in the lake that concerns him.

“Somehow you have to get that power inland from the shore to the grid,” he said. That means power line construction.

And there’s the question of the impact on Lake Ontario’s sport fishery. Burmaster worried that vibrations from windmills might scare fish away.

The Chautauqua County Legislature has passed a resolution opposing windmills in Lake Erie, and some members of the Erie County Legislature said last week that they wanted to follow suit.

Along eastern Lake Ontario, resolutions opposing the projects have been passed in Jefferson and Oswego counties.

Syracuse said he has his doubts that the Power Authority really would turn to Lake Ontario.

“We may be hard-pressed to get them anyway because of the depth of Lake Ontario,” he said. A deeper lake would mean higher construction costs to anchor the wind turbines on the lake bottom.

Town of Somerset Supervisor Richard J. Meyers, whose town is planning to take advantage of wind power for its own operations, wasn’t as negative toward the project as the county lawmakers.

“We would support [windmills] as long as we got enough information about what was going out there and the environmental and visual impact,” Meyers said. “To put any restriction on finding knowledge about them is premature.”

Somerset recently received a $150,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to pay for two wind turbines.

Meyers said they are to be installed in September on the grounds of the town’s wastewater treatment plant, and the electricity the turbines generate will power that plant.