Sewage Plant Turbine
The town of Crisfield will be getting $3.6 million from the state of Maryland to build a 750-kilowatt wind turbine at its sewage treatment plant.
The money from the Water Quality State Revolving Loan fund was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works.
There will be $453-thousand from a green loan and $3.1 million in green grant money for loan forgiveness.
City Inspector Noah Bradshaw told the Salisbury Daily Times, “ This will get it started.”
In January, the City Council contracted with Bearing construction company to build the wind turbine starting this spring.
It will be located at the end of Dixon Street near the sewage plant.
Bald Eagles Endangered
Federal officials say that Pioneer Green Energy that has drawn up lease contract with around 200 landowners to construct up to 50 wind turbines must figure out a way to ensure bald eagles don’t get caught in the blades.
Sarah Nystrom with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Northeast region told the Salisbury Daily Times it’s estimated that approximately 20 of the birds could be killed each year from the project.
The plans by Pioneer would spread the turbines over 85-hundred acres of farmland near Westover.
A wind-power lobbying group says the agency's estimate is flawed because it's based on data about gold eagles.
The agency says it used golden eagle data, because there hav been few run-ins between bald eagles and wind turbines. That's because most U. S. wind farms are in the west, where golden eagles predominate.
Progress was slowed in 2011 when officials with at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River said that the 500-foot structures could hamper their radar equipment.
But Fish and Wildlife can withhold a permit bringing the project to a screeching halt while the Defense Department technically has not formal say in the decision.
Environmental and wind-industry experts say that a decision on the bald eagle could set a precedent for wind energy projects along the Eastern Seaboard.
