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Wind measurer surprises Downe
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DOWNE TOWNSHIP - A 95-foot tower used to measure wind sits in an isolated part of this sprawling rural township, about a mile from the Delaware Bay and far from where most of its full-time residents live.
To notice the device - called an anemometer - one would have to drive toward the bayfront communities and keep an eye out for a 95-foot structure located off the road.
Delsea Energy, an Ocean County firm, raised the anemometer several months ago.
But in contrast with its now well-known proposal to build 106 wind turbines in the Delaware Bay, Delsea officials were much quieter about their idea to build windmills on tracts of land in the township.
Maybe too quiet.
Because now, some Downe Township officials are grumbling about not knowing that Delsea had raised the tower and was measuring data for an inland wind energy project.
Zoning Officer Tony Lamanteer and Deputy Mayor Lisa Garrison said they first learned of the anemometer's existence - and the potential wind energy project that could go with it - after The Press of Atlantic City reported on the tower last week.
"I said, 'Where'd this come from?'" Lamanteer said.
Delsea's structure may be the first of its kind in New Jersey, which may add to the confusion. The anemometer is powered by solar panels, according to John Renz, vice president of business development for Delsea, and is not tied into the local electrical grid. It measures wind currents and pressure and will eventually provide the data to tell Delsea whether the area is worth raising wind turbines on to produce energy.
Delsea has wind power leases with several local land owners for several hundred acres.
Delsea had dealt with Lamanteer's predecessor, Bob Campbell, whom township leaders dismissed earlier this year.
Campbell said he determined in a letter to Delsea that, in part because Delsea's tower was only going to remain up for 12 months, it did not require a township permit, which allowed Delsea to raise the tower.
That decision was similar to one made by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which found it had no jurisdiction over the tower because it was not built on wetlands.
Still, Lamanteer said he would have required Delsea to obtain approval from the township's land use board, but he said it is too late for that now.
Garrison cited township code not allowing temporary structures to stand longer than six months, while Lamanteer said he does not typically approve temporary structures.
Lamanteer said he has no plans to order Delsea to take down the tower, and Garrison, who returned a telephone call placed to Mayor Rene Blizzard, said officials are not against the project. Blizzard could not be reached for comment directly last week, having referred the inquiry to Garrison.
"It's not something that's out of the question," Garrison said. "We do support alternative energy."
If anything, the incident shows a lack of communication among some township officials, who have been polarized in political disputes of the kind that saw Campbell ousted from his job, only to win a Township Committee seat several months later.
Township Committeeman Chet Riland, a friend of Campbell, said he had heard of the project "through the grapevine," but nothing more. Like Campbell, who is replacing Riland on the committee, Riland is part of a group that has feuded with Blizzard and her supporters, and they have not always communicated on township business.
The company has actively sought wind-energy leases as far away from Fortescue as Husted Landing Road, according to Campbell, but Renz has yet to detail more specific plans as to what an inland wind energy project could look like. Delsea has retained former DEP commissioner Brad Campbell as its legal counsel and also is pursuing the Delaware Bay project and another wind production project in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.
The Delaware Bay wind energy project would, if approved, include 106 wind turbines spanning the Delaware Bay as far west as the Delaware River and Bay shipping channel, which sits at the Delaware border.
Delsea's plan has drawn some support from local public officials but also criticism from environmental groups and commercial fishing interests. DEP officials have said they do not want to see large-scale wind-power development of this sort in the bay due to concerns about effects on commercial fishing and migratory birds.
In Pennsylvania, Delsea has proposed raising wind turbines in the Poconos region on land owned by an authority of the city of Bethlehem, Pa. The firm is about a year and a half old and has never completed a wind energy project.
Contact Daniel Walsh:
856-649-2074
Posted in CUMBERLAND on Friday, November 27, 2009 2:35 am
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