BINGHAM, Maine — The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will host a public meeting Wednesday on Blue Sky West LLC and Blue Sky West II LLC’s pending application to construct a grid scale wind power generation facility.
The main purpose of the meeting is to gather public feedback about the department’s draft staff analysis for the proposed $400 million Bingham Wind Project.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Quimby School, Main Street, Bingham. Several DEP representatives will attend, including Commissioner Patricia Aho, project manager Daniel Courtemanch and other department staff involved with the agency’s review of the project’s Site Law and Natural Resources Protection Act permit applications.
This is the second public meeting on the project. A policy established by Commissioner Aho in 2011 requires two public meetings be held on all proposed grid scale wind power projects in Maine.
Developed to ensure adequate opportunity for public comment and a transparent, inclusive review of often controversial wind power projects, the new process also requires the presence of the DEP’s commissioner or deputy commissioner at that second meeting to hear the public’s comments on the department’s draft analysis. The Bingham proposal’s analysis is available at www.maine.gov/dep/land/sitelaw/selected-developments.
The DEP will take the comments voiced at the second public meeting into consideration as its review moves forward before a final decision is issued this spring.
Blue Sky West LLC and Blue Sky West II LLC are proposing to develop a 62-turbine, up to 206-megawatt wind power generation facility in Bingham, Mayfield Township and Kingsbury Plantation. The project will include up to five temporary meteorological towers, up to five permanent meteorological towers, a 34.5 kV electrical collector system, an electrical substation and an Operations and Maintenance building. There also will be a 17-mile 115kv transmission line running from Kingsbury Plantation to a CMP substation in Parkman. The turbine towers will have a maximum height of approximately 492 feet.
For more information about the proposed project and the DEP’s review of it, please contact DEP project manager Daniel Courtemanch at (207) 446-1806, via email at daniel.courtemanch@maine.gov, or go to www.maine.gov/dep/land/ and click “selected site law developments” to view the draft analysis and application.