A solar developer may be fined about $180,000 for causing erosion and doing unpermitted work at a 19.32-acre Washington County facility.
The Maine Board of Environmental Protection will consider a $180,159 consent agreement with Marshfield Solar LLC and a site contractor at its June 5 meeting. In a memo ahead of the meeting, department staff recommended the board accept the agreement and said the violations have since been corrected.
Another developer was recently fined nearly $236,000 for polluting the Kennebec River while constructing a 5-megawatt array in Embden, Maine Public reported this week.
The project in the town of Marshfield received permits from the state in 2022, according to the memo. Marshfield Solar LLC was loaned $4.385 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program in 2023 to finance a ground-mounted solar project in Marshfield that was expected to produce more than 3 million kilowatt hours of energy in its first year of production.
The company SolAmerica Energy Services LLC was hired as a major contractor for the Marshfield project that may be fined.
At multiple inspections over the next two years, the department and a third party inspector said they found multiple violations. The entire site had been “left unstable” throughout the winter, causing soil erosion, and existing erosion and stormwater controls weren’t installed or maintained correctly as proposed in the project permits.
Sediment was carried onto neighboring properties and into protected wetlands and streams both on- and off-site, according to the memo. On the site, 26,209 square feet of wetland were “permanently altered” beyond what was permitted. An unpermitted utility crossing was built over a protected natural resource, and a permitted stream crossing didn’t meet department standards.
The proposed administrative consent agreement between the state and both LLCs includes a civil penalty of $180,159. The department is satisfied with the corrections the developer made, according to the memo.
“We take environmental protection seriously and have incorporated lessons learned into our processes going forward,” SolAmerica Energy Service’s CEO Tully Blalock said Thursday, adding that environmental stewardship is a core value for the company and one of the reasons it builds solar projects.
Marshfield Solar LLC could not be reached for comment.