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FOUNTAIN WIND NEGATIVE IMPACTS
Wildfires: Increases risk, new transmission lines, turbines attract lightning, located in highest rated fire hazard zones by both Cal Fire and CPUC. Shallow soil and soil type makes lightning grounding systems more difficult and problematic.
Economic & Social Impacts: Drastically reduces property values for all properties that enjoyed views of Shasta County’s eastern range. Local properties near turbines may be worthless, local community likely to wither as people move or abandon properties and fewer people move in. Any positive tax revenue from Turbines may be offset by reduced property taxes due to loss in assessed value.
Tourism: No longer a place to enjoy Nature. Tourists will be driving through an Industrial Wind Farm to visit Intermountain Communities, beautiful Burney Falls, and Fall River areas.
Tribal Cultural Resources: Destroys sacred cultural resources and history, Pit River Nation is opposed, other neighboring tribes opposed.
Hydrology and water quality: Miles of new roads, blasting, Soil compaction, Hundreds of tons of concrete and other materials, transformer oils, herbicides usage. Likely to affect local springs and waterways.
Biological Resources (wildlife): Threatens local Bald eagles, spotted owls, raptors, migratory birds (located in “Globally Significant Avian Area”). Likely to affect various mammals due to ability to hear and use infrasound and other noise affects shadow flicker, etc.
Public Health: Shadow Flicker, Noise, Infrasound, Increased stress. Shadow flicker already observed across Hwy 299 from Hatchet Ridge Wind Turbines.
Aesthetics: Visual pollution, obtrusive lighting (day and night) and industrialization of Forest Lands, able to be seen from neighboring counties. Only the beginning “Coming to a neighborhood near you”
Not as Green as Advertised: Only produces 20-25% of advertised capacity, clears 2250 acres of carbon sequestering forest, requires fossil fuel backup when winds not blowing, curtails existing green hydropower when winds blowing implies 0% green benefit.
Energy: Round Mountain substation already has voltage stability issues, already producing more power than we need (CA ISO paid Arizona to take power in 2018), PG&E requested permission to Curtail Hatchet Ridge power during negative pricing events (i.e. too much power on grid). PG&E has enough Renewable Energy to meet requirements to 2030 according to PG&E 2018 letter to CPUC.
The construction of industrial wind farms cannot be justified in the rural and wild places that developers usually target!