The Scotts Bluff County Planning Commission has given a positive recommendation to a conditional use permit for a utility-scale Situla Energy solar project planned for the southwestern part of the county.
Following a public comment period which ran about 90 minutes, the commission voted 7 to 1 in favor of the permit application, which included a number of changes compared to the application that originally went before the panel last December.
Resident Jennifer Lerwick, a member of the Kiowa-Lyman Fire Department, worried that the developers have been talking to the wrong fire officials about any emergency response that might be needed in the future. “We had a house fire just west of there a couple of years ago, (and) we used Hawk Springs and LaGrange (Fire departments) to help with that. so that’s why I feel like Wyoming crews just absolutely have to be a part of this plan,” said Lerwick, “and as far as crews that have this equipment (to fight a fire at the facility), I don’t know.”
When told by project representatives they had been in preliminary contact with the Scottsbluff and Gering Fire Departments, Lerwick told them her department would call on other fire districts, such as Morrill, Mitchell and Banner County, if mutual aid was needed. Attorney Ryan Long later testified that the details of the emergency response plan were expected to be hammered out later in the process, prior to the start of construction.
Cece Debus, who lives nearby, said the application raised a lot of red flags for her, and she expressed concerns about the potential financial impact.
“Being a landowner in proximity to it, I worry about the property value of my land. Sure, it’s not going to change for the landowners themselves, but what about me? What about my family? What about our health, our well-being? You know, I don’t really think that that’s being considered,” Debus said.
One change to the terms of the application was the addition of a review of a decommissioning bond every five years to ensure it was financially adequate to cover such costs, which Banner County Commissioner Don Lease said may not be an effective way to protect taxpayers.
“If you want to know how bonds work, talk to the Oil and Gas Commission in Nebraska. They bonded every oil well, as far as I know, that’s ever been drilled in the state. They had the Legislature appropriate money because it was totally insufficient, 20 years later, 30 years later, 40 years later. I don’t know how you can’t use an escrow account, that seems like the logical way and you can adjust for inflation automatically without even talking to them (Situla) again,” Lease said.
Testifying neither for nor against the project, area bank executive and resident Hod Kosman admonished the commission to be as forward-thinking as possible when it came to hammering out the terms that allow the project to move forward. “I want to look to the future as far as I can. Because people 30 years from now are going to judge what you did today. They’re going to say, why didn’t what is think about this. Why did they do that? Didn’t they understand this? And are they going to say, wow, this is the greatest feeling ever? Happy. You’re one of the best.
Of particular concern for Kosman was whether a surety bond alone was the appropriate mechanism to fund decommissioning costs, even if the permit called for periodic valuation adjustment, and that the county be a named insured with regard to liability and coverage for all other aspects of the operation.
The document now goes to County Commissioners, who could add more conditions to the permit before final approval. The $800 million project would place more than 610,000 solar panels on approximately 1,500 acres of land owned by the Preston Trust about 14 miles southwest of Scottsbluff and Gering.
