LETTER: Solar project threatens area with environmental disaster

To Ozaukee Press:
    I read through Ranger Power’s application to the Public Service Commission for their Onion River solar project in the Town
of Holland, and I was appalled by their amateurish, high schoolish, unprofessional and incomplete application. It lacks important environmental and human assessment details and is simply a cold, hard document that looks like an application for any random solar project.
    The application is missing 18-20 maps and charts, and the appendices are completely empty. I don’t understand why the PSC would accept this application. It is obvious that solar companies from outside of Wisconsin should not be allowed to submit proposals to the PSC because they are unfamiliar with our land and our people.
    While putting together my environmental assessment of this project, I was shocked to read how RP is planning to construct a building on their so-called industrial construction site that houses toxic materials and chemicals. They state that they are planning to reroute a stream and divert their toxic waste while tearing off our valuable topsoil. They state that they could contaminate our wells during the process.
    They plan to hire traffic cops to manage the traffic flow of their big flat-bed trucks loaded with solar panels, machinery and equipment. They tell the PSC in their application that they will try to manage the constant noise pollution during construction six days a week for 18 months.         
    What they are telling us in this bizarre application is that they are going to invade, disrupt and contaminate our rural neighborhood and destroy our wildlife and natural resources.
    Ranger Power also warns in their application that their microwave solar plant will likely disrupt our TV and cell phone reception.    
    It is obvious that RP doesn’t realize that we live in a rural suburban neighborhood where there are side-by-side, connected residential properties, just like homes in the village of Oostburg or Cedar Grove. Since the PSC would not put solar panels in those residential neighborhoods, it certainly should not allow a half million solar panels in our neighborhood.
    The Onion River ecosystem is already in a perilous state. If the PSC lets a construction army rip it apart and displace the fragile wildlife ecosystem, it would be a travesty of conservation and an incalculable loss to tourists, hikers and hunters.         
    Ranger Power’s projected construction site alone could be classified an environmental disaster. I say, stop this project now. Get it out of our community.
Robert Hudovernik
Oostburg