Commissioners get windy visit from wasatch

By SCOTT BORKGREN
Reporter

A new Converse County wind project took another big step toward breaking ground. Michelle Stevens and Christine Watson Mikell of Wasatch Wind went before the Converse County commissioners July 20 for an information sharing session about Wasatch Wind’s proposed project.

“We want to stay on a regular basis of keeping everybody updated,” Stevens safiid to the commissioners. “We thought that since we had a pretty significant announcement last week, that we wanted to come in and check in with you and see if you had any questions since we signed a power purchase agreement with RMP.”

Stevens told the commissioners the project will produce 100mW with a maximum 66 turbines installed with the larger leased area. Wasatch Wind has leased approximately 22,000 acres in the area 10-20 miles south of Glenrock along Mormon Canyon Road. Wasatch Wind has been performing wildlife surveys on the area since last fall and will begin cultural surveys Aug. 1, Stevens said. A new connection line will be constructed to run along Mormon Canyon Road and will tie into an existing PacifiCorp power line that runs to the Dave Johnston Power Plant.

“One thing we have to be careful of is, because there are no hard and set rules in the books, the first project through just kind of follows case law precedent,” Chairman Ed Werner said. “Consequently, we are going to be looking at it at some level of detail and depth to make sure what we accept as the first project is the precedent that we want to set.”

This is part of the July 29, 2010 online edition of The Glenrock Independent.

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