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July 25, 2013

DEP staff urges rejection of Bowers Mtn. wind project

Staff members of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection who reviewed a proposed 16-turbine wind farm on Bowers Mountain in Carroll Plantation have recommended that the $100 million project be rejected.

The 48-page draft decision released on Wednesday concludes the wind farm proposed by Champlain Wind LLC, a subsidiary of First Wind, would have “an unreasonably adverse impact” on the views of eight nearby lakes deemed to be “scenic resources of state or national significance", according to the Bangor Daily News. Duck, Junior, Shaw, Keg, Scraggly, Bottle, Pleasant and Sysladobsis lakes are within eight miles of the proposed wind farm.

If DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho follows that recommendation it would mark the second wind power project rejected by the DEP on the grounds that it would have an adverse visual impact on the surrounding environment.

Last November, a 14-turbine project proposed by Passadumkeag Windpark LLC and landowner Penobscot Forest LLC for Passadumkeag Mountain was rejected by the DEP and Aho for its adverse impact on Saponac Pond and the nearby environment, but that decision was later overturned by the Board of Environmental Projection in a 5-1 vote. 

DEP officials heard testimony on the Bowers Mountain project during a two-day hearing that ended in early May, the BDN reported.

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