Oakfield wind farm foes take last-minute legal action
Opponents of a 50-turbine wind farm in Oakfield have filed a lawsuit in a late effort to shut down the project.
The Portland Press Herald reported the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor alleges that the installation of 59 miles of transmission lines for the project by Massachusetts-based First Wind would degrade area streams frequented by Atlantic salmon, thereby violating the federal Clean Water Act.
The company plans to start road construction for the project before the winter.
The complaint, obtained by the Press Herald, also names the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Interior as defendants. It claims the Army Corps violated the Clean Water Act by approving the project. The parties filing the complaint include the Forest Ecology Network, a statewide environmental group, and Protect Our Lakes, a group of seasonal and year-round residents of Island Falls, just south of Oakfield.
John Lamontagne, a spokesman for First Wind and the subsidiary that runs the Oakfield project, Evergreen Wind II LLC, told the paper that the company has not reviewed the lawsuit but noted that the Army Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have reviewed and approved the $400 million project.
The lawsuit uses a strategy similar to one used by opponents of a TransCanada wind farm proposed at Kibby Mountain, saying that the Army Corps did not comply with the Clean Water Act in issuing a permit for the project. That lawsuit, filed last last year, is still pending.
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