By
STAFF WRITER
As the debate continues over Cape Wind Associate's proposal for a 130-turbine facility in Nantucket Sound, a court battle has developed over one of California's oldest and largest land-based wind farms, the Altamont Pass project.

There the issue is birds.

The older-style steel lattice towers, the plentiful rodents that attract raptors such as hawks and eagles, and other factors have led to the deaths of thousands of birds, prompting a wildlife organization to file suit in federal court in San Francisco, demanding something be done.

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers called the Altamont experience "unusual," and said it is often cited, erroneously, as an example of how wind turbines are bad for birds.

"It's important to understand that the experience at Altamont Pass has not been experienced elsewhere in the U.S., where most wind farm studies have shown to have very low amounts of avian mortality," he said.

Avian issues are an important part of the ongoing environmental review of Cape Wind. The developer, who has said there will be little negative impact on birds, expects its two-year study of bird activity will also convince the Army Corps of Engineers, which is conducting the environmental impact statement.

Jack Clarke of the Massachusetts Audubon Society said his organization is continuing its bird monitoring of the Horseshoe Shoal area, where the wind farm has been proposed. The Cape Wind and Audubon reports will be a part of the draft environmental statement.

"The lesson that we've known and learned from Altamont is that location is of prime importance," Clarke said. "You want to avoid putting a wind farm in the middle of migratory routes for harriers and for endangered species."

Clarke said the impact on birds from wind turbines must be balanced against the negative impacts on birds from burning fossil fuels, which causes environmental problems affecting all life forms.

The American Wind Energy Institute in Washington, D.C., calling Altamont an "anomaly," estimates that of every 30,000 human-related bird deaths, from such things as car collisions and power plant emissions, wind turbines cause one death.

Paul Kerlinger, an expert on bird interactions with wind farms, estimates 100 million to 900 million birds die each year flying into windows, and cats kill another 100 million.

Nevertheless, Martha's Vineyard birder Vernon Laux, who writes extensively about birds, said Horseshoe Shoal is a terrible spot for a wind farm. "The potential, and I think real, impacts will be catastrophic."

He said long-tailed ducks customarily feed in huge flocks south or east of Nantucket, but every night thousands fly back to the sound to roost each night.

"Everyone is for renewable energy, but to go after one of the last untouched places is the wrong way to go about it."

Wind power companies with turbines in Altamont would agree, in part at least.

"I think clearly the industry has evolved over 20 years," said Steven Stengel of FPL Energy, the country's largest producer of wind energy. "We know more than we did 20 years ago. Clearly siting of the turbines, sensitivity to various habitats, those are all things that are taken into consideration today."

(Published: January 19, 2004)